Posted by PM80 on May 11, 2005, at 15:27:48
In reply to Help please......, posted by mikeyjoe on May 11, 2005, at 11:35:14
I have a few thoughts that might make you a little less afraid of all of this.
First, some perspective: your wife did not just come down with a case of the bipolars. She has had this the entire time that you've known her. The only difference is that now it has been labeled and identified. Which is actually a really good thing because now it can be treated.
Second, medication is supposed to make things BETTER, not worse. If she is prescribed something whose side effects are worse than the symptoms that are being treated, then she should try something different. There are many different kinds/classes of mood-stabilizers out there. It can be a bit of a trial-and-error process whenever psychiatric drugs are used. Keeping a mood chart when starting a pdrug can be quite helpful to monitor its effectiveness. ALso, a lot of pdrugs are prescibed for off-label uses and work quite well so keep an open mind if your doc prescribes something off-label.
Therapy can be very beneficial to someone dx'ed with BP and their spouse. So it's something to consider.
Yes, there is such a thing as a mild case, so you are may beright about this since you have been around to objectively watch her behavior.
A good website with info is www.bipolarworld.net.
poster:PM80
thread:496399
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050503/msgs/496495.html