I chose to do my paper on treatment options for Bipolar Disorder. I chose this topic because I know many people with Bipolar Disorder and it seems to be the general consensus from those that I have met that the treatments they have been offered have been insufficient in completely controlling their mood disorder. I wanted to learn about what treatments they were talking about and possibly find reasons as to why they felt the way they did.

Bipolar Disorder is a mental disorder that is becoming increasingly common as the world population grows. It involves extreme highs followed by extreme lows that leave not only the person but those surrounding him/her very confused. Many bipolar individuals that I have come into contact with say that, for a long time, they were seen as “dramatic” or “hyperactive” people. People often believed that there behavior was a result of their own personality rather than a result of mental defect. Usually, bipolar individuals are only recognized once they do something extreme such as attempt suicide or run away for weeks on end.

Between 1990 and 2000, Bipolar Disorder was ranked the sixth leading cause of disability for individuals between the ages of 15 and 44 (Woods, 2000). The lifetime risk of suicide for Bipolar patients, at 19%, was the highest of any mental disorder in 1990 (Goodwin & Jamison, 1990). The statistics are not only interesting but alarming. Bipolar Disorder seems to be plaguing this country and still many bipolar individuals are left untreated and undiagnosed.

My question for the research article I have chosen for this paper is “what is being done?” What is being done to treat those with bipolar disorder and bring them back to a normal, functioning, human status?

Introduction
The number one anxiety of adults in the United States is speaking before a group (Watson and Dodd, 1984). Among college students, this dread is secondary only to crawling on a mountainside ledge (Pelias, 1991), and its ramifications are not any more pleasant. Known as "communication apprehension" (CA), this phenomenon has been defined as "an individual's level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons" (McCroskey, 1976, 39; in press, 7).

Over 2000 years ago, the Greeks spoke of people who were reluctant to speak (Glenn, Dobkins, Kennan, and Cronin, 1989) and stage fright was addressed in the first public speaking books that appeared in the United States; however, studies that seriously researched these fears did not appear until the 1930's (McCroskey, in press). For the next thirty years, scholars related all studies in this field to stage fright. Anyone who suffered from stage fright was thought to 1) lack public speaking skills; 2) have prepared inadequately; or 3) not realize that public speaking was just talking to people (McCroskey, in press).

Abstract

Four managed care psychotherapists were interviewed about their perceptions of contracting with managed care companies. Two specific questions were asked of each study participant that stressed the positive supportive and non-supportive characteristics and features while working with the contracting organization. Using the phenomenological psychological method, data were reduced to the essential constituents that described the typical, lived experiences of all participants. The intent of the study focused on the participants’ view of organizational support when organizational policy and interactions influenced the practice of psychotherapy. Results show that there is one essential constituent of positive support and four constituents of non-supportive situations. The positive support feature was described as participants learning to foster informal relationships with those affiliated with the organization external to the organizational policy as to benefit clients; frequently in the areas of re-certification and utilization review. It is determined that organizational policy is generally perceived as rigid when it comes to serving clients effectively, particularly when clients issues surface suddenly or when clinical needs dictate additional therapy. This study confirms certain previous research about the general attitudes of psychotherapists and managed care; it also allows the participants to define “effective therapy” as practiced in the real-world setting and generating new information vital to understanding how psychotherapy clients can benefit from managed care organizational improvements and changes.

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview of the Problem

“I can’t go to school looking like this, everyone will make fun of me!” This sentence often crosses the mind of teenagers in high school. Many times in high school or in life people feel as if everyone is looking at them and constantly judging them. Jean Piaget gave this fear a name and called it the “Imaginary Audience”.