TIPS FOR DEALING WITH MOOD DISORDERS - -
Part 2 of 2, continued from the Fall 2000 issue of NAFDI News)  
by David S. Chowes, Professor of Psychology at Baruch College/The City University of New York;  Advisory Board Member of NAFDI;  Board Member of the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association (NDMDA)

6) Stigma II - - Yours! Since patients generally have the same values as everyone else in a given society - - it is not uncommon to internalize the same attitudes as others. This can have a crippling effect. The answers;  knowledge - - and attending a quality support group.

7) You are NOT your illness - - you are a person who suffers from a diagnosable disorder. Avoid making your disorder the locus of your life. This, if extended over a long period, may make you into a "professional patient."

8) DON'T BECOME A VICTIM - - for it may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. A victim is a person who has lost control of hir life which has evolved into a continuously punishing situation.
 
9) NEVER GIVE UP - - This is not meant as a simple feel-good nostrum. It is based on a reasonable forecast. If no treatment is currently controlling your condition - - remember, scores of treatments have been introduced over the last thirty years,
helping millions of people. Imagine what's likely to be introduced in just the next decade. Remember, the Genome Project was completed just recently. As the years go on... this Project will lead to new understandings of many disorders... new pin-point drugs.. and direct gene intervention... which will likely assist persons suffering with many "psychiatric" and "physical" disorders. So... NEVER GIVE UP!