Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance provides peer support to those with mood disorders

After a lifetime of undiagnosed bipolar disease, Joel Kobren could no longer handle the mounting pressure of unemployment and looming eviction. On Dec. 17, 2008, he put a .38 Special handgun to his chest and pulled the trigger.

The hollow point bullet tore through his chest, collapsing a lung, fracturing two ribs and shattering a shoulder blade.

It took Kobren more than an hour to accept the fact he was still alive and to call a friend.

After two weeks in the hospital, Kobren voluntarily checked himself into Aurora Behavior Health Services in Peoria.

Finally, after 58 years, doctors diagnosed him with bipolar disease, a diagnosis that truly changed his life.

Kobren said he was no longer an "underachiever" who could not keep a job or maintain a relationship; there was a real reason for his "mood swings."

As part of his therapy, Kobren started looking for a self-help group. He said "suicide survivor" groups were really grief groups for families and friends of people who committed suicide - not people who survived a "failed fatal depressive episode."

Kobren said he could not find what he really needed - a depression group.

"Even people in the system didn't know that grief groups are not suicide groups."

Kobren's search led him to the national Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. Unfortunately, Apache Junction, where Kobren lives, or the East Valley, does not have a DBSA chapter.

Officials at the national organization put him in touch with Henry Willey, president of the DBSA Yavapai County Chapter.

Though the local chapter received its charter in March, Willey is more excited about the formation of a state DBSA organization.

Willey said the local DBSA is the only chapter in Northern Arizona. Since it is the Yavapai County Chapter, he said, "We would like to expand into the Verde Valley, Sedona and Chino Valley. What we need are people to facilitate the meetings. All it takes is a short training session.

"Arizona never had a state chapter. This will allow for the creation of other local chapters around the state. The paperwork is ready to go," Willey said.

Though the two men have never met face-to-face, Kobren said they spend a lot of time talking on the telephone.

Kobren is the vice president of DBSA Arizona and serves on its board of directors.

The message of DBSA is that peer-support is available.

Willey said other agencies provide support, "but they don't work specifically with mood disorders. However, we try to work together with the other groups."

According to Willey, the DBSA includes 400 chapters in the United States and is the largest peer-support organization that reaches the most people.