Sinead O'Connor facebook post today

walshb wrote: »

Is there a cure for someone doing what she did/does?

Obviously, if you did some research on the condition she has been diagnosed with you'd know that there is no cure for but like many other disorders people have, both physical and mental, it's one that can be monitored and successfully managed.

walshb wrote: »

This advice seems to be just a continuous loop here. Is there a cure for someone doing what she did/does? Leave her be is the best advice. It is going on many years now. Leave her to it. If she breaks laws then maybe someone can do something, other than that it's just the same old O'Connor behaviour. This time it happens to be family problems that she is making public. Thousands of families all over the counrty bickering and squabbling. Big deal. It's life. O'Connor just happens to want to make her family issue a national issue, and wants everyone to hear of it.

Hoping that someone gets medical treatment is hardly advice. I'm not a mental health professional, nor do I know what diagnoses Sinead O'Connor does or does not have. But it seems to me to be a decent human response that when someone is in pain, be it mental or physical, one would hope that that pain is lessened. Just because she has courted media attention in the past does not mean that she is not in genuine distress now, or that she does not deserve help.

And just because I feel sad that she is obviously going through a very hard time does not mean that I think she has carte blanche to say what she wants to and about her family. It must be a very difficult experience for them to read the things she has posted about them when to a bystander it appears that they're doing the best they can to help her. It is not easy to be able to separate oneself from things that are said by a person who is unwell. It's not the case that she is the victim in this scenario and her family are the villains. They are also going through a terrible time and it's for everyone's sake that she should get some sort of treatment, be it medication-based or whatever.

Walking away from her without doing anything would serve no one.

walshb wrote: »

Managed? How's that been going for her the past 25 years?

When are folks gonna' wake up? People and supporters need to quit hiding behind mental illness for their issues and behaviour. It's not always the case that "they cannot help it, it's because they are mentally ill." I never bought that garbage.

It can be successfully managed for most people - I have seen the end results myself - but I can imagine that treatment is going to be more difficult for someone whose fame attracts hangers on and yes men that aren't going to be looking after the person's best interests.

walshb wrote: »

She has made a career out of this, and her latest episode is just nother career move. The problem is people feigning synpathy and bigging her up, and as one put it, calling her a national treasure:rolleyes:

I'm not a fan of her work but I can empathise with the plight she is suffering. I'm not going to sneer that her very public breakdown is a career move. That is completely ignorant imo and I've appealed to you several times to do some research but you seem to prefer to the pleasure of kicking someone when they're down.

walshb wrote: »

It's her children that I feel for. They are the ones being slagged and slated and flogged in public, and no, she is not getting a pass due to her "mental illness." Her rants are very thought out and very orchestarted. Reading some of it you'd wonder was she writing a new album!

I feel sorry for her family and children too and I'm not giving her a free pass. I've seen first hand the effects severe mental illness has on a family. It is devastating and it can be a horrible grind for everyone involved while the person gets better. There's nothing thought out about those rants and explain to me how someone orchestrates having themselves sectioned for publicity - again, I don't understand your refusal to do even the slightest bit of research into bipolar disorder.

Members of the public more often than not confuse the features of Bipolar Disorder with Borderline/Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder. They are extremely different in presentation. Bipolar affective disorder is a mental illness while strictly speaking the latter is not. 'Bipolar' is a label thrown around a lot and frequently misused as is 'OCD'.

As for the person who is the subject of this thread, I haven't met her so can't comment on her diagnosis but just wanted to point out the above.

Personality disorders arise from a combination of traits (such as emotional impulsivity, unstable relationships, splitting others into 'good' or 'bad' etc) that have endured since adolescence and which are significantly impairing an individual's ability to maintain work, relationships, etc. They are mental 'disorders'; their pathology is not affected by medication (although we can help with acute symptoms like hyperarousal when distressed) and we cannot 'section' people under the Mental Health Act for having a personality disorder alone.

Mental illnesses such as bipolar affective disorder can be linked to a combination of genetic and environmental factors, with known neurotransmitter irregularities which respond to certain medications and which have a specific pattern of occurrence and risk factors etc - really, illnesses much like diabetes or heart disease are which require medical treatment and follow up over their natural (often chronic) course.

People with mental illnesses may be exempt from criminal culpability for their actions due to their symptoms whereas persons with personality disorders would not be (at least I can't think of any example).

Both bipolar and EUPD/borderline present with 'mood swings' but in a very general sense, bipolar mood swings (depression or mania) can last all day, every day for 4-6 months in the natural course (without medical treatment) whereas in EUPD/borderline, the mood is up one minute, down the next and 'emotions are all over the place' depending on life stressors.

The ICD-10 criteria for diagnosis make the difference pretty clear at F.31 and F.60.3. This is what psychiatrists use for diagnosis and research classification.

Well, I guess she is clearly in a lot of distress, whatever the diagnosis and hopefully that subsides soon.

Just wanted to try and point out a few things about mental illness and the myths that are out there - my pet hates e.g.

I'm so OCD about things, I need everything to be a certain way - this is not OCD

that person is a danger to themselves, they need to be sectioned - may or may not be true: e.g.

I need to be sectioned so I don't do anything to myself - involuntary admission under the Mental Health Act is a last resort, can only be invoked in the case of mental illness and cannot guarantee to 'stop you doing anything to yourself' - only you can do that

I think I'm bipolar, one minute I'm laughing the next I'm crying - you are certainly not bipolar, you are emotionally labile and this may well be normal!

I'm so depressed, my head is melted, I'm all over the shop - you are 'distressed', you may not be depressed

Okay sorry if I hijacked the thread.

I suppose its not impossible that she could be reading this thread too. Might not do her mental state much good either.