Dr. Thomas Richardson
Dr Thomas Richardson is a clinical psychologist and researcher at the University of Southampton. He teaches 'CBT for bipolar disorder’ on the CBT diploma and is actively involved i...
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Who are you?
I am Dr. Thomas Richardson. I'm a clinical psychologist and I have my own experiences of bipolar disorder. You can ask me questions about what bipolar disorder is, what the causes are, what some of the treatments are.
What is your background?
So I'm a clinical psychologist. I've worked in the UK National Health Service in a community mental health team for adults for several years working with bipolar disorder and other mental health problems. I'm also a researcher and I'm now an associate professor researching and teaching about psychological therapies for bipolar disorder, and I've got my own lived experience of bipolar disorder as well.
What is bipolar disorder?
So bipolar disorder is a mental health problem characterised by significant changes in mood and energy. So episodes of depression where people might feel like they have no energy, no confidence, lack of motivation, very hard to motivate to get yourself out of bed, very self-critical. And also episodes of hypermania or mania where people almost the polar opposite, might have lots of energy, lots of big ideas, much more active, much more socialising, go without sleep. So bipolar disorder is where people can have these discreet episodes of depression and hypermania or mania, which can go on for weeks, sometimes months, but people can be very stable for long periods of time. In between those episodes.