Employers and Bipolar disorder

Employers and bipolar

1 in a 100 people have bipolar disorder and it is becoming more common. This may be because Stephen Fry, following his documentary The Secret Life of a Manic-Depressive has made fashionable or it may be a real increase reflecting our increasingly chaotic lifestyles.

Last year GPs wrote 391 million prescriptions for antidepressants. This has doubled in the last 10 years and suggests that at any one time over 4 million people are being treated for depression.

Dr Liz Miller has studied mood, mood disorders, bipolar disorder and depression for the last 15 years. She has developed the Miller moodmap. This plots mood on two axes, how much energy person has and how good or bad they feel. The Miller Mood Map shows the four basic moods, Stress and Anxiety; Exhaustion and Depression; Action; and Calm.

According to the model developed by Dr Liz Miller, bipolar disorder means extreme, unstable and difficult to manage moods, while depression represents extreme exhaustion. We always have a mood, and most of the time we manage it well enough without outside help. Nonetheless, there are times when it may not be so easy to manage our moods. At this point we need to become more proactive and start looking at how we can consciously manage moods more effectively. This is where Moodmapping comes into play. Moodmapping provides a tool that enables people to map their moods, look at the causes of why they feel the way they do and look at strategies that will help them feel better. This not only improve their mental health and well-being but also improves people's ability to work effectively and efficiently.


A good manager and employer knows almost intuitively how their workforce feels. However it is no longer easy to spend the time with employees to get to know them as well as one would like. Moodmapping is a way enables employers to understand how people are feeling quickly and easily. Changes in mood come before changes in behaviour. We start feeling bad before our productivity drops off. By being more aware of their employees moods, it is possible to take action before the employee does themselves or the company damage.

If you have an employee with bipolar disorder or depression, 99% of the time he or she will work effectively, creatively and efficiently for you. However as an employer, you need to be aware of what look for and what do should someone's mood change dramatically. By planning for this in advance, and agreeing a course of action with your employee you can head off most disasters before they happen.

By understanding mood better, and how different people respond to their circumstances, it becomes easier to have a happy and productive workforce, than if you leave it until somebody has become seriously ill.

Above all you need to be aware of what happens when someone's mood changes. You see her behaviour change. Someone who is normally calm and happy may become quiet and withdrawn. Equally they may become overexcited, they may be staying late or leaving early. These changes in behaviour follow changes in mood.
The key is talking to your employee sooner rather than later, asking them what is happening in their life both work and at home and how they are feeling. Once you start communicating you can start managing what is happening.

As an employer you have a duty of care to make sure the work you expect employees to do does not make them ill. The most important step you can take is to be more aware of how they feel. Moodmapping is a quick and easy way to understand mood.












Mood Mapping - Available Now!! UK and International readers Click here for Blackwells Click here for Waterstones Click here for Play.com US readers: buy from Amazon.com Click here Copyright (c) Dr. Liz Miller http://www.lizmiller.info/ www.lizmiller.co.uk www.moodmapping.com