With World Suicide Prevention Day coming up (on Tuesday 10th September), a recent online survey conducted by national charity Bipolar UK has revealed that 90% of people living with bipolar have experienced suicidal thoughts in the past 12 months.
Bipolar has the highest risk of suicide of any mental health condition.
Global research estimates that 15-20% of people living with bipolar will die by suicide, and 60% of people with bipolar will attempt suicide at least once during their lifetime.
CEO of Bipolar UK, Simon Kitchen, said: “The fact that 90% of those surveyed reported having suicidal thoughts in the past year highlights the urgent need for more understanding and research to prevent more lives from being lost.
“Huge numbers of people living with bipolar are losing their lives to suicide every year, or having their lives devastated by the trauma and consequences of an attempted suicide, and we are on a mission to reduce this within our community.
“Unfortunately, it currently takes on average nine and a half years to get a diagnosis after first telling a healthcare professional about symptoms, and the huge delay puts people living with undiagnosed bipolar at risk of suicide because they’re not getting life-saving treatment or support.
“People with bipolar need and deserve early diagnosis, specialist treatment, continuity of care, peer support and effective self-management advice to reduce the risk of severe bipolar episodes. With the right treatment and support in place, people are empowered to lead good, long lives.”
Significant and occasionally extreme changes in mood and energy are a hallmark of the common condition known as bipolar.
Currently, over one million people live with bipolar in the UK, but it is thought that fewer than half are diagnosed, partly due to a lack of awareness of the condition where symptoms can be overlooked or misdiagnosed.
On average, people living with the condition are misdiagnosed 3.5 times, further putting them at risk of attempted suicide.
13 years ago, TV presenter and Bipolar UK ambassador, Leah Charles-King, was left feeling suicidal before discovering that she was living with bipolar disorder.
Misdiagnosed with depression, she was incorrectly prescribed anti-depressants, which can trigger manic episodes, leaving her with recurring suicidal thoughts.
Leah said: “I’ve experienced firsthand how services for people with bipolar aren’t meeting our needs.
“I pleaded for help with GPs for years, but my symptoms were overlooked until it eventually got to a point where I wanted to end it all.
“The physical pain and mental torture got to the point where a friend had to talk me down from an eighth-story window.
“If they weren’t there, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Just two days after this extreme low point, Leah wrote a desperate suicide note to her GP and took it into the surgery. She added, “I felt that it was my last chance.
“If I didn’t get help that day, that was it. I knew my intentions . I had a plan [to take my life] if I didn’t get help that day.
“It was only when I was on the verge of ending my life that I got the diagnosis of bipolar and could finally try to manage the condition and live with it well.”
Professor Guy Goodwin, co-chair of the Bipolar Commission and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, is calling for a national push to speed up bipolar diagnosis to reduce suicide risk.
He added: “Bipolar is probably the single highest identified risk for suicide, and lowering this risk requires the diagnosis of bipolar, effective advice, and treatment.
“There urgently needs to be a national push to speed up bipolar diagnosis, which is too often long delayed.
“For those who do become suicidal, there needs to be a clear and effective medical response – quicker access to psychiatrists and crisis care will help.”
