It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

Wesley Knight 0:00
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Zandra Polard 0:44
it Good morning, Las Vegas. It's Zandra Pollard. It's where I am. Is the name of the show? Thank you for tuning in. Today, we have Brianna Hines, who is back, yes, yes. She is the president of dbsa, yes, which stands for

Brionna Hines 1:04
the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. And I am the current president of the Southern Nevada chapter. We do have chapters of dbsa and other states and regions as well. All right,

Zandra Polard 1:15
so what is bipolar disorder? Basically,

Brionna Hines 1:19
it's just a chemical imbalance that can be managed best with medication and therapy, coping mechanisms, all of those things. Okay,

Zandra Polard 1:30
so I know that there's two different types. Is that correct? Yes,

Brionna Hines 1:35
we talked about that last time, and I wanted to highlight that again, okay, because now there's a one and two. Yes. Okay, so dbsa nationals, they posted this recently, that there are different types of mood disorders related to depression and bipolar. So one of them is major depressive disorder. MDD is the clinical term for that, and it's persistent feelings of sadness, loss of interest and other depressive symptoms that interfere with daily life. Okay, so that's one tier, then that. This is where I am, bipolar type one or two, characterized by extreme mood swings between manic and hypomanic slash depressive episodes. Okay, yeah. So,

Zandra Polard 2:22
so what does bipolar one or two look like? For you explain to us some of those mood swings. What does that look like?

Brionna Hines 2:31
Yes. So for type one, it more so with the mania elevated you know, moods, rapid changes, fast thinking, fast talking, grandiose ideas, impulsive decisions, like that's type one and type two is more. So they're on the depression end. So for like I said, type one, whenever I have, like, a major, full blown episode, there's possible to have, kind of like, mini ones, but the full blown ones have to be admitted to the psych ward, you know, at least for my safety to, you know, be there, just in case, if I'm having a high and then suddenly I crash into a low, okay, and type two, there more. So to stay in that depressive mood, they don't experience as much mania as type one. So that's kind of like the main difference. Thank

Zandra Polard 3:23
you for being open and sharing that dbsa also is a support group. Yes, absolutely. So there are people, there, family members, friends, that do not have the diagnosis, but are there to be in support of Yes. So it's important for us to understand what we may be dealing with, right? And some of those things you explained are things we're looking for. So for example, give us something that happened with a friend or family member. It seemed like a normal day, and then what happened?

Brionna Hines 4:16
So in regards to me, right?

Zandra Polard 4:18
Yes, okay,

Brionna Hines 4:19
hmm, that's a tough one. Or someone you know, or someone I know, hmm, like, do you all

Zandra Polard 4:27
of a sudden start cursing people? Oh, no,

Brionna Hines 4:29
no. Okay, I have a good example. Yes. Okay, so this was one of my members. He we could tell that something was off because of how he was posting on social media, okay? And he did tell me that, oh, I was admitted to desert Parkway, and I think it was kind of like or he was about to be admitted, but he just kept going back and forth between that, and I could see, based on what he was posting on Facebook. And he's not even a social media person, but you know, he was posting all these different thoughts and ideas. Is, and it was like, if you didn't understand that he had bipolar disorder, you would definitely be kind of not offended, probably, yeah, but you know, those who, like myself, understand what a manic episode looks like. I'm like, he's not normally like this. Like, I know what he normally is. I don't think he would, you know, say these things. But when you're in that frame of mind, you just

Zandra Polard 5:23
don't care. You're gonna blurt out whatever you're thinking, pretty much. Yeah, okay, yeah, no, holding back, right, all right. So, as the dbsa president, how can people find these peer led groups? There's a couple, I think you guys do zoom?

Brionna Hines 5:41
Yes. So for dbsa, Southern Nevada, our zoom meetings are every second and fourth Tuesday of the month, and right now it's just 100% online. We are trying to get to the point where we have that meeting in person as well, because we do meet. So I'm skipping around, sorry, the supporters zoom that is, like I said, every second and fourth Tuesday. And we call that the allies and supporters. So allies are friends, family members and other members of the circle of support of someone who has a mental condition. So there's those, specifically those type of zoom meetings for supporters, but for all of our other zoom meetings in person and on Zoom, we welcome supporters as well, so that way they can say, Okay, this is how my friend or family member, but

Zandra Polard 6:34
I like that you've broken it up. Yes, yeah, because I'm a supporter, and I haven't been to one in years, but it was a little bit of an overload for me, right? You know, I was there to support a family member, and then I'm dealing with a room full of people who are diagnosed, and it was a little uncomfortable.

Brionna Hines 6:59
My family was kind of the same way from my first meeting they went you know, as encourage, encouragement and support, and then they were like, Yeah, we don't need to come back, unless you really need us to us like, that's okay. It can be, you know, overwhelming. Could be uncomfortable, but some people like attending, some supporters like attending our meetings, so that way they can hear what it looks like for someone else, and kind of parallel to say, Okay, this kind of worked for this person. What can I do that will help me kind of figure out what works for my person. And the one thing that I did want to share from my family after my several episodes and things like that, the main thing as a supporter, my father was saying, meet them where they are. That's right, it's where I am. Yeah, and listen, really, just listen. That's really just what they want. But then at the same time, do your own research about it. So that's why I'm glad that dbsa nationals, they give us these pamphlets to give out at our meetings in person. And you know, you can look it up online, on dbsa alliance.org, the pamphlets and flyers and information for family members and supporters, so that way they can kind of have an idea, since not everybody is knowledgeable on how to best handle the situation, yeah?

Zandra Polard 8:12
Because you know, when you find out what bipolar really is, you're never prepared, right? Yeah. So also, you were telling me about the peer recovery support Specialist certification? Yes, so allies can now become certified

Brionna Hines 8:30
that. No, I think you're more so peers, so a person with the condition, okay, can, you know, get certified, take classes and do observation hours or not observations. What am I trying to say that you take the course? That's the first thing, right? So I took mine through Foundation for Recovery, but also dbsa Alliance nationals, they are offering the course as well. So it's out there if someone wanted to, you know, use their experience to help other people is basically just what peer support is. It's like, I've been there, I can understand a little bit, and that's just the whole thing with peer support is helping others realize you're not alone in what you're feeling. So it just kind of is a different type of support from, you know, talking to a therapist or a friend, but someone who wholeheartedly understands you know what a typical day might look like for you, what an episode might look like for you, having those you know, people to communicate and connect with, definitely has made at least my time and experience with my condition a lot Better Nice.

Zandra Polard 9:39
Now let's talk about some other resources other than dbsa. Are you aware of the ride along? Are they still having therapists ride with ambulances if there is a mental health condition?

Brionna Hines 9:58
I. I'm not aware of that. I know we talked about that last week. Yeah, we covered that

Zandra Polard 10:03
on a show of mine, maybe about five years ago. So I just don't know where they are with that right now, right? That

Brionna Hines 10:10
is something that I can, you know, follow up and look into, because I'm wondering about that as well.

Zandra Polard 10:16
Yeah, I haven't heard anything lately. Yeah, you know, that was, like, a huge thing, because a lot of times when there's a call to the police and the person has a diagnosis, they need a mental health professional on the spot, right? So I thought that was very progressive, yeah.

Brionna Hines 10:37
And I wanted to add to that, that in addition to bipolar, type one and type two, usually the type of episodes, they can be classified into two different things, psychotic features or Schizoaffective features. Okay, what's the difference? So for myself, I have psychotic features, which means I can experience psychosis where it's more so just kind of like in your not in your not in your head, because there's, it's all in your head. It's mental. But the difference between psych psychotic features and schizoaffective is schizo effective. They're seeing and hearing things that aren't there. So we know that certain drugs can also make you hallucinate and things like that. So it's hard for you know someone if they call 911, and they see, oh, this person is talking with someone, and there's no one there. They it looks too similar to be able to say, oh, this person is, you know, having an episode, versus this person is hallucinating from a drug or, you know, some sort of reaction that way. Oh, okay, okay, yeah, so I just wanted to highlight that. So what one of my psychosis episodes was that, literally, I was at home and my family was there, and mentally in my head, I was doing one thing, but physically, from what they were observing, I was doing something else, like I thought I was talking and doing all these things. They were like, No, you were just sitting there, unresponsive. It was very Oh, wow. It was very scary episode, for sure. Yeah, because my previous ones were more so just, you know, mood swings, so laughing, one second, crying the next, impulsive thinking, grandiose ideas, like, I can, you know, not run for president. I won't say that, because we know Kanye is so used to be something I don't know, but that's he always was, kind of like my good example of what it looks like in the public eye, of someone saying, Oh, I'm a rapper, but I'm gonna run for president. That is a grandiose idea, but you know what I mean? Like, that type of thing. Yes,

Zandra Polard 12:36
okay, got it. So let's get more into the help. Yes, of the disorder, we know we can support by being an ally. Yes, we have dbsa. How long will it take before someone with the disorder feels better when you're going through this. How long does it take? Does it take a few hours, a few days?

Brionna Hines 13:09
That is a tough one, because it looks different for everybody, yeah, but I know for me, like currently, literally, right now, I've been going through a med change. So since January, one of the medications that I was on previously, I was like, it was working, but it was making me, cause, making me gain weight rapidly. So at that point, I was like, my doctors were kind of like, it's a health issue, you know, we don't want to put you on a weight loss supplement and whatnot. I was like, I don't want that either. I was working out. I was eating right, but I was still gaining weight, so we kind of tried to switch it. Yeah. I've heard that happens quite often. Oh, yeah for sure, so I want to say, yeah. So I started the transition to a different medication in January, and I've been meeting with my doctor either every two weeks or once a month. Is our usual time frame to see, okay, is this med working? Do we need to switch it? Then we just been doing that until. When did I see him earlier this week, like two days ago,

Zandra Polard 14:09
and I'm thinking, that's the time you want to let family know. Hey, switch meds. Oh yeah, you may see some changes. Oh yeah,

Brionna Hines 14:17
for sure. Okay, yeah. So that's when I definitely try to communicate with them. Okay, be patient with me. If I'm, you know, groggy or, you know, my moods are up and down. We're just trying to get the meds Right, right. And this one in my eight years of being diagnosed has been the longest where it takes this much time to get adjusted normally with the med adjustment for me, it might be a month, maybe two. It's been four. Oh, wow. And I'm still trying to get the cocktail, or of meds, right? Is what we call it, because, yeah, it's definitely a multitude of pills that I'm on right now.

Zandra Polard 14:52
Oh, wow. Okay, yeah. So this is another issue. When the meds are. Working, then you think, Oh, well, I don't need this. I'm doing just fine. Then what happens?

Brionna Hines 15:11
I mean, definitely do not recommend doing anything without alerting your psychiatrist and your doctor and your therapist. Everybody who is on the team should be aware of kind of like, where you are, but yeah, it's definitely not recommended to stop taking the meds when you feel better, if anything. For me, sometimes I'm like, Okay, I'm on five medications. I feel fine. It's been months of me feeling fine. Will we be able to reduce one a little bit? That might be the furthest

Zandra Polard 15:38
something you can ask. Yeah, but I thought you were going with my thought is, you will end up in the hospital, oh, yeah,

Brionna Hines 15:46
for sure. I'm like, I don't, that is, unless it's necessary. I do not try to

Zandra Polard 15:51
Yeah. And it's like, that's the reason why you're feeling better, yeah, that's why so great, because the meds are working. Yeah, yeah. And like you said you want to make sure that you are seeing your primary care doctor, your psychologist, your psychiatrist, because they have to check all these things, right? Yeah, right. They gotta make sure the medicine's working. They gotta make sure your health is okay, how the medicine is affecting your body, yes. So this is a very important journey that lasts a lifetime, absolutely, but you have to love yourself enough to commit to that. Mm,

Brionna Hines 16:32
hmm, absolutely. And it's an adjustment. It's still days where it's hard to accept that. Okay, this is what I have to do to stay out of the hospital or to stay in balance, to have a good day is not just, you know, taking the meds. I always tell people in group, I said the medications are a good 40% the other 60% is healthy coping strategies, you know, getting enough sleep, eating right, drinking water, all of these different things, you know, that help keep the whole thing together.

Zandra Polard 17:04
You know, someone asked me today, when I was talking about the show, you know, preparing, they said, Well, do you have to take medication? Can you just, you know, work on your diet? I don't think so. Personally, not from what I've seen. You know, I think maybe a balanced diet, or not even balanced, a special diet, could help with the reduction of medication. Now, that's not my scope, but just from what I've observed, I think the medication is necessary. What do you think? I was

Brionna Hines 17:46
like, we have that discussion all the time, because some people don't want to go the med route. And it was like, that's your right. You don't have to do it. If you if that's what you want to do, that's we don't shame people for not taking the medication, because we know how hard it can be to get it right, and then, even if it's working right, say for five years, that six years, something might happen, and then you have an episode, and you're like, Okay, well, I gotta, you know, change the meds. But the point I was trying to make was, I know, at one point, we were in partnership with Wangu University. They are in oriental medicine. They do holistic treatments for different physical and mental health ailments. And if you think about it, you know, way back when, before pills and all that was a thing, yeah, proper diet and other things, probably, you know, definitely,

Zandra Polard 18:32
these medications derive from plants, right, right? Maybe they just found the right plant exactly.

Brionna Hines 18:40
So I get it that, yeah, some people would prefer okay. I can just eat, you know what I need to do, whatever I need to do, and I can be fine without it. So more power to them, if that's their journey. I know for myself, yeah, the meds work,

Zandra Polard 18:59
okay, and then, you know, like I said, Wait a minute, let's back up. In terms of the diet, I also mentioned that because there are people who will support others with mental health diagnosis, but I've noticed they'll push you don't need to take medication. You just need to eat this you need to exercise and eat this food, drink this drink. And I just, I just don't condone it, you know? And then also with, what is it when you're self medicating, right? You know, a lot of times people think, you know, you just have a marijuana cigarette. I've seen people go into psychosis from marijuana, especially. The marijuana they have today,

Brionna Hines 20:01
my God, oh yeah, it's very different.

Zandra Polard 20:05
Oh yeah, I don't even touch it, because it's not like when I was younger.

Brionna Hines 20:12
So, but to your first point, yeah, me and my father literally had this conversation this week when I did me with my psychiatrist. He said, You tell him you have an issue, and he'll just say, I have a pill for that. He was like, I don't like that. I said, Yes, I get it, you know. But the way I kind of explained it to him, I said, for right now, as we're switching the meds, he's just trying to minimize whatever is happening, and then once we get it right, we might be able to take one away, because, for example, one of them is because it's a counteract medication of one of my mood stabilizers. Calls us hot flashes. I am only 30 years old. I should

Zandra Polard 20:47
not have not and they're not fun. They're not fun. I experienced

Brionna Hines 20:51
some hot flashes, so he gave me a pill for that, and it was just kind of like, oh, another pill. But I was like, I'm not hot flashing as bad. I mean, right now, you know, the weather in Vegas is heating up, so I can't tell too much, but back in the winter time, I was like, Oh yeah, no, I'm really hot, and this is a problem. So yeah, just being aware of that. But also, yeah, once we get the meds right, that might be one of the medications, we'd be like, Okay, let's kind of pull it. Let's see if this one, can we reduce it or take it away, and everything still be fine. So it's just kind of like, like I said, it's a cocktail. You had a little bit of this, a little bit of

Zandra Polard 21:29
that, yeah. And, you know, what? If it comes out right, people get so stuck on mental right? There's such a stigma, you know, I take what is it called a high blood pressure medication. Now my high blood pressure is doing better, and so, like you said, they're reducing it, yes, right? But when we talk about the mental there's these stigmas, and that's why I do this show, to break some of that Absolutely, and

Brionna Hines 22:01
that's why I like to speak on these things, because there is such a stigma, especially in different in most of society right now, because I know the whole mental thing was more of a newer thing that athletes and public figures actors were saying, Oh, I have anxiety, You know, I have depression and all of these things. So they're like, it's normalizing therapy. Yes, it wasn't before. I'm the first, first person in my family to have to go to therapy and still be in therapy and plan to be in therapy, because I, like, you know, having that safe space to talk about it, but also have someone be able to dive deeper into okay, why do you think that this reaction is like this? Or why do you feel like this is something that is bothering you, like, just really digging deeper and getting to the root of some of the additional stuff outside of just kind of like the bipolar or depression, like getting to the root of it to see what the causes are and how we can work on coping with that when they do arise.

Zandra Polard 23:05
Yeah, so I like that, so checking in, listening. But how do you help someone who has depressive symptoms? That is

Brionna Hines 23:17
tricky, because it can be like, I keep I hate that. I hate that. I keep saying that, and it's different for everybody, but as someone who, for example, when when I first had my symptoms in college, one of my sisters, she had noticed that I wasn't around as much, you know, I wasn't posting on social media, so she just called me up and said, Hey, Sis, I just want to see you making sure you're okay. So then I hung out with her. This was back in DC. I miss that's where I'm from. I'm from Maryland, but yeah, so I hung out with her, and she was like, wow, you the light that you normally have isn't there? Like, I'm really concerned. So it was just, you know, looking to say, Okay, I know that this is how you normally are, and then seeing something that's very different than their normal is, okay? So they're going through something, let me see how I can help, and hopefully the person will be accepting of the help. Because sometimes, if you're too deep into the depression, it's a dark hole where you don't want anybody to help you with anything.

Zandra Polard 24:15
Okay, yeah. So what if you are in that dark space? Oh? Nice. You know, you can always call,

Brionna Hines 24:26
yep. That was like. We have plenty of places to call resources, which is

Zandra Polard 24:30
one 802 73, talk, yes, so I want to make sure we have that resource for you. That is one.

Brionna Hines 24:43
Do you have another? Yes. So I wanted to talk about the importance of warm lines. So I know for me, Nami, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, both Southern Nevada and western Nevada have their own set of warm lines. And. And basically it's similar to 988, the crisis, you know, suicide hotline, but warm lines are non crisis related. Okay, you know, a free service that you can call just

Zandra Polard 25:12
so you're not on the ledge, but you're thinking about it

Brionna Hines 25:15
somewhat. So I was getting, oh, I'm having anxiety about my job, or I'm depressed my girlfriend, you know, left me, or, you know, things like daily things, you just need someone to talk it out with, like, for the warm line, when I was working on the line, we did okay, 30 minutes, you know, you get roughly just 30 minutes to kind of get whatever you need to get. And if you needed to call back, you can call back in an hour. So it's just kind of like in on them, or no, they can just call back in. We do have, we did have a system where some of our elderly persons or persons who we felt needed incoming calls to them. You know, we would schedule those calls. But other than that, it's kind of like, again, non crisis. So if they were in crisis yet, we would either refer them to a supervisor who's more trained in, you know, handling the situation, possibly, or transferring them to 988, where they are, you know, specifically trained in, you know, that sort of crisis. So for us, it's more so just kind of like a non crisis, if you're having trouble with sobriety, like it was, like anything that you just needed to talk about. Some of our elderly persons who would call in, we would just talk. They would we would talk to them, just to talk. They just, was like, Okay, well, it'd be funny. We were just having normal conversations. What did you do this weekend? You know, what were you? What did you have for dinner? That's always been, that was always a funny,

Zandra Polard 26:36
you know, someone who's really in that space. The thing is that you do not want to be dismissive of how they truly feel. Oh yes, right. So always validate. Always validate, right? Thank you so much for coming on to the show providing more information on bipolar disorder. The Alliance is dbsa, yes, which stands for

Brionna Hines 27:02
depression and bipolar Support Alliance, and how can people find it? So our website is dbsa, southern nv.org, that is our national website. And then we have Instagram, Facebook. You can contact us at 702-625-0495, 026250495, either either text message or phone call. You know, we respond to both, and our email address is D, B, S, A, Southern, N, v@yahoo.com,

Zandra Polard 27:31
well, there you go. I want to thank everyone for tuning in and for your continued support of it's where I am, right here on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm here every week. Saturdays 7:30am I'll be here talk to you soon. Bye. You