National Liver Health Day | Sometimes you feel depressed, sometimes you feel irritable, these symptoms of liver damage may be a disease!

March 18 is National Liver Care Day. The liver is the largest solid organ in the adult body and is responsible for many important functions. As the saying goes, anger hurts the liver. Most people cannot withstand the emotional impact of repeated anger and rage, which will lead to liver qi reversal and liver yang surge.

Bipolar disorder is a state of both hypomanic and depressive episodes. Some people describe bipolar disorder as a roller coaster, with ups and downs; others describe it as a seesaw, with emotions going back and forth between sadness and joy.

Q1: What are the misunderstandings in the treatment of bipolar disorder?

Many people think that psychological problems should be treated with medicine first, but medicine is toxic and addictive, and will make people stupid sooner or later. In fact, this view is wrong. We have a lot of evidence to prove that this kind of psychological stabilizer has the effect of repairing and nourishing nerves, and it is not a poison. Moreover, many patients can stop taking the medicine after a full course of treatment.

We often talk about dependence, which has two aspects, one is physical dependence, and the other is psychological dependence. Physical dependence means that the drug needs to be taken more and more. At the beginning, one or two tablets may be effective, and in the end, it may take more than 10 or 20 tablets to be effective. Psychological dependence means that it will be very uncomfortable to stop taking it all of a sudden. That is, if we take psychiatric drugs for a long time, if we want to stop or reduce the dosage, it is a process and cannot be withdrawn all at once, but this process is not complicated or difficult. It can be stopped completely, and as the condition stabilizes, the dosage of the drug will gradually decrease, and there will be no dependence problem, so we must correct this concept.

Many patients may experience some sedative effects when taking medication in the short term, and they may find this side effect difficult to accept. In fact, these side effects can be eliminated and alleviated after they gradually adapt to the treatment.

Q2: How to treat bipolar disorder?

In recent years, we have been emphasizing that patients with bipolar disorder must be treated with medication. It is very important not to simply stop taking the medication. I think that if the family members can do this, it is already a great progress.

Some patients’ families may not understand, which may cause mental stimulation and harm to the patients. For example, a patient told me a few days ago that his father always stimulated him, calling him a mentally retarded idiot, which made him feel very uncomfortable. This is mental violence. We must avoid this kind of mental violence.

Another thing is that some parents may not understand the symptoms of the patient's mental illness and use moral coercion against the patient. For example, when the patient is depressed, he or she does not want to do anything and feels very lazy. The family members think that the patient is pretending to be lazy, which is also a manifestation of not understanding the patient.

Therefore, family members should first understand what this disease is, understand these symptoms from the perspective of the disease, and not use moral kidnapping. Then actively encourage patients to see a psychiatrist, not a psychologist, because only psychiatrists have the right to prescribe and can prescribe medicine. This point should be distinguished.

Many people in the public always think that only mentally ill people see psychiatrists. This is absolutely a misunderstanding. We need to constantly convey this idea to the public: seeing a psychiatrist is not something to be ashamed of. Because our brains can get sick, just like other parts of our bodies can get sick. If we get sick, we need drug intervention. So this point must be made clear. Only by correcting this concept can we better provide strong support for these patients. This support is spiritual support, and the greatest support is understanding.

Gan Zhaoyu

Chief Physician of the Department of Psychiatry, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University

This article only represents the author's views and does not represent the position of this brand.