Jan 25, 2009 (Started Nov 20, 2008)

  • Effectiveness
    None (for Support mental / emotional health)
  • Side effects
    Severe (for Overall) (hypomania, depression with anxiety)
  • Adherence
    Always
  • Burden
    Somewhat hard to take
Dosage: 180 min Daily
Advice & Tips: I was removed from the Intensive Outpatient Program. I feared for my safety because of some very rude and endangering comments made by a patient, and the therapists did not handle the situation. This put me on the defensive, very anxious, and it eventually made me hypomanic for the last week of treatment. Despite my attempts to have the situation dealt with, nothing was done (he was making very scary comments about killing faggots). Afterthis, I was very short tempered constantly, and found myself snapping at other patients, whom I got along with up until then. When I would get snappy, my heart would race, I would sweat uncontrolably, and I wouldn't be able to think or calm down. This resulted in making the other patients very uncomfortable, and they began to attack my character. I lost my temper and yelled at a person in the group and was taken out. This experience was not effective in helping me deal with my bipolar disorder, even with it's extensive therapy. It made me realize how serious my bipolar disorder is, and how difficult it is for me to work with groups of people for a period of time. Although this program was informative about my addiction issues, it actually made my bipolar symptoms worse, which is backbone to my addiction issues. Being a patient in the intensive outpatient program was counterproductive to my healing.
Cost: < $25 monthly
Side effects: depression with anxiety

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