Posted on Nov 30, 2014
I was medically retired and had all of my employment options taken from me, how do I move on?
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I was medevac'd from Iraq with Bipolar and was medically retired after 9 1/2 years of service. I have only ever wanted two things in my life; to serve in the Army and to fly as a Warrant Officer. Those were taken from me as soon as the Doctor said Bipolar. My back up plan was to be a Police Officer, again that is a no go. Now I'm completely lost and need help. What's next?
Employment
Retired
Civilian Career
Health
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 24
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Sorry to hear that SSG Regina Golding, that's a tough blow. I think a number of us have faced setbacks in our lives, medical or otherwise. Here's what I can offer, having gone through some medical issues myself:
1. PMA - positive mental attitude.
2. Never give up. Seek counseling and support wherever you can find it. Here on RP is a great place to start. Col (Join to see) makes some great suggestions. Its natural to have feelings of anger and frustration so find an outlet - a new hobby, a volunteer project, etc. to channel your feelings - that's what my counselor told me.
3. Educate yourself. Understand what you have, how its treated and not so much your limitations but how to work within the scope of what you have. This site may help: http://www.bphope.com/Item.aspx?id=526
4. Keep moving forward, one day at a time. You can do it.
I suffered a seizure, got diagnosed with diabetes - ended up in a coma and almost lost my wife to a severe infection some years back. Its tough to swallow each of those pills but you do and you live to see tomorrow.
This site http://ptsdecompress.com/ was started by one of our RallyPoint members SSG Robert Burns. It is still in its infancy and it is more geared towards PTSD but you may find some discussions that you could benefit from.
1. PMA - positive mental attitude.
2. Never give up. Seek counseling and support wherever you can find it. Here on RP is a great place to start. Col (Join to see) makes some great suggestions. Its natural to have feelings of anger and frustration so find an outlet - a new hobby, a volunteer project, etc. to channel your feelings - that's what my counselor told me.
3. Educate yourself. Understand what you have, how its treated and not so much your limitations but how to work within the scope of what you have. This site may help: http://www.bphope.com/Item.aspx?id=526
4. Keep moving forward, one day at a time. You can do it.
I suffered a seizure, got diagnosed with diabetes - ended up in a coma and almost lost my wife to a severe infection some years back. Its tough to swallow each of those pills but you do and you live to see tomorrow.
This site http://ptsdecompress.com/ was started by one of our RallyPoint members SSG Robert Burns. It is still in its infancy and it is more geared towards PTSD but you may find some discussions that you could benefit from.
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A-Z OF FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER
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SSG Regina Golding. WTF . . . I know a lot about the bipolar disorders . . . this doesn't sound like any competent diagnosis, treatment, and followup by someone with any significant amount of experience with bipolar patients. What are his/her specific bipolar training / diagnosis / treatment qualifications?
Who told you that all of your employment options were taken away from you . . . and raised any question about your future? This is some of the most asinine advice I have ever heard. Some of our most creative, talented, and valuable people actually have bipolar disorder . . . and many believe it is the source of their unique individual productivity. Do not give up because some poorly trained doctor wanted to play God . . . the future can be very bright and personally and professionally rewarding for many bipolar individuals.
The bottom line . . . get a completely independent second opinion . . . because you indicate you were diagnosed and medivac'd from deployment . . . where you could well have experienced significant stress and/or trauma . . . but our military doctors have quite a long history of trying to diagnose troops with something other than PTSD . . . to avoid the specter of any potential service connected disability claim.
In the interim . . . please see the extensive list ( below ) of a few brilliant, talented, wealthy, and famous personalities who share the diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
You may also find Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison's books (available in paperback) about her experiences with bipolar disorder and many other famous people with bipolar disorder very interesting and enlightening . . .
o An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
o Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
o Nothing Was the Same
Kay is a friend who was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder in 1973/74 and is now Tenured Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Kay won numerous awards and published over one hundred academic articles. She was named as one of the Best Doctors in the United States and was chosen by Time Magazine as a "Hero of Medicine." She was also chosen as one of the five individuals for the PBS TV Series Great Minds of Medicine. In 2001 she won the MacArthur Fellowship "Genius" Award.
The bipolar disorders have become a fashionable misdiagnosis for many other conditions . . . and we now have many excellent medications ( lithium, depakote, tegretol, lamictal, etc ) that are very effective in the control of bipolar symptoms. There are excellent programs to pay for these meds if you are not insured.
While the mere fact of diagnosis qualifies you to be protected from employment discrimination under federal and state disability discrimination laws . . . bipolar is definitely not a hopelessly devastating career ender.
I see that you are pursuing a psychology degree . . . academia is very accepting of bipolar people . . . because many brilliant and talented academic with bipolar disorder populate our universities.
The most significant risk for bipolar individuals is deep depression and risk of possible suicide when they feel they are well enough to stop taking their prescribed medicine . . . so if you are on bipolar medicine please keep taking it as prescribed . . . until someone with more bipolar expertise does a more thorough workup and thoroughly reviews any potential alternatives and the risks and benefits of those alternatives with you.
Please contact me privately to discuss: [login to see]
Warmest Regards, Sandy
===========================
Famous People with Bipolar Disorder
===========================
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZnAG38CWZI
Actors & Actresses
Ned Beatty
Maurice Bernard, soap opera
Jeremy Brett
Jim Carey
Lisa Nicole Carson
Rosemary Clooney, singer
Lindsay Crosby
Eric Douglas
Robert Downey Jr.
Patty Duke
Carrie Fisher
Connie Francis, singer and actress
Shecky Greene, comedian
Linda Hamilton
Moss Hart, actor, director, playright
Mariette Hartley
Margot Kidder
Vivien Leigh
Kevin McDonald, comedian
Kristy McNichols
Burgess Meredith, actor, director
Spike Milligan, actor, writer
Spike Mulligan, comic actor and writer
Nicola Pagett
Ben Stiller, actor, director, writer
David Strickland
Lili Taylor
Tracy Ullman
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Robin Williams
Jonathon Winters, comedian
Artists
Alvin Alley, dancer, choreogapher
Ludwig Von Beethoven
Tim Burton, artist, director
Francis Ford Coppola, director
George Fredrick Handel, composer
Bill Lichtenstein, producer
Joshua Logan, broadway director, producer
Vincent Van Gogh, painter
Gustav Mahier, composer
Francesco Scavullo, artist, photographer
Robert Schumann, composer
Don Simpson, movie producer
Norman Wexler, screenwriter, playwright
Entrepreneurs
Robert Campeau
Pierre Peladeau
Heinz C. Prechter
Ted Turner, media giant
Financiers
John Mulheren
Murray Pezim
Miscellaneous
Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
Clifford Beers, humanitarian
Garnet Coleman, legislator (Texas)
Larry Flynt, publisher and activist
Kit Gingrich, Newt's mom
Phil Graham, owner of Washington Post
Peter Gregg, team owner and manager, race car driver
Susan Panico (Susan Dime-Meenan), business executive
Sol Wachtier, former New York State Chief Judge
Musicians
Elvis Presley
Ludwig van Beethoven, composer
Alohe Jean Burke, musician, vocalist
Rosemary Clooney, singer
DMX Earl Simmons, rapper and actor
Ray Davies
Lenny Dee
Gaetano Donizetti, opera singer
Peter Gabriel
Jimi Hendrix
Kristen Hersh (Throwing Muses)
Phyllis Hyman
Jack Irons
Daniel Johnston
Otto Klemperer, musician, conductor
Oscar Levant, pianist, composer, television
Phil Ochs, musician, political activist, poet
John Ogden, composer, musician
Jaco Pastorius
Charley Pride
Mac Rebennack (Dr. John)
Jeannie C. Riley
Alys Robi, vocalist in Canada
Axl Rose
Nick Traina
Del Shannon
Phil Spector, musician and producer
Sting, Gordon Sumner, musician, composer
Tom Waits, musician, composer
Brian Wilson, musician, composer, arranger
Townes Van Zandt, musician, composer
Poets
John Berryman
C.E. Chaffin, writer, poet
Hart Crane
Randall Jarrell
Jane Kenyon
Robert Lowell
Sylvia Plath
Robert Schumann
Delmore Schwartz
Political
Robert Boorstin, special assistant to President Clinton
L. Brent Bozell, political scientist, attorney, writer
Bob Bullock, ex secretary of state, state comptroller and lieutenant governer
Winston Churchill
Kitty Dukasis, former First Lady of Massachusetts
Thomas Eagleton, lawyer, former U.S. Senator
Lynne Rivers, U.S. Congress
Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States
French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
Scientists
Karl Paul Link, chemist
Dimitri Mihalas
Sports
Shelley Beattie, bodybuilding, sailing
John Daly, golf
Muffin Spencer-Devlin, pro golf
Ilie Nastase, tennis
Jimmy Piersail, baseball player, Boston Red Sox, sports announcer
Barret Robbins, football
Wyatt Sexton, football
Alonzo Spellman, football
Darryl Strawberry, baseball
Dimitrius Underwood, football
Luther Wright, basketball
Bert Yancey, athlete
TV & Radio
Dick Cavett
Jay Marvin, radio, writer
Jane Pauley
Writers
Louis Althusser, philosopher, writer
Honors de Balzac
Art Buchwald, writer, humorist
Neal Cassady
Patricia Cornwell
Margot Early
Kaye Gibbons
Johann Goethe
Graham Greene
Abbie Hoffman, writer, political activist
Kay Redfield Jamison, writer, psychologist
Peter Nolan Lawrence
Frances Lear, writer, editor, women's rights activist
Rika Lesser, writer, translator
Kate Millet
Robert Munsch
Margo Orum
Edgar Allen Poe
Theodore Roethke
Lori Schiller, writer, educator
Frances Sherwood
Scott Simmie, writer, journalist
August Strindberg
Mark Twain
Joseph Vasquez, writer, movie director
Mark Vonnegut, doctor, writer
Sol Wachtler, writer, judge
Mary Jane Ward
Virginia Woolf
CPT Aaron Kletzing LCDR Jaron Matlow
Who told you that all of your employment options were taken away from you . . . and raised any question about your future? This is some of the most asinine advice I have ever heard. Some of our most creative, talented, and valuable people actually have bipolar disorder . . . and many believe it is the source of their unique individual productivity. Do not give up because some poorly trained doctor wanted to play God . . . the future can be very bright and personally and professionally rewarding for many bipolar individuals.
The bottom line . . . get a completely independent second opinion . . . because you indicate you were diagnosed and medivac'd from deployment . . . where you could well have experienced significant stress and/or trauma . . . but our military doctors have quite a long history of trying to diagnose troops with something other than PTSD . . . to avoid the specter of any potential service connected disability claim.
In the interim . . . please see the extensive list ( below ) of a few brilliant, talented, wealthy, and famous personalities who share the diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
You may also find Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison's books (available in paperback) about her experiences with bipolar disorder and many other famous people with bipolar disorder very interesting and enlightening . . .
o An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
o Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
o Nothing Was the Same
Kay is a friend who was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder in 1973/74 and is now Tenured Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Kay won numerous awards and published over one hundred academic articles. She was named as one of the Best Doctors in the United States and was chosen by Time Magazine as a "Hero of Medicine." She was also chosen as one of the five individuals for the PBS TV Series Great Minds of Medicine. In 2001 she won the MacArthur Fellowship "Genius" Award.
The bipolar disorders have become a fashionable misdiagnosis for many other conditions . . . and we now have many excellent medications ( lithium, depakote, tegretol, lamictal, etc ) that are very effective in the control of bipolar symptoms. There are excellent programs to pay for these meds if you are not insured.
While the mere fact of diagnosis qualifies you to be protected from employment discrimination under federal and state disability discrimination laws . . . bipolar is definitely not a hopelessly devastating career ender.
I see that you are pursuing a psychology degree . . . academia is very accepting of bipolar people . . . because many brilliant and talented academic with bipolar disorder populate our universities.
The most significant risk for bipolar individuals is deep depression and risk of possible suicide when they feel they are well enough to stop taking their prescribed medicine . . . so if you are on bipolar medicine please keep taking it as prescribed . . . until someone with more bipolar expertise does a more thorough workup and thoroughly reviews any potential alternatives and the risks and benefits of those alternatives with you.
Please contact me privately to discuss: [login to see]
Warmest Regards, Sandy
===========================
Famous People with Bipolar Disorder
===========================
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZnAG38CWZI
Actors & Actresses
Ned Beatty
Maurice Bernard, soap opera
Jeremy Brett
Jim Carey
Lisa Nicole Carson
Rosemary Clooney, singer
Lindsay Crosby
Eric Douglas
Robert Downey Jr.
Patty Duke
Carrie Fisher
Connie Francis, singer and actress
Shecky Greene, comedian
Linda Hamilton
Moss Hart, actor, director, playright
Mariette Hartley
Margot Kidder
Vivien Leigh
Kevin McDonald, comedian
Kristy McNichols
Burgess Meredith, actor, director
Spike Milligan, actor, writer
Spike Mulligan, comic actor and writer
Nicola Pagett
Ben Stiller, actor, director, writer
David Strickland
Lili Taylor
Tracy Ullman
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Robin Williams
Jonathon Winters, comedian
Artists
Alvin Alley, dancer, choreogapher
Ludwig Von Beethoven
Tim Burton, artist, director
Francis Ford Coppola, director
George Fredrick Handel, composer
Bill Lichtenstein, producer
Joshua Logan, broadway director, producer
Vincent Van Gogh, painter
Gustav Mahier, composer
Francesco Scavullo, artist, photographer
Robert Schumann, composer
Don Simpson, movie producer
Norman Wexler, screenwriter, playwright
Entrepreneurs
Robert Campeau
Pierre Peladeau
Heinz C. Prechter
Ted Turner, media giant
Financiers
John Mulheren
Murray Pezim
Miscellaneous
Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
Clifford Beers, humanitarian
Garnet Coleman, legislator (Texas)
Larry Flynt, publisher and activist
Kit Gingrich, Newt's mom
Phil Graham, owner of Washington Post
Peter Gregg, team owner and manager, race car driver
Susan Panico (Susan Dime-Meenan), business executive
Sol Wachtier, former New York State Chief Judge
Musicians
Elvis Presley
Ludwig van Beethoven, composer
Alohe Jean Burke, musician, vocalist
Rosemary Clooney, singer
DMX Earl Simmons, rapper and actor
Ray Davies
Lenny Dee
Gaetano Donizetti, opera singer
Peter Gabriel
Jimi Hendrix
Kristen Hersh (Throwing Muses)
Phyllis Hyman
Jack Irons
Daniel Johnston
Otto Klemperer, musician, conductor
Oscar Levant, pianist, composer, television
Phil Ochs, musician, political activist, poet
John Ogden, composer, musician
Jaco Pastorius
Charley Pride
Mac Rebennack (Dr. John)
Jeannie C. Riley
Alys Robi, vocalist in Canada
Axl Rose
Nick Traina
Del Shannon
Phil Spector, musician and producer
Sting, Gordon Sumner, musician, composer
Tom Waits, musician, composer
Brian Wilson, musician, composer, arranger
Townes Van Zandt, musician, composer
Poets
John Berryman
C.E. Chaffin, writer, poet
Hart Crane
Randall Jarrell
Jane Kenyon
Robert Lowell
Sylvia Plath
Robert Schumann
Delmore Schwartz
Political
Robert Boorstin, special assistant to President Clinton
L. Brent Bozell, political scientist, attorney, writer
Bob Bullock, ex secretary of state, state comptroller and lieutenant governer
Winston Churchill
Kitty Dukasis, former First Lady of Massachusetts
Thomas Eagleton, lawyer, former U.S. Senator
Lynne Rivers, U.S. Congress
Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States
French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
Scientists
Karl Paul Link, chemist
Dimitri Mihalas
Sports
Shelley Beattie, bodybuilding, sailing
John Daly, golf
Muffin Spencer-Devlin, pro golf
Ilie Nastase, tennis
Jimmy Piersail, baseball player, Boston Red Sox, sports announcer
Barret Robbins, football
Wyatt Sexton, football
Alonzo Spellman, football
Darryl Strawberry, baseball
Dimitrius Underwood, football
Luther Wright, basketball
Bert Yancey, athlete
TV & Radio
Dick Cavett
Jay Marvin, radio, writer
Jane Pauley
Writers
Louis Althusser, philosopher, writer
Honors de Balzac
Art Buchwald, writer, humorist
Neal Cassady
Patricia Cornwell
Margot Early
Kaye Gibbons
Johann Goethe
Graham Greene
Abbie Hoffman, writer, political activist
Kay Redfield Jamison, writer, psychologist
Peter Nolan Lawrence
Frances Lear, writer, editor, women's rights activist
Rika Lesser, writer, translator
Kate Millet
Robert Munsch
Margo Orum
Edgar Allen Poe
Theodore Roethke
Lori Schiller, writer, educator
Frances Sherwood
Scott Simmie, writer, journalist
August Strindberg
Mark Twain
Joseph Vasquez, writer, movie director
Mark Vonnegut, doctor, writer
Sol Wachtler, writer, judge
Mary Jane Ward
Virginia Woolf
CPT Aaron Kletzing LCDR Jaron Matlow
Capt Tom Brown
That motivated me. Yr entire comment did not appear but I read enough . SSG Regina Golding Pls take what she says to heart in any way possible. You won't get much better council. Any feedback from your end after 1 yr??
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Hi SSG Regina Golding -- thanks for posting this thread about your feelings and your situation. I agree with all the advice given thus far, so I won't repeat it again here. Just know that we are all here for you as your battle buddies to your left and right, and we will do our best to support and encourage you.
What other professions might you be interested in, aside from the ones you mentioned that are a no-go for you?
What other professions might you be interested in, aside from the ones you mentioned that are a no-go for you?
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SSG Regina Golding
I never really thought about anything else but maybe Nursing could be a good fit for me.
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