A HIGHER suicide rate among people with bipolar means sufferers can be put at greater risk if they are not diagnosed, a county-wide charity has warned.

Joy Hibbins, who founded Suicide Crisis and sees clients come to her from Stroud, was diagnosed with the disorder a year ago.

She is keen to raise awareness of manic depression and help eliminate the stigma which surrounds it for World Bipolar Day which is today.

According to research from the US National Center for Biotechnology Information, (NCBI) between 25-50 per cent of people with bipolar attempt suicide at least once.

Joy experienced a suicidal crisis after a traumatic experience in 2012 and was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder by psychiatrists in Oxford Health NHS Trust a year ago.

It was a close friend who first noticed her symptoms of bipolar, and Joy is keen to help increase knowledge and understanding of the condition.

She hopes that it may help people who are currently undiagnosed to recognise possible symptoms, or that it might help friends and family members to recognise that a person may be showing symptoms.

Her friend, who she had known since her university days, had been aware that she had been in a deep depression for a few weeks, and she had been receiving medical care for this, but then he noticed that her mood changed and she became euphoric, full of energy, needed little sleep and was out socialising all through the night, several nights in a row.

It was a very marked difference. He thought about it and then asked her: “Do you think that you might have bipolar?”

It had never occurred to Joy that she might have it - the “highs” just felt good to her.

Her friend’s comment led to her discussing it with GPs and she asked her GP surgery to refer her a specialist mood disorders clinic in Oxford Health NHS Trust.

Joy feels that friends and family are extremely important because it may be they who first notice the symptoms, which may not be apparent to the person who has bipolar.

She was aware of the depressive episodes, but not the high phases, and this is why she feels bipolar can be missed.

The International Bipolar Foundation is keen to highlight this year that a diagnosis of bipolar disorder is not a barrier to achievement.

“Bipolar is a part of me – but only a part,” Joy said. “It doesn’t define me and it need not place limitations upon me or upon what I can achieve.

“I’m a person who has bipolar, but I am also a person who is tenacious, hard-working, dedicated and organised, who is passionate about the work that I do and who cares very much about our clients and is committed to doing everything that I can to help them to survive.”

Suicide Crisis has been running a Suicide Crisis Centre and a Trauma Centre based in Cheltenham for almost three years. For more information go to suicidecrisis.co.uk