Can You Have a Successful Career with Bipolar Disorder? A Real-Life Story

Dr Marianne Trent (: 00:00

Can you pursue a fulfilling career whilst living with bipolar disorder? Coming up to date, Laura shares her inspiring journey, navigating her diagnosis, the challenges of working in mental health and the resilience it takes to thrive. Whether you are a professional, a student, or seeking understanding, this conversation is a beacon of hope and insight. Hi, welcome along to the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast. I am Dr. Marianne, a qualified clinical psychologist. Now, we have previously spoken about bipolar disorder on the podcast. If you would like some more information about what it is and the common signs and symptoms, please do consider checking out the episode I did with Sam Suski. If you prefer to listen to your podcasts as an MP three, you can listen to that episode as number 1 3 5 of the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast. Alternatively, if you are watching on YouTube, the episode is called What is Bipolar Disorder Trauma Symptoms and Manic Episodes. That was part of our special trauma series. If you do find this content helpful, please do like please do, let me know in the comments why you are watching. What stage of your career are you at? Are you looking to gain some more information for yourself for the service you work with or for people that you care about? With no further ado, let's dive into this episode and to speak with our guest for today. Laura. Hi. I just want to welcome along our guest for today, Laura Templeman. Hi, Laura.

Laura Templeman (: 01:26

Hi.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 01:27

Thank you so much for being here, and thank you also for pitching this episode to me.

Jingle Guy (: 01:33

Oh, well thank you for having me.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 01:36

Thank you for saying that you'd be delighted to come on and talk about this because I know talking about mental health and personal diagnosis can feel difficult at times.

Jingle Guy (: 01:46

Yeah, it can, but I like to use it as a means of trying to inspire other people and especially having my own mental health diagnoses and working in mental health. Obviously it can cross paths with kind of personal experiences and things like that. Yeah.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 02:02

Oh, well, thank you. So the aim of today really is for us to think about whether it's possible to work with a bipolar disorder diagnosis, and it might be that someone's listening to this or watching this trying to pursue their own career in psychology or mental health, or it might be that they've stumbled across this because they've got this diagnosis or they're considering going down an assessment route that might lead to this diagnosis and they're concerned that they may not be able to work in any industry. So that's kind of where we're heading, but could you tell us a little bit first about how you found yourself heading towards a bipolar diagnosis?

Jingle Guy (: 02:43

So I started to notice symptoms quite young, probably when I was around 14, and it was more so quite severe depressive episodes. Nothing ever really came of it until I was around 18, 19 years old, and I started having access to alcohol kind of substances. And then I moved away from home to go to university and I started engaging in quite unhelpful behaviours, started drinking, smoking, became quite hypersexual and made use of Tinder in more ways than I should have done, and that's kind of when the immediate red flags started coming on for me. So I tried to chase it up with kind of the Southern secondary care services down where I lived in Winchester at the time, it didn't really go any further. I explained that excessive spending. I spent about 2000 pound in about four days, kind of racked up some debt, things like that.

(: 03:48

So I left it a bit until I was about, trying to think now, it was 2022 when I was diagnosed, so I'd have been 23, and some of those symptoms started coming back. And again, it was more so the depressive episodes, extreme light dissociation, and it was that point I knew that something was not necessarily wrong, but different, and I thought maybe I should kind of seek that diagnosis for myself. So I actually paid privately and decided to get a private psychiatrist and get a diagnosis through there. And then I started working with secondary care services for medication who then validated my bipolar diagnosis. So it's been a few years coming and it got to a point where I thought, I think I need to take it into my own hands to kind of try and figure out what's going on.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 04:46

Oh, thank you. That was a really useful kind of potted history and I hope it didn't feel too tricky doing it in such a quick way. So it's been a couple of years now. We are recording this in January, 2025. So it's been a few years since your diagnosis. Could you tell us whether you were having any thoughts about, oh, what is this going to mean for my career?

Jingle Guy (: 05:10

Career? Definitely. So I've always wanted to work in mental health and I think at first I try to put myself off it. I thought I've had a long, long history of anxiety and depression, again, kind of bipolar. I've got A-P-T-S-D diagnosis, so there's been quite a lot that's been going on. And at first I was like, surely this is going to be a triggering career path. Maybe I'm not the right kind of person. What if it causes episodes or something like that? So I definitely doubted myself when it came to that. It all happened quite quickly. I was diagnosed a month before starting my job in the service that I currently work for. So I did try to push myself. But yeah, definitely, definitely moments of doubt and sometimes I still get them now. Definitely not clear of that. Sometimes there still is doubts of whether is it going to work? Am I good enough? Things like that. Definitely.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 06:12

Yeah, and I think maybe that's not necessarily exclusive to having a bipolar diagnosis. I've been qualified since 2011 and still I'm like, am I enough? Are people more exciting and energetic than me?

Jingle Guy (: 06:30

Imposter syndrome can be awful.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 06:33

Absolutely. Absolutely. And so I guess it's beginning to separate when that is specifically linked to a mental health diagnosis and whether it might just be that we're a bit of a low ebb and taking things got a little bit less resilience in our window of tolerance possibly.

Jingle Guy (: 06:54

Yes, definitely. Yeah, and I noticed that kind of things like burnout, especially in a PWP role is definitely well renowned anyway, and I feel like my tolerance for that's quite low in some sense as well. So I've noticed, especially since qualifying, and again in the training year, it's very intense. I found that I reached a period of burnout there and it seemed to be more frequent compared to my peers who I was doing the course with and had to take quite extended periods of sickness from work. So it was definitely throughout the training year that I think the symptoms became a bit more apparent.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 07:36

And like you say, I did a recent podcast episode about what is a PWP? So if anyone's like PW P, what does that mean? Psychological wellbeing practitioner? And there's a recent episode on that that takes you through what that is. But yeah, they really do put a lot on your plate in terms of client load and in terms of client hours.

Jingle Guy (: 07:58

They certainly do very high case load, very quick turnover. As soon as you're done with one client, you get another booked in kind of supervision. CPD, very, very high pressured job.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 08:10

Yes, indeed. But a very important job.

Jingle Guy (: 08:13

Absolutely.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 08:15

You've kind of painted a picture is that people that have bipolar presentations or bipolar diagnosis do often tend to have kind of a complex trauma background, but not always, not exclusively, but in the most part that's certainly, well, I tend to work with people with complex trauma, so that's how I experience lots of bipolar diagnoses. Could you tell us about your experiences of being medicated to being under treatment for bipolar, but also then I guess noticing any fluctuations in mood states? So typically we'd have what people would call an elevated mood state or a mania or manic presentation followed by periods of lowered quite significantly low mood. Sometimes it's quite rapid, other times it's not, but how do you manage working with trying to track all of that?

Jingle Guy (: 09:14

It can be quite difficult at times, but I will say my supervisors and my manager have been nothing short of absolutely excellent with it, and I've always been open and honest with them, so it can be quite difficult for me. I struggle to sometimes differentiate between what are the signs and symptoms of an actual depressive episode or is it just kind of typical burnout, feeling quite tired. And more often than not, I've kind of noticed the symptoms a little bit too late, which has kind of gone into a full depressive episode. I've noticed the elevated mood side, I'll take on too much, and I still haven't quite learned how to manage that. So I'll book more contacts in a day than maybe I should. I'll take on extra clients, extra calls. I'd work past my working hours doing notes and have absolutely no problem with it.

(: 10:13

I notice even sometimes in sessions I feel a bit more elevated and more chatty, but it's definitely kind of the depressive and low mood symptoms that I've noticed more whilst doing the job. I have had experience of having quite a severe depressive episode about a year and a half ago where I had to take about a month off work, kind of extreme dissociation, no appetite, kind of what my therapist at the time described as depressive insomnia. So I'd spend days and days a week downstairs, again, a bit of the substance use. So I started smoking again, drinking a bottle of wine at night. It went really, really to a very low point kind of again, some of those negative thought. It slipped into the suicidal ideation side of things. So it did get really bad. And I think that was me pushing myself to a point beyond burnout as well with the role.

(: 11:17

So there's been the occasional very severe depressive episode where I have had to take absences from work kind of on a day-to-day basis. I do try and push through it, which isn't always helpful. Sometimes I kind of ignore my own warning signs, and I think sometimes I gaslight myself and be like, I'm fine. It's nothing serious. I can manage it. But I think since experiencing the depressive episode, I do try and be more cautious. And if I do need to take time off work, then I will. But I definitely utilise my supervision as well. I'll tell my line manager if I'm feeling a bit crappy sometimes the passion for the job will lower. I absolutely love working as a PWP, but sometimes it's just that feeling where I'm like, I don't want to get out of bed. I'm dreading going to work. I don't want to do this. What's the point? Kind of that negative cycle of those very unhelpful thoughts. But yeah, my manager and my supervisor have been the absolute crutch to helping me get through that. Definitely.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 12:26

Thank you. And of course, we've got a duty of care to look after you because you are an important part of the staff team, but there's also that duty of care to care for the patients and make sure that they're receiving. And so it's a tricky one to balance, isn't it? And you mentioned that sometimes you might feel like you are more elevated in sessions, more chatty, and I guess it's just being able to stay on top of that to make sure that you know that this isn't about you. This isn't about us as clinicians. This is about the care and treatment of the people you are working with.

Jingle Guy (: 13:00

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's the one thing I'm is very honest, and I've used it in line management again, I'll be honest and say, look, I'm really, really struggling. I might need to take some time off work. There was a time previously where I got quite upset in a meeting and started crying and I said to my line manager, I said, the thought of having to sit down with a client today brings me dread. And I said, that's not normal. I said, I'm usually very happy. Love my clients, love my sessions, love the job. And I thought, I know that this is not normal for me. And again, I've always been honest about it and just say, I can't do this right now. I am finding it really difficult. And like I said, kind of the feelings of dread and things like that. So yeah, I'm definitely honest because again, the clients are what matter within their treatment, it's their sessions, I'm their practitioner, they deserve the best standard of care and my a hundred percent. And when it got to a point where I knew I couldn't give, that was when I said, I think I need to take some time off.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 14:09

Yeah, absolutely. That's so important and I hope it was okay for me to ask you that.

Jingle Guy (: 14:14

Absolutely.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 14:15

Just thinking back to what you'd said about kind of changes in your alcohol use and your mood states and how many clients you're taking on and what times you're finishing, sometimes it can be really helpful. It might be something you've done already, but to literally have quite a thorough checklist that you complete every day and almost just being doing with numbers in it and columns or colours, depending on whatever you want to apply. But in that way you can quite quickly over a space of a week or a month, see those changes, especially if you code them. Is that something that you've ever tried or considered?

Jingle Guy (: 14:57

You know what? No, that's something that I've never thought of. I know there's kind of the regular mood diaries where you write how you're feeling. Obviously routine and sleep's very important for someone with a bipolar diagnosis because obviously too little sleep can actually cause man hypermanic episodes. But no, that's actually not something I've tried. That sounds like a good idea.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 15:19

Yeah, almost. If you were to draw up a page of, I know you could do it, you could do grids of 365 days on a big piece of a three paper or something, or do it a month at a time, but almost if you are recording, I don't know, you could give things numbers and each number has a colour. So if you leave work bang on time, then that would be one colour. If you have zero alcohol, that would be that same colour, all of that so that as soon as things start to get a bit spicier, you are almost noticing those changes. Does that make sense?

Jingle Guy (: 15:56

That's such a good idea. But I know as of December, 2023 course, I still had a tendency that although I wouldn't drink as often, if I did go out and drink, I'd get absolutely mashed, almost blackouts. So I went to, I said, the final time I'm drinking is the work Christmas party, and I haven't drank in what about 13 months? I won't completely tea tot. I haven't touched a cigarette, I haven't touched a drink. And I said, I think that's the only way that I'm going to be able to manage that. So yeah, I went completely tee total from that.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 16:33

Okay. So it sounds like you've made some significant changes because you wanted to look at your coping strategies really.

Jingle Guy (: 16:42

Yeah, and I noticed, again, kind of working in mental health as well about alcohol substance use. It has very adverse effects that high when you're drunk, but the after effects, the depressive symptoms. And then it was about the effect of more so home life kind of what is it doing to my partner? It's not a behaviour I want to exhibit around the children. Mommy used to drink all the time. I really, really do not want that. And I thought the only way that I can manage it is I always struggled to manage my usage. I couldn't be one of these people who was just, I'll just have one drink and go home. I know that never happened to me. So I thought the only way that I can manage this is by getting rid of it completely. And I found it easier than I thought I would. I thought it's going to get to when I'm feeling a bit down and I'm going to want to drink, but I can't say I've missed it. Can't say I've missed it at all.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 17:40

Yeah, I mean for very different reasons. I stopped drinking probably almost a year ago. I've had maybe one or two, but literally a glass of wine on holiday because we were all inclusive. And I thought, well, I'll try that. It was horrible. But I would say I'm largely teetotal and I find it easier because I'm not going out thinking, oh, I'll have to get a taxi home. I'm going out thinking, well, I know exactly how I'm going to get home. I'm going to drive myself home, I'm going to be sober and it's going to be like this. And then the next day I can get up and feel like I want to get up and exercise, and I don't feel like I need to kind of rot in bed. And I've never been a big drinker since having children anyway, but it just gives me my vibrancy. And I think I used to get reasonable amount of colds as well. I would say since stopping drinking, I've maybe had one cold, which is very, very unusual for me, even as an intermittent drinker.

Jingle Guy (: 18:46

Gosh, yeah, I didn't even put two and two together with that. But yeah, like you said, hangovers were never nice. And for me, it would knock me out for days and going to work, feeling a bit fully, a bit kind of not as good as really I should have been going to working. But yeah, again, it used to make me feel really, really depressed afterwards. Kind of like the beer fear, I think it's called. And then I realised that I can still have fun without having a drink. The people I surround myself with have been supportive and respecting, and I've always said, I don't mind if you drink around me. That's not something that bothers me. But I'm lucky that I've been surrounded by the support that I have been. And again, my partner very, very rarely drinks. We've never drank in the house. We've never drank when we've gone out, so I'm not surrounded by it either.

(: 19:42

So I think I've been very lucky in that sense that I've had minimal surrounding or kind of people around me that do drink. But yeah, I've noticed a massive change. And I feel like my health has got better, kind of my skin, my hair, like what you mentioned, a vibrancy and what you said. I can go out, spend some time with friends, come home, not feel tired or drained, and then go to bed, have a restful sleep and wake up in the morning feeling refreshed. And I still had a good time. So it was definitely the right choice for me and definitely for the better. And like I said, I haven't missed it at all. I don't feel I've missed out on anything, so I'm very lucky. I know it's not that easy for other people, but yeah, it's worked for me.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 20:32

Good. Well, I'm really pleased to hear that. And in the old days I'd say, oh, and it's cheaper too. But actually the other day I had a mocktail and it was 11 pounds 50, so it really isn't that much cheaper. I would say,

Jingle Guy (: 20:50

Gosh, that's a barrant 11 pound 50 had to stick to a cork and ice. And I'm happy,

Dr Marianne Trent (: 20:57

Okay, keeping it cheaper. But even someone I was speaking to recently said they bought a pint of Coke in London. It was five pounds 50,

Laura Templeman (: 21:04

The

Jingle Guy (: 21:05

On egg. God, that's ridiculous, isn't it? Bloody

Dr Marianne Trent (: 21:09

Hell's. It really is. I think gone are the days. So when I was growing up in the nineties and early two thousands, sometimes bars would run promotions that if you were the designated driver, your drinks would be free. That doesn't seem to be a thing anymore.

Jingle Guy (: 21:21

That'd be such a good idea as well though, wouldn't it? Oh yeah, they don't do anything like that anymore.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 21:28

Nothing's for free these days. Is it? So kind of thinking about family life and work life and do people around you help you to monitor your states, do you think?

Jingle Guy (: 21:43

Oh, absolutely. And especially my partner. He's been amazing and I think he can start to tell if, again, my sleep gets quite disruptive. Maybe if I've always been quite bad taking my medication, which again, as a practitioner, we want clients against, but there's times when I've been feeling lower, I'm just like, oh, Ryan, I can't be bothered. And he knows what medication I take when and will come in with it and say, Laura, you need to take it. But he'll start to notice when I'm starting to feel a bit lower. He can tell, again, disrupted sleep, kind of that lack of interest in wanting to do things, not wanting to socialise, kind of not talking. I think as time's gone on, he can pick up on it really, really quickly. And for that, I'm very lucky. Sometimes I don't really notice myself. So definitely my parents don't know much about it.

(: 22:40

And again, to no fault of their own, it's just something that I try not to kind of bother them with. But again, work great and I'll openly tell them if I'm noticing any symptoms, but I always remember my line manager saying, sometimes we can tell when people are on the verge of burnout. Course, my caseload management wasn't as brilliant as it should have been. I was getting a bit behind on my notes and my admin just because the motivation energy wasn't there. And I've always said to the people around me, be honest, don't think I'm going to get hurt or offended or upset. If you notice something, I appreciate it more if you tell me so I can get a bit more of a grip on it before things get too bad. But yeah, my partner has been my absolute staple with things like that. And yeah, he's very good at recognising the signs and keeping me on track.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 23:35

Great. And I know certainly from some of the people that I've worked with, especially when they're working, find that their secondary care mental health providers can be quite flexible in helping them to tweak their medication to cope with any elevated or lowered mood states. Is that your experience as well?

Jingle Guy (: 23:55

Yes, I've been absolutely fantastic. So I think I go for a medication review usually twice a year. I started off, so I take sertraline, I take Lamotrigine and I take propanolol. So I've got A-S-S-R-I, a mood stabiliser and a bit of blocker, so a bit of everything. So they do monitor it closely saying, is it working? And I remember saying, if you're experiencing quite severe depressive symptoms and we know it's not working, you should not be getting that on your medication. So I started off taking, I think it started at 50 milligrammes, and then I experienced quite a severe depressive episode, and they raised it 200. And then the last psychiatrist that I saw, what was it, ordered a blood test and said, we can check Lamotrigine levels in your blood. And the results came back that there was actually quite minimal amounts. So then it was raised from 200 to 300.

(: 24:53

But I think I've been one of the lucky ones where my combinations worked really, really well for me, and it's very rarely had to be tweaked. More so just the Lamotrigine, because obviously that's very trial and error. I think you can go up to 700 milligrammes with Lamotrigine. So again, there's quite a large window of what works. But yeah, they've been absolutely fantastic. They've listened to my concerns. If there's been any changes I've actioned it really quickly kept me involved. So yeah, they've been absolutely fantastic. And what I'm on now works really well for me.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 25:28

Great. And like you said, everyone's an individual, so everyone's will be different. So someone's kind of listening or watching this to get an overview. Please don't be alarmed if yours does sound different to what we're discussing for Laura, A really common concern is when people are starting medication is whether they will still feel like themselves. Could you talk us through that a little bit?

Jingle Guy (: 25:50

Yeah, so I've always been open to medication. Again, it's something that I've always been willing to try. I don't remember any initial concerns. I've taken SSRIs since I was about 18 years old, but I've noticed that I'm more like myself again, energetic, bubbly, probably I'd say even happy, optimistic. So I think actually again, I've been really, really lucky with my medication and it's brought me back to being even half of my normal self, which I'm grateful for. Haven't actually experienced any massive side effects apart from when I started the lamoine and I got quite irritated, quite angry. My tolerance levels were next to nothing, so that was one of the biggest side effects. But apart from that, I've been really, really lucky. Again, I think I'm one of the rarities where I've had quite a straightforward experience with it. But yeah, minimal side effect. And yeah, I had no initial concerns about taking the medication because I was quite open to it and willing to try anything that helps at that point.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 26:57

Great. Thank you so much. Have we got any kind of parting thoughts really for someone that is perhaps finding themselves to be in a position of thinking, what about my career? How's that going to combine with bipolar? Have you got any kind of parting words for them?

Jingle Guy (: 27:17

I think definitely don't doubt yourself. Don't kind of draw a line underneath having a successful career in mental health just because of a bipolar diagnosis. It can be hard. It can be tricky to navigate. It can bring up triggers and uncomfortable feelings, but it can be managed. I think I definitely recommend being as open as you are comfortable with your workplace. Don't be afraid to ask for help from work or to ask for any kind of special considerations regarding workload, clinical contacts. Don't be afraid to say that you're not managing as well. It doesn't make you any less of a practitioner. We're only human and we can only manage the best we can, but definitely some. You have to look within yourself as well. How can you manage it? And especially outside of work as well. And you time is so, so important, especially kind. The compassion fatigue can be really difficult, but you can do it. It is manageable, it is doable, and I'm so grateful that I've had the experiences with the people around me and with the people that I work for. But yeah, it's manageable and you can do it. And a bipolar diagnosis is not the end of the world, the end of your dreams, the end of your career. Yeah, it can be managed.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 28:44

Thank you. That's such a wonderful place to leave it and with a really kind of positive, uplifting message. Thank you so much for your time. I'm wishing you well with what you are doing now, but also perhaps whatever comes next for you in future too.

Jingle Guy (: 28:57

No, thank you for having me and giving us space to kind of talk about my bipolar diagnosis and my experiences at PWP. So thank you very much.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 29:06

Oh, thank you again, Laura. Thank you so much for our guest today, Laura, what a wonderful, insightful conversation that is. Please do if you find this content helpful, like share, comment, subscribe wherever you are listening or watching from. It really is the kindest thing you can do for any podcaster, totally for free. I would love to know what you make of this episode. Please do come and connect with me on social media where I am, Dr. Marianne Trent everywhere. Please do also come and join my free Facebook group, which is the Aspiring Psychologist Community with Dr. Marianne Trent, and that is the unique and only place where you can get Marianne's weekly video sessions, which are called Marianne's Motivation and Mindset, and happen on Friday mornings at 9:00 AM but you can always watch on replay two. Please do come and grab your free Psychology success guide, which you can get from my website, www.aspiringpsychologist.co.uk as I speak.

(: 30:09

This is a pretty much brand new website, so I would love your feedback on that too. If you value the free content that I provide across throughout the whole year, please do consider buying me a cup of herbal tea to say thank you. If it's your time and you are ready for the next step, you are ready for some career development. Please do consider joining us in the Aspiring Psychologist membership, which you can join from just 30 pounds a month. Please also do check out the books, the Aspiring Psychologist Collective, the Clinical Psychologist Collective, and if you work with people who are autistic or perhaps you are autistic yourself or want to help someone feel understood and represented who might have an autism diagnosis, you might well love diving into an autistic anthology, neuro narratives of mental health professionals. Thank you so much for being part of my world.

Laura Templeman (: 31:01

If you're looking to become a psychologist.