anyone here know about bi-polar?

orbison11

greetings all

i just learned that one of my children has bi-polar illness,,,i am so disheartened for him,,,,do any here know about this

thanks

wendy

darkuncle29

I've been diagnosed as being uni-polar, I have the lows but not the highs. And dysthymia (spelling???).

Anyway, how old is your kid? Coming from my history of once being severly overmedicated by Dr. I'm now very anti meds-for me. I am not anti meds for other people as that's their choice. I think that modern medicine likes to throw around labels and try to fix things with pills, but I also totally acept that there are people with real problems. Where on that line your son is, is for you and him to figure out. My recomendation would be to keep researching and seeking solutions, as any one problem or answer is likely not the only one.

With Bi-polar, if you do treat with meds, I think that that treatment can be even more successfull combined with therapy. Some people have found some relief with meditation, but that is not a single solution.

Does your child have other issues or diagnoses that compound or cloud the situation?

Alot of people are going to flat out disagree with me, and that is their choice, I just believe that there are more than one answer that can be valid.

Best of wishes.

orbison11

thank u

my son is 29,,i always thought he had a bit of autism,,,funcitons to the point of working, having to raise 2 children,,but is way off the wall

does/did pot, drink,,but prob to ease the symptoms,,i dont know,,,i need to do major research,,,,other than just curiosity as to others issues,,

wendy

nomoreguilt

Hello orb, I also have a son, 27, with bi-polar disorder. When he is on his meds he does fine. There is a fine line between drs. and common sense. I feel very deeply for you. The lows can be very upsetting for those of us who love these people. As mentioned here prior, do the research, educate yourslef in alll aspects of the disorder, then deal with it accordingly. There isn't much that we ourselves can do for our loved ones so afflicted. All we can do is try to understand them , but bi-polar is a verrrrrrry deep seated illness. Some of it is chemicals in the brain other contributing factors are life impacting events earlier in life. Take care dear, but please do the research for youself.

I remain and have..........nomoreguilt

jgnat

My mom is bi-polar. Before she was diagnosed, she was off her tree with manic energy. Before hospitals got good at treating this sort of thing, she was given a dozen shock treatments and tranquillized to a zombie state. Once she was diagnosed and given the right medication, the transformation was remarkable. I got my mom back (mostly).

If your child is going to have a mental illness, bi-polar is the one to have. It's the easiest to treat, and the recovery dramatic. See what happens to him on the medication. He should experience nearly immediate relief from the ups and downs.

The toughest thing for people with this disease to do is to stay on the medication. They remember the euphoric state they were in when they were "high" and typically gloss over all the chaos they caused. Also, when they go off the meds, they temporarily feel much better!

A bi-polar person without medication is like a diabetic without insulin. The bi-polar's highs and lows become wildly uncontrollable, and their synapses fire at an amazing rate. They can be briefly brilliant before the manic energy sends them in to a frenzy.

You can imagine what happens once all the serotonin is used up and the synapses burnt. The person goes in to a deep depression, barely responding to her environment.

Until the next high.

jgnat

Oh, and I should mention. Bi-polars can and do go on to have long and productive lives. My mother, diagnosed in her forties, is still going strong in her sixties. She recently underwent a kidney transplant (unrelated to her mental illness).

orbison11

thank u all for your input,,

could this be genetic? could i have some form of it that i passed on?

wendy

jgnat

There is a genetic link, but not to say you have it. It could come from a grandparent; that's how genetics usually goes. In my family, my maternal grandmother was bi-polar, my mother is bi-polar, my first husband and my son, schizophrenic.

But I'm fine.

I wrapped my head around it from a Time magazine article about an inherited eye disorder. The way the article described it, most people had two "guardians" against the disease. Parents who were carriers, had only one "guardian". If both parents only had one "guardian", they had a one in four chance of having a child with the disease and no "guardian". People with only one "guardian" were susceptible to the disease but they may never catch it.

The same with bi-polar, I figure. Some people are more susceptible but not everyone will get it. The ones who do simply have fewer defenses against it. And a small unfortunate few will definitely have the disease.

nomoreguilt

Good question. I don't know of any thters in my family with it, now or in the past. However, I do have some strange family members. I think my mother and I were the only sane ones in the bunch. maybe some of them aren't admitting to it??

marmot

I'm bipolar II which is bipolar disorder without the extreme highs of mania, but less intense hypomania instead.

Medication made a world of difference for me, although I still have relapses. There's a lot you can do towards regulating the disease by using regular sleep patterns coupled with TOTAL darkness during the sleep period. This means no electronic lights like clock radios or even diffuse light coming through a window blind. Proper diet and avoidance of street drugs and alcohol also plays a major role. Alcohol can tip me into a low that won't let up for weeks.

Doctors think that bipolar disorder is just the brain's inability to regulate stress hormones and neurotransmitters, so a sad or happy event that will normally trigger a temporary response in a normal brain will just keep on amplifying in a bipolar brain and lead to either depression or mania.

anyone here know about bi-polar?

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