Julie Fast Video: Feeling intimidated by your bipolar disorder doctor?

I recently did a series of interviews for a large mental health website called healthyplace.com. Here is one of the first videos I recorded. I’d like to set this up a bit before you watch it. I went through a terrible experience in 1994 when my partner Ivan got very sick and was in the hospital for three months in a manic/psychotic episode. I was scared, overwhelmed and very confused about what was going on. I never met his doctor when he was in the hospital! The nurses were wonderful, but no one actually explained the illness or why he was so sick. I literally had to do everything on my own. Things have changed a lot of course! I wrote books on this experience myself- so the information is more out there now. The video below is a response to the question of what we can do to work successfully without health care professionals when we or someone we care about are in crisis.  I want to say that I sound pretty forceful in this video- and I do believe what I say- but I want to also make it clear that the health care professionals in my life are 100% a part of my team. I care about them and respect them deeply!