People who have experienced manic-depressive disorder are likely to be as reasonable as anyone else in guiding another through social recovery. Finally, in a group, they are likely to balance each other in overgeneralizing from individual experiences. With written permission, a doctor should feel free to give a person's name to another person suffering from the same condition. This can lead to productive friendships otherwise unlikely to occur and sometimes to formation of larger groups. Free discussion of these differences among people with the disorder should lead to a better match between doctor and patient and to lessening unrealistic dependence on the doctor.
Some observant pharmacists notice changes in customers taking lithium.
Their potential therapeutic effectiveness is, however, probably underused. Pharmacists should be encouraged to talk a bit with customers who come in regularly for lithium if the occasion arises. Sometimes the customer learns an important fact about the drug he takes or hears it re-emphasized. The expressed interest of a pharmacist may also give the person the chance to be more open about his condition than with a doctor upon whom he feels highly dependent. She says some of her views have changed or become more complicated over twenty years, but many remain the same.