Treatment Strategies for Depression and Bipolar Disorder, Research Paper Example

The first article discusses Kevin Berthia of San Francisco who attempted to commit suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate bridge some tens years ago. It appears that his reasons for wanting to commit suicide was a $250,000 medical bill for his daughter who was born prematurely and his depression which seems to have begun shortly after the birth of his daughter. But Berthia was a very fortunate person because California Highway Patrol officer Kevin Briggs talked Berthia out of committing suicide. According to Berthia, “I was overwhelmed with everything. It’s like everything that I ever was bothered by, everything that I was ever dealing with came up on one day. And I just felt like a failure. All I gotta do is lean back and everything is done. I’m free of all this pain” (10 Years Later, a Pair of Strangers Revisit a Leap Not Taken,  2015). After meeting up once again with Briggs some ten years later, Berthia admitted that Briggs saved his life on that fateful on the bridge. Berthia also admits that his depression had been bottled up inside of him for decades, but now in 2015, that he has managed to control it and live his life for his daughter.

For Mr. Berthia, the major adjustment issue is learning to face the realities of life and accept what one can change and what one cannot change. Mr. Berthia also appears to have some problems with trust, for he declares that “I don’t trust a lot of people.” In today’s multicultural environment, hearing an African-American male say that he does not trust many people is not that surprising, considering how African-American males are treated by the police and society in general. Overall, Mr. Berthia at the time of his suicide attempt was suffering from clinical depression which can be defined as a mood disturbance characterized by feelings of sadness, despair, and discouragement resulting from and normally proportionate to some personal loss or tragedy. This psychological state is considered as abnormal in relation to its emotional foundation which can include exaggerated feelings of sadness, melancholy, rejection, worthlessness, emptiness, and hopelessness that are inappropriate and out of proportion to physical reality.

Some evidence-based strategies that would have helped Mr. Berthia to overcome his depressive state of mind after his suicide attempt includes 1), consultation with a psychiatrist with an expertise in clinical depression; 2), some type of encounter group with people who suffer from clinical depression; and 3), psychotherapy with the assistance of a trained therapist who could help Mr. Berthia to readjust his relationships with other people and help him to cope with his feelings about trust and to change the patterns that contribute to his illness (Finding Peace of Mind: Treatment Strategies for Depression and Bipolar Disorder, 2015). Certainly, the best strategy for Mr. Berthia would be psychotherapy, due to the fact that he would be forced to trust someone of authority, being the therapist.

The second article introduces the reader to Sissy Goodwin, a 68 year-old teacher at Caspar College in the state of Wyoming and a Vietnam veteran. But what makes Sissy really different is that Sissy is a man who likes to wear women’s clothing, pink bows in his graying hair, and short skirts. However, Sissy is not gay nor bisexual nor transgendered, nor a true transsexual; he is in fact a cross-dresser and is married to Vickie who is also straight.

Early on in his life, Sissy (real name is Larry) made some bold attempts to hide his passion for women’s clothing. As he admits, “I knew I had to hide my behavior, so I tried to be very macho.” One way to express this machismo was for Larry to take Vickie on their second date as a “couple” to a rodeo where Sissy rode one of the bulls. Apparently, some of Sissy’s neighbors did not like what he/she was doing, so one of them “came out with a knife one day and threatened to castrate him.” Sissy/Larry also admits that he attempted to take his own life. “I had tried suicide before I met you,” he tells Vickie, “but, it’s because of you I went to school and got my bachelor’s degree. It was you makin’ me look in the mirror and sayin’, ‘You’re a good person'” (Anwar, 2015).

For Sissy/Larry, the major adjustment issue is learning to do away with wanting to wear women’s clothes and exchange them for normal men’s clothing. However, Sissy/Larry appears to be well-adjusted to his abnormality because he is happily married to Vickie who supports him in every way and is responsible for helping her husband to love himself and to accept what he cannot change, much like Mr. Berthia in the first article. Psychologically, Sissy/Larry is afflicted with what is known as transvestic fetishism which is defined by the DSM-IV-TR (2000) as a paraphilias or a type of mental disorder characterized by obsession with unusual sexual practices or with sexual activity involving non-consenting partners (Transvestic Fetishism, 2015).

However, Sissy/Larry has not admitted that he/she obtains sexual desire from dressing in women’s clothing; therefore, in Sissy/Larry’s case, cross dressing might have begun when he/she was a young boy. This type of activity is “continued because it is enjoyable but the reasons for the enjoyment remain unconscious.” From a psychiatric position, this type of behavior “is sometimes related to the mother’s anger at men or to a preference for having daughters rather than sons” (Transvestic Fetishism, 2015).

Evidence-based strategies that might help Sissy/Larry to overcome his need to dress in women’s clothing are similar to those offered for Mr. Berthia–1), consultation with a psychiatrist with an expertise in transvestic fetishism and other psychological sexual deviations; 2), an encounter group with individuals afflicted with transvestic fetishism; and 3), psychotherapy which might help Sissy/Larry to understand why he dresses up in women’s clothing and how to cease doing it. Also like Mr. Berthia, the best strategy for Sissy/Larry is psychotherapy which in time might help Sissy/Larry to move away from his cross dressing activities.

References

10 years later, a pair of strangers revisit a leap not taken. (6 March 2015). Storycorps. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2015/03/06/390970491/ten-years-later-two-strangers-revisit-what-might-have-been-lost

Anwar, L. (3 April 2015). Longtime couple found that clothes didn’t make the man. Storycorps. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2015/04/03/397089146/longtime-couple-found-that-clothes-didnt-make-the-man

Finding peace of mind: Treatment strategies for depression and bipolar disorder. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_brochures_finding_POM

Transvestic fetishism. (2015). Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders. Retrieved from http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Transvestic-fetishism.html