Topic : 08/01 Extreme Highs and Lows

I know what you are going through on a different level. My mom is a compulsive liar and she is an alcoholic and a drug user. so it is a different situation but. My Dad always wanted what was best for me and so he introduced me to his Church when I was 12 after I had stopped living with my mom and well I would visit my mom but it got to the point where I decided that I wanted a chaperon because I didn't want to be there while she was doing drugs and having parties with her friends and she blamed every thing onto my dad and still does because I have stopped talking to her on my own decision. so it is kind of the same for me and you daughter the only difference is the the drugs and alcohol over the bi polar and I am now 21.I know that you have it worse than I did but the only thing you can do is help your daughters realize what is going on and let them make there own decisions which I am sure you are already doing. I just have one question for you. Has he ever tried using nutrition as a way to help him not be as bad with his bipolar? well I wish you all the best and I don't mean to pry keep doing what you are doing. I am very proud of you . 

Thumpalina 

My husband is BiPolar I/OCD.  We have been married 8yrs.  We married only a few months after knowing each other, although there were red flags.   After 4mths of marriage, he began to drink and he drank for the next 2 horrible yrs.  This lasted until he got his 2nd DUI.  (his first was before I met him).  I realized he had an illness(his father is also BiPolar), even though he was in denial, and perserverd.  Driving him to work, etc. for a year until he got his liscense back.  In the midst of this, he was irritable, cursing, violent, paranoid. He worked 2nd shift and  I think that is what saved us.  And of course 'the good times', when he would come back to 'normal' and was himself.  I savored those moments and hung on.  We eventually had a son, and he became more aware of his problem and went to his family dr.  This dr., knowing his family history, put him on a anit-depressent.  (All those that know about Bi-Polar know this should not be prescibed by itself).  Things seemed to be better for awhile, we were very close and I wasn't in fear around him.  He was still paranoid and sometimes thought he ran over someone on the way home or answered the door with a gun, and still had irritable moments.  Then after 5yrs of not drinking, he started again.  He was up to 30 drinks a day when I made him see a psyciatrist.  He put him on 3 differant med's.  He would take them for a few days and then stop for a few days.  God forbid I remind him.  Things became absolutly unbearable.  He was violent, irritable, and.. don't even know the words to discribe it.  I finally took my son and I to a shelter and we are now seperated and will divorce.  I say all this in hopes if someone reads it, that as not gotten help, Please get help now and stick with it.  I truly beleive if  mine had gotten help sooner, we could have survived.  Even though he was first diagnosed as a teenager , he has only now come out of denial.  That said, he still does not keep up with his apts with his Psy. and psycotherapist.  I know he desperatly love his son, but I will fight for him to be mandated to take his med's and go to his apt.  I know there is a person in there that can be a good father and a person that is 'truly' him other than this disorder.  Its a heartwrenching illness to watch someone you love change into someone else and then change back and then change again over and over. But we have to do whats best, and I thank God for being with me through this. 

I totaly agree.  I think the show needed to be more informative, although they could probably spend a week on it and only touch the surface.  It did not touch on spouses dealing with another spouse having the disorder. Also,  I felt it could have been more informative of the hallucinations one can have and it only touched on being paranoid.  I was hoping to get more answers than what I did. I think every family knows of someone or is directly related to someone with this disorder and it could use more attention. 

This sentence disturbed me to say the least. I'm a 23 year old female who was diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder in the summer of 2003. What people need to understand is this. "Bipolar" covers such a wide range of symptoms that everyone can't be classified under one term. Some people have hallucinations, some have irratic behavior and others (like myself) just clean more when we're manic, and sleep more when we're depressed. I've been fighting with people since the day I was diagnosed. My boyfriends parents went on a rampage to have him leave me because they were afraid i'd kill them in their sleep. I have already written Dr. Phil on my opinions of this show. That show only cemented their fears. I wish he had shown people who live with it every day, and aren't "psycho". We all need treatment, but most importantly, WE'RE HUMAN. we have feelings, we're not a shell with a brain. People talk about us like we're not there, like we're institutionalized. The truth is, being bipolar i've done better on exams in college, written better papers, ran faster than other people. It's not a disorder that affects the level of intelligence. We're intelligent, functioning people (some of us) and a lot of us are living in fear and not getting treatment because we don't want to deal with the stigma. It's out of control. This is 2006... not 500 B.C. people need to pull their heads out of their rear ends and become educated before passing judgement. Just my opinion of course. 

Rebecca 

I’m sorry to say after watching so many Dr Phil shows, I anxiously awaiting the show In the Mind of a Bipolar – Extreme Highs and Lows, I was extremely disappointed. How much time was spent researching Bipolar before the show was put together and aired? I have spent the last 15+ years reading, going to support groups and researching everything I could get my hands on regarding this chemical imbalance in the brain of a bipolar love one. When my love one was diagnosed with Bipolar IV, - the worse case of bipolar - being a rapid cycler, most so called professionals/experts called it a disease or mental illness. Then by the grace of God I heard another type of professional/expert call it "chemical imbalance of the brain". What a wonderful day that was. I believe using the words disease and/or mental illness to describe bipolar (manic-depression) is what causes the stigma reaction from people who know nothing whatsoever about bipolar. These words could very well be the reason individuals’ refusal to seek treatment. It was in a support group that I sat in a circle with some 25+ bipolar individuals, with or without a friend or love one showing them love and support. I listened to stories so much like what my love one and I were going through that I had mixed emotions about what I was hearing. I heard a story from a beautiful 12-year-old girl and her parents, about just coming out of the hospital 1-2 days ago after being on a 72-hour suicide watch and what put her there. I heard stories from more than one bipolar individual and/or support person about self-mutilation, self-medicating, loss of friends and families, being incarcerated, sleeping on the street, rummaging in garbage cans for food, and much worse. There are many ideas about cause and effect of bipolar. Yes one is heredity. I have worked through my guilt and have stopped blaming myself for passing on whatever it was that was passed on from my maternal grandfather. My love one was diagnosed at the age of 34. However, looking back now on her very early childhood, the signs were there. They just didn’t manifest into full blown bipolar until a very stressful situation was a rude awakening for her and she admitted herself to a hospital on a 72 hour watch. I had never heard of manic-depression (bipolar). When someone said they sad or blue I never connected it to the word depression. Depression always meant “the great depression”.  One of my recent Internet searches on bipolar led me to this web site http://www.dbsalliance.org/. You might want to check it out. Especially the video with Mike Wallace.

foxyldy 

When I first read this post I was greatly offended. I am a bipolar wife and mother still struggling with the correct medication, although I feel it's working this time. Then I thought, this woman's post is an example of the aftermath this illness leaves in the lives of those who live with or around the bipolar person. This illness does not only greatly effect the person but the people around him/her too. Greatly. I can tell in her post that there is great pain caused by bipolar. She seems to have a bitterness and has lost hope. This is why not only do bipolars need to seek treatment, but the family as well. Family members need therapy and/or support groups to learn about the illness, red flag warnings, what to do in crisis, and to be around others who share their feelings. Successful treatment needs to include the entire family.  

If you read this KRW, some of the beliefs you have are false. There is hope. Bipolar is a very treatable disorder if diagnosed correctly and the patient has a good psychiatrist and therapist to work everything out. I was misdiagnosed for 3 years and on the wrong medication that hurt me more than the disorder did. Now, however, I have my correct diagnosis and am on Lithium and although I can't say I am completely stable, I am a better wife and mother than I ever was and better than some of those I know who are not mentally ill. To answer your question, no bipolar knows how long they will be "better". Everyone is different. Many will go years, many years, of stability then something like menopause will trigger an episode. There is no cure, a bipolar is always a bipolar, but when a situation like this happens usually just a tweak in medication is all that is needed.  

My point is there is hope. There are many other chronic illnesses that are much harder to treat. But its up to your mother and her doctors to make that happen.  

I personally would not want a cure. Yes its hell when untreated, however, I have something unique that many others do not. I truely believe my bipolar is responsible for my creativity and the ADHD is responsible for my intelligence. I have different perspectives than others in my life and can accomplish many things they can only dream about.  

To me being bi-polar is; 

Being trapped within a box, afraid to run out and play in the world, yet yearning to be asked to join in, but ashamed to accept any invitations to enjoy life for fear that I will only self sabotage the event I try to be apart of and only succeed in re-enforcing the negative options others already have about me and my illness ........... 

Bi-polar has sentenced me to a life time of turmoil, chaos, pain & disappointments. 

The best I have managed,  at best a couple of days in a row,  is a calming, a hey life's alright period of time in which you realize what other people get to enjoy and you hold on to the belief that there is hope for everyone, even for me, only to come to reality that it was just the calm before the storm and the world errupts once again, as that, " I new it felt too good to be real feeling "  fades away .............     :o(       and I am left wondering if my entire life is destined til the end of time to this world of unpredictablity ..........     and I quickly decide that it is safer to hide away yet another day safe in your box. 

The box, your mind, your emotions, your home, your world,  you hate it sooo, you want to escape, but no one understands,  no one can keep up, no one knows what you want, how to please you, you don't know what you want, another day goes by, still as lost as yesturday    :o( 

I hide away in my home (my box) most of my days and wish to be like others, I wish to be more like my Husband, God Bless Him, I want to go out and have fun, I want to laugh and play, I want to have friends, and places to go, and things to see, but I am miserable, and moody, and impatient with the world, so it is safer for me to stay inside, where I can concentrate on putting up with myself, as even when I am alone I hate my world, I hate myself, and my life !  

My Prayer for All of US !!!!        A Cure, A Med, A Proceedure to stabilize our minds & emotions. 

May God Bless Everyone. 

Katherine 

I must admit - I don't really know anybody with bi-polar but for some reason I was drawn into the show that day (must confess I'm not a "faithful" watcher)  I was totally blown away towards the end of the show when you showed the tests with the Brain Matters Clinic and what they found out about the guy with bi-polar.  We have been going through a very difficult and frustrating process with our 8 year old daughter over the past four years - she suffered (in my opion) a pretty serious head injury when she was almost 3 years old - we have experienced the extreme highs and lows, major moodswings (at times a total loss of control) with her and have now found over the past few years since she has started school that she has a pretty significant learning disorder diagnosed as an "optical motor dysfunction".  I felt as a parent we were not heard by doctors that there was something wrong - it was passed off as behavior - growing phase -whatever -  and were told if she really had a significant head injury she would have been in a coma, or they would have found something more in the ER -Last year she was finally tested and agreed that something was maybe wrong - we went to the public school and had her tested and they agreed she has a learning disorder.  She is atleast now getting visual therapy, and has had neropsychological testing, and is getting help at school.  The frustration is no one can seem to tell us if this is from TBI - Watching the show and seeing that they were able to tell from the bi-polar guy that he had some kind of head trauma - I'm wondering if they can help us know better what we are dealing with and if this is something we should really be looking into. We had no idead such testing was available!   I am also wondering from going through all  this how many other parents are out there with the same frustrations - just being told that you child has a learning disorder or ADD - we don't really know why and there isn't much we can do for them.  Have you ever considered doing a show on head injury or even learning disorders and brain dysfunction.  I think it would be great as it seems that medical doctors and psycologist don't seem to have much to offer to parents who have no idea how to help or ever begin to understand what their children are up against. Thanks for listening any input and advice would be great.