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Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 7:09 pm
by mason666
Yeah season 1 and 2 were good imo, 3 and 4 not so good the end of 4 was wank as hell
I thought they portrayed bipolar really well with Carrie, some of the things she did made me want to punch her in the face tho lol
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 7:25 pm
by therapist
mason666 wrote:Yeah season 1 and 2 were good imo, 3 and 4 not so good the end of 4 was wank as hell
I thought they portrayed bipolar really well with Carrie, some of the things she did made me want to punch her in the face tho lol
Lol. What? Run around like a fucking screaming maniac for a bit, then go all trembly and pouty for a few weeks. Repeat.
I hope people don't feel that they've been informed on bi-polar by seeing this. It was a lot better at the beginning though, if that's what you meant.
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:15 pm
by mason666
Yeah that's relatively accurate for Bipolar 1 from the experience i have had with severely bipolar people. Obviously most, if not all, bipolar people have 'normal' moods for large periods of time but that wouldn't be good viewing so Carrie was pretty much always on a manic or depressed cycle in the program. The consulting producer's sister (
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/opini ... .html?_r=1&) has bipolar and a lot of mental health organisations have praised the program for how it portrays the illness.
http://www.tvworthwatching.com/post/Homeland-Bipolar.aspx wrote:Dr. Ellen Leibenluft, Chief of the Section on Bipolar Spectrum Disorder in the Emotion and Development Branch of the NIMH says Carrie’s bipolar disorder, as characterized by episodes of mania and depression, were “extremely well portrayed.”
I spose the most unrealistic part of it is the fact she managed to get to that position with her mood swings.
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:40 pm
by DrGatineau
i think what he's saying is that the mood swings are unrealistically short, although in the first season, maybe second as well, they were at appropriate length. lots of people seem to think bipolar means you're like "really excited" one day and then the next day you're depressed, but in reality iirc manic & depressive cycles last like 3-6 months, not a few days or weeks. this can obviously change though when the person is being treated with meds.
although i do think the show has been a relatively good depiction of the illness (eg the whole "Brody is a double agent" delusion and subsequent depressive episode), but the past 2 seasons have kinda slacked on that front. although, the part when her meds were replaced with psychedelics seemed like a pretty good depiction.
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:50 pm
by mason666
Actually there are quite a few different types of bipolar and the length of the cycles vary enormously. Someone with rapid cycling bipolar can go from manic to depressed in a matter of days (if the mood changes are more rapid than that then the person has likely got borderline personality disorder). In fact a manic period is described as a period of a week or more where a person has elevated mood and a depressive one is described as two weeks or more with low moods. So not at all will a cycle always take as long as 3-6 months all though it obviously can.
"Run around like a fucking screaming maniac for a bit, then go all trembly and pouty for a few weeks"
That's pretty much exactly how it works for people with severe bipolar 1 who aren't being treated correctly as Carrie often isn't.
Also the amount of stress Carrie is constantly under in the program would compound her symptoms massively, of course the average bipolar person wouldn't be under this much stress so the average person's symptoms wouldn't be as bad. When Carrie is not working and living a more normal life her symptoms are a lot more manageable just like the majority of bipolar patients experience.
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:53 pm
by mason666
I think there may be some confusion between bipolar 1 and bipolar 2. Bipolar 1 is what Carrie has and to be diagnosed as that you have to have had a serious manic episode whereas bipolar 2 is the more common version where the diagnosis is more concentrated on the depressive cycles with less defined hypomanic episodes.
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 9:24 pm
by DrGatineau
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:05 pm
by mason666
Is that paper supposed to support your argument? have you even read it lol? Yeah it argues that ultra rapid cycling may not be a distinct subtype of bipolar but it supports the idea that it can be used as a term to describe duration of cycles and that often manic or depressive episodes can last as little as 24 hours or 2 days without there being a comorbid personality disorder.
Clinicians and researchers have debated the minimum duration criteria for identifying manic or hypomanic episodes, and the extent to which suspected hypomanic periods of short duration constitute distinct illness phases. Although DSM-IV-TR designates 4 days as a minimum time for classifying an episode of hypomania, empirical studies suggest that mood symptoms lasting as few as 2 days may comprise a valid and reliably distinct entity relevant to RC.5 More limited data (mainly case observations) identify “affective oscillations” and “mood shifts” occurring faster than once per 24 hours in BD patients without comorbid personality disorders
Anyway this is besides the point of what we are talking about; you said that a bipolar episode has to last 3-6 months, every expert on bipolar would tell you this is bullshit. I am going to side with the mental health experts that say that Carrie is an accurate portrayal of bipolar.
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:19 pm
by mIrReN
are you bipolar by any chance mason?
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:34 pm
by mason666
lol i think i'm proabbly cyclothymic but not proper bipolar, never been proper manic.
I've known a few proper bipolar people doe so i feel quite strongly about it lol
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 11:38 pm
by mIrReN
hey I was trying to get a laugh, go away with your feels pls
is it genetic? If so hope you don't have it,, think my one granny may have had it, would explain a lot, could've been manic depression too,, just read your posts they do explain a thing or two haha
and here I wanted to say 'well that explains a lot' about you

Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:13 am
by DrGatineau
mason666 wrote:Is that paper supposed to support your argument? have you even read it lol? Yeah it argues that ultra rapid cycling may not be a distinct subtype of bipolar but it supports the idea that it can be used as a term to describe duration of cycles and that often manic or depressive episodes can last as little as 24 hours or 2 days without there being a comorbid personality disorder.
Clinicians and researchers have debated the minimum duration criteria for identifying manic or hypomanic episodes, and the extent to which suspected hypomanic periods of short duration constitute distinct illness phases. Although DSM-IV-TR designates 4 days as a minimum time for classifying an episode of hypomania, empirical studies suggest that mood symptoms lasting as few as 2 days may comprise a valid and reliably distinct entity relevant to RC.5 More limited data (mainly case observations) identify “affective oscillations” and “mood shifts” occurring faster than once per 24 hours in BD patients without comorbid personality disorders
Anyway this is besides the point of what we are talking about; you said that a bipolar episode has to last 3-6 months, every expert on bipolar would tell you this is bullshit. I am going to side with the mental health experts that say that Carrie is an accurate portrayal of bipolar.
i didn't say it
has to last 3-6 months, of course it's variable, and i'm sure rapid cycling does exist to a certain extent, but there's skepticism about rapid cycling and our understanding of bipolar disorder in general. i've read a bunch of papers with titles and theses along the lines of "Bipolar Disorder is the New ADHD" and there's lots of criticism about over-diagnosis. cba to look them up atm but i'm sure you could find some. i mean, no one knows for sure, i certainly can't say "x is bipolar, y isn't," but classic bipolar mood swings (which, not coincidentally, have much more evidence behind them and have more established, effective treatments) lasted several months. i get the vibe that rapid cycling (which became a term only in the 1990s) and other "new" bipolar phenomenon are concepts that have been pushed by big pharma / doctors / media etc to increase sales of prescription drugs. overdiagnosis of bipolar disorder is certainly a large problem. another factor to consider is to what extent is rapid cycling organic vs iatrogenic.
however, this is kinda beside the point. i don't deny that rapid cycling exists at all, i was just saying that, if you have the opportunity to portray the illness to the public, i personally would have portrayed more classic symptoms. it's really not that big a deal m8son.

Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:33 am
by mason666
More classic symptoms like what? The main two symptoms are mania and depression both of which she exhibits relatively accurately, as supported by various mental health professionals and people who actually have bipolar.
We're not talking about whether bipolar exists or the over diagnosis of it, we are talking about how accurately Carrie portrays the illness as is currently diagnosed in the real world, which she does. Once again i think i will side with the experts and people actually with the illness over someone who has read a few articles on the internet.
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:35 am
by mason666
mIrReN wrote:hey I was trying to get a laugh, go away with your feels pls
is it genetic? If so hope you don't have it,, think my one granny may have had it, would explain a lot, could've been manic depression too,, just read your posts they do explain a thing or two haha
and here I wanted to say 'well that explains a lot' about you

haa yh there are genetic aspects, my Gran had it pretty bad although i only really saw her depressed phases. yh manic depression is the same basically just an older term for it. loool yh it probably does explain a lot.
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:21 pm
by AxeD
What is this.. the recommend me a mental illness thread?
That's a little Johnny Truckdaughter joke for ya.
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:34 pm
by mason666
anyway lol back on topic been watching a lot of house of cards atm pretty sick, i've spent the last week of work tryign to figure out how i can back stab my way to the top haha
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:43 pm
by hubb
Not the most unrealistic bits of homeland either tbf.
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 6:52 am
by Liam92
It's Always Sunny, Archer & Workaholics are all back

Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 6:02 pm
by Reese_Liar
I'm about half way into the second season of Comedy Bang! Bang!, damn that shit is ridiculously hilarious
Can't believe I haven't watched it sooner
Re: Recommend me a TV Series
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 6:04 pm
by hubb
Lidt Mandrillen agtigt ik?
Og det synes jeg egentlig også Eric andre show er hvis du ikke har set det!