Sitting: Peter Smole and Roman Peklaj and Maja Valic; Standing: Joe Kraynak, Darja Budja, Cecie Kraynak, Emi Kladnik, Ana Sorc, and Katja Jus

Cecie and I were invited to visit Ljubljana (lyoo-blee-ah-nah), Slovenia for the release of the Slovene edition of Bipolar Disorder for Dummies. We accepted and have been in Slovenia since this past Thursday, 10/8/2009. We flew into Venice on Thursday to meet our gracious hosts, Darja Budja (“j” is pronounced “y”) and her husband Simon Perko. Darja translated the book into Slovene and is a devoted bipolar advocate. She has created her own bipolar blog (bipolarna.si) and is one of the organizers of an active bipolar support group in Ljubljana.

Darja informed me that Bipolar Disorder For Dummies is one of the only books on bipolar to be translated into Slovene – the other two being children’s books – hence all the hoopla surrounding the release of our book.

Thursday evening, Cecie and I met with Darja’s support group to present the book, share our experiences with bipolar, and discuss various bipolar-related topics. A high percentage of the Slovene population speaks English, so we had no huge communication barrier. Many of the group’s members are accomplished professionals and all were very articulate with an excellent sense of humor. During the meeting and afterwards, we shared plenty of laughs.

A couple highlights from our meeting included the following:

• Dr. Mojca (moy-tsah) was in attendance. I had heard much about her (all good). Several of her patients were in attendance and all sung her praises. She stressed the need for sleep and informed us that she provided her patients with medication and instructions on how to use it effectively to enable them to more effectively manage their own sleep issues. We found this surprising. Our experience is that doctors in the U.S. seem reluctant to prescribe sleep medication out of fear of the patient developing a dependency. Dr. Moyza said she preferred using Klonopin (clonazepam), an anxiolytic, to help with sleep, because she found it to carry less of a risk of dependency. Specifically, she said that at high doses, it causes the tongue to swell, which is generally enough to convince patients to back off on the dose.
• When relating our experiences with bipolar, I described the illness as a monster that could create all sorts of chaos and meanness in a family and that it’s the monster that causes all the trouble, not any of the individuals involved. Everyone seemed to relate well to that. One member joked that his monster was now a little kitty, but he was always aware it was still there and could turn into a lion at any time.
• The members also seemed to welcome the message that although chaining up the monster is important, we needed to be careful about locking our dreams away. I pointed out that I found most people with bipolar to be highly intelligent and talented, and with bipolar, we need to be careful about letting it become our lives rather than simply a part of our lives.
• We discussed the stigma of bipolar disorder (and mental illness in general). I pointed out that we still have a problem with this in the U.S. but I thought it was improving due to efforts in the community to educate the public. One member pointed out that he has noticed more movies and television shows coming out of the U.S. about mental illness or with characters having a mental illness, and he saw this as a positive sign. The consensus, however, was that in Slovenia, the stigma was still rampant.
• Dr. Mojca pointed out that because Slovenia is a smaller country, it is easier for them to get things done, especially in terms of passing legislation to help with mental illness. Organizing efforts in Slovenia may be a little easier than in the U.S. and may have more of an impact.

On Saturday, we traveled to Koper, on the coast of Slovenia (Adriatic Sea) to present Bipolar Disorder For Dummies at a conference on the state of psychiatry. The conference began with a roundtable discussion (in which I did not participate) followed by the book presentation, which was relatively brief. Attendees seemed to be a bit worn out by the end of the roundtable discussion, so having a brief book presentation was probably a good thing.

Today, we will hang out. Tomorrow (Monday) we are doing another book presentation in Ljubljana. Later in the week, we may have an opportunity to appear on local or national television to discuss bipolar. We sincerely hope that the book will help our new friends in Slovenia and contribute in some small way to reduce the stigma surrounding this illness.

I would like to thank Darja Budja for organizing this trip and pulling everything together to make it possible, her husband Simon for patiently attending to all our needs, and his parents for giving us a place to stay. Thanks also to the DAM Society, Zalozba Pasadena, and AstraZeneca for their efforts in publishing the book and their financial support of this trip. Thanks also to my mother-in-law, Jo Howard and my parents, John and Adeline Kraynak, for their contributions; PsychCentral’s John Grohol for pledging his support; and all the wonderful people of Slovenia we have met who have been so hospitable and generous.

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From Psych Central's website:
PsychCentral (October 11, 2009)

    Last reviewed: 11 Oct 2009