So, did anyone see that Stephen Fry "Manic Depression" documentary?

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Is Omega 3 the cure for all this intensity?

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

I didn't see it, but obviously am more than slightly interested in anything he found in the way of cures that wasn't lithium or SSRIs...

― We Are The Village Green Psychiatric Society (kate), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/tv_and_radio/secretlife_index.shtml

Here's the general info about it...

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:13 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't seen it, due to real life interfering with telly. I had hoped it was going to be repeated somewhere, but apparently not.

I did, however, see bread with Omega 3 in the supermarket the other day. It was about 50p dearer than yr regular loaf, so Tesco cheapo loaf it was. I think spending over £1 on a loaf would counteract any anti-depressive qualities I would get out of a slice of toast.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:15 (nineteen years ago)

Missed the first one, but last night's was quite brilliant, if not a little depressing (no pun intended). Fry was a revelation, straightforward, funny, gutsy. I thought he was the real McCoy but I'me even more sure now. If nothing else makes for a perfect 'rough guide' to mental illness, can't imagine anyone else of his stature presenting it in such a matter of fact, honest, unsensational manner.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

I started taking Omega 3 a few years ago - mainly to deal with my joint problems, didn't know it had any effects on the brain! Haven't noticed it having any effect whatsoever on the bipolar disorder.

― We Are The Village Green Psychiatric Society (kate), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:22 (nineteen years ago)

best off gettng capsules from holland and barret or similar.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

There are some clips on the BBC website here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/programmes/?id=manic_depressive

I thought it was very good, what I saw of it.

Last week I watched Big Sam's Bungs instead. Silly me.

Of interest to We The Kids, Stephen Fry pays a visit ot a record shop and wants to buy loads of stuff he's already got. Unfortunately the clip ('Stephen goes shopping') cuts off before he gets to the DVD section.

In any case, I think it went some way to explaining why I do that buy something and then take it back to the shop thing I do quite a lot. The little wiszzened woman in my head tells me I shouldn't have bought it in the first place. I must train her to tell me beforehand.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 16:27 (nineteen years ago)

I saw both programmes and yeh, it's superb. The interviewing was particularly harrowing - instead of hystrionics and tears before bedtime, you just had lots of people trying really hard to keep their shit together and talk about stuff that they had real trouble even thinking about.

Kate, shall I DVDify them for you? I think you'd enjoy them.

― Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Thursday, 28 September 2006 14:00 (nineteen years ago)

If you can DVD-ify them in a way my puter will understand... I couldn't actually read the Black Books DVD you sent me. :-(

― We Are The Village Green Psychiatric Society (kate), Thursday, 28 September 2006 14:01 (nineteen years ago)

You'll be watching them on your puter? That'll make life even easier if I can give you them divX style.

I'll redo black books as well.

― Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Thursday, 28 September 2006 14:07 (nineteen years ago)

Don't bother about Black Books, I ended up buying it.

And I don't know what works and what doesn't and why. It has to be in the kind of format that can just be read by a Mac DVD player. It's quite fussy. :-(

― We Are The Village Green Psychiatric Society (kate), Thursday, 28 September 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

Apparently VideoLan Client (VLC) is the thing to have for playing all manner of encoded bits of stuff on one's computer.

I was particularly interested in the people who chart their depression, because I am interested more and more these days in people who accept and try to live around their medical situations than those who try to flatten them out. Not because I think it's better or more right, but just because I'm curious about "owning" your own mental states.

It was also funny to see Stephen Fry trailing round the shops, arguing with the cognitive therapy expert. He ended up buying almost everything he would have bought anyway, because he had an answer for everything she said. It must be frustrating for both parties to have to deal with that kind of thing.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 29 September 2006 07:48 (nineteen years ago)

I actually went into Virgin the other evening just to see if he was there.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 September 2006 07:51 (nineteen years ago)

the second ep was better, i think. it was good. some of it harrowing. i wonder what the press reaction was -- probably 'self-indulgent fool', knowing this country.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:05 (nineteen years ago)

I wouldn't even try arguing with Stephen Fry, you know you'd be pwnd from the off. But that cognitive therapy woman was getting on my nerves; she seemed to have a sentimonious "Oh Stephen, I've seen it all before, stop being such a kid" air that reminded me of a born-again Xtian.

I preferred the 1st episode tbh. Tony Slattary trying not to cry was harrowing and insightful and scary. 2nd ep. had more about Fry in it though, so swings and rondabouts I guess.

VLC is immense, btw.

― Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:11 (nineteen years ago)

johnny B is it possible for me to have a copy too?? i'm surprised BBC don't have these on their interweb pages though.

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:37 (nineteen years ago)

Yeh, that's cool. Can I give you them as DivX?

― Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:40 (nineteen years ago)

I saw about half of the first one. It got off to a bad start, with Stephen's great showbiz mates (Robbie Williams as repellent as usual) & this put me off watching any more.

RW's point seemed to be "I'm really extrovert on stage in front of 1000s of people, but afterwards when I get back to the hotel, sometimes I'm a little bit sad".

― bham (bham), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:42 (nineteen years ago)

Yeh, robbie lived up to expectations all right.

― Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:43 (nineteen years ago)

I only saw the first one. Williams and Fisher doing their standard act was enough to put me off.

If there'd been more of a focus on how ordinary people deal with the problem rather than all of Fry's great personal mates in Hollywood there might have been a point to it. As it was, it didn't add anything to what I already knew about the condition, nor did it make any useful suggestions on how to treat it and/or live with it.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:48 (nineteen years ago)

See, I knew very little about the condition, so it was good to hear someone join up the dots for me. Yeh, RW and CF didn't help, but then, as I say, it got to the average joes (and Tony Slattery) and it got v. good as they started talking to people who normally don't talk about their illness at all cos it's just too hard. Where the celeb mates came across as vapid and annoying, everyone else came across as painfully real.

― Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:53 (nineteen years ago)

The second one was about "normal" people some of the time, and Dreyfuss was good.

Ken, when you get it, can you copy it for me, please? I'm bound to bump into you sometime.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:56 (nineteen years ago)

johnny yeah dixV would be fantastic (i have the VLC which is indeed brilliant).

and yeah PJ I can make a copy if i get it!

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:57 (nineteen years ago)

I only saw the first one too, and agree that Williams was repellent. The general tone of 'me and my famous mates are, like, really upset' was balanced, though, I thought, partly by the inclusion of some real people, and partly by Fry's own eloquence. The programme-makers clearly decided to emphasise the personal journey theme, and I don't see anything wrong with that.

x-posts

― emil.y (emil.y), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:58 (nineteen years ago)

i actually get very squeamish even looking at pills these days. found this hard to watch.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

Can I have a copy of PJM's copy?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

Ken, tell me your address and I'll pop it in the post. De-googlefied, this email works.

― Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

You see, I thought it said Robin Williams in the paper, so I would have ben disappointed.

Yes, Michael, you can.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:01 (nineteen years ago)

I still have Elusive Peace to watch.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:02 (nineteen years ago)

What's the Omega 3 thing?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:04 (nineteen years ago)

eat more fish.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:08 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, and part of the reason I didn't watch the second one was that the first made me... uh... pretty depressed. Gah.

Don't know anything about Omega 3 except for it being mentioned in the Bad Science column of the Guardian with regards to IQ, not depression. Someone explain, please?

― emil.y (emil.y), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:10 (nineteen years ago)

I didn't get to the Slattery bit. It would have been better to have him on first, because his is a powerful story, but the Hollywood celebs tired me out, as did the military guy who went out to get hit by a lorry but to me had a Rainbow George-type air of "professional madman" about him.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:16 (nineteen years ago)

omega-3 are meant to be awesome for anything to do with the inside of your head, no? i think you can get them from some kind of bean or lentil or something if you don't want to get them from fish.

― emsk ( emsk), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:30 (nineteen years ago)

Flaxseed is where vegetarians get Omega 3.

― We Are The Village Green Psychiatric Society (kate), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:37 (nineteen years ago)

oh so omega 3 comes naturally in fish?

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:37 (nineteen years ago)

This is a search for Omega 3 on the Bad Science page: http://www.badscience.net/index.php?PHPSESSID=915fe618f301aa3fb715b62249b6e29b&s=omega+3

― emil.y (emil.y), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:40 (nineteen years ago)

oily fish especially, apparently.

that woman, with the diet stuff, was a proper hero.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:40 (nineteen years ago)

But that cognitive therapy woman was getting on my nerves; she seemed to have a sentimonious "Oh Stephen, I've seen it all before, stop being such a kid" air that reminded me of a born-again Xtian.

it's one of the entry requirements for psychiatry

― The Real DG (D to thee G), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:47 (nineteen years ago)

Like others here, I didn't really hear anything about the illness that I didn't already know, because, like others here, I know people who are bipolar and people who are depressed. It's kind of Philadelphia syndrome. It seemed disappointingly familiar to people who are familiar with the subject, but you forget how many people are not familiar with the problem.

I don't necessarily think it's fair to discount Robbie Williams' depression just because he's Robbie Williams. I thought the Hollywood star bits were an okay thing to include because, as Fry said, they live in a world where it's easy to live around your manic and depressed phases, but picture if they had to try and hold down ordinary office jobs, or raise kids on their own because their partner left them because it all got too much, or whatever. It seemed to me a bit of an admission of "I'm Stephen Fry and I am bipolar and yes, I know you have it harder than me." I didn't think he was trying to drum up sympathy for them, really.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 29 September 2006 10:07 (nineteen years ago)

The thing is, however, that they don't, and we know they don't, so all we can do is sympathise to a limited degree but never empathise.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 29 September 2006 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

Excellent programme. Fry compulsively buying gadgets he already owns several times over (how many iPods did he say he owns?) was intresting, moaning "I work SO FUCKING HARD and this is my only reward" to the woman. Plus the stuff about him absconding to Bruge thinking he would never return to the UK.
I blinked and missed Robbie in ep 1, so I don't know wtf you're all moaning about.

― DavidM* (unreal), Friday, 29 September 2006 16:48 (nineteen years ago)

FYI, both episodes have hit the p2p networks...

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Friday, 29 September 2006 16:53 (nineteen years ago)

I am a tiny bit worried (well, you know, not worried, but TV worried) that I will never be able to enjoy Stephen Fry on telly ever again, because I'll be always concerned that he's overdoing it, and I'll be worrying about the stress he's under, and so on and so on.

I get the same thing when watching Fawlty Towers, and listening to The Goon Show.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 29 September 2006 17:44 (nineteen years ago)

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