Bipolar disorder

[Victor3]

 I know a guy who's Wife has this. What an awful thing to have to suffer (for both of them). They've been together for 20+ years.

 She'll be fine and dandy for a time then go into a deep depression for months and hardly get out of bed. She's been hospitalized, suicidal and lost touch with reality here and there throughout their marriage.

 Other times she's spent their life savings in a short time (and maxed out credit cards when the bank accounts ran out), taken off in their car and driven hundreds of miles away with their kids when they were babies/toddlers, told friends her Husband was abusing her and the kids (he wasn't), run up thousands of dollars in medical bills for things that turned out to be nothing, and on and on and on.

 When she's depressed, he's had to take months off of work to stay with her and care for the kids. When she's on the high end, he has to take more time off to make sure she doesn't decide to take the kids skydiving. She's zonked out on heavy medication when she's depressed. She doesn't think anything's wrong with her when she's manic (everyone else is crazy, but not her) and doesn't take her medication.

 And then there are months or even years when she's stable. Drives her husband nuts, just waiting for the next time things go south again.

 What a roller coaster ride. I've recently read that 90% of marriages where one spouse has bipolar disorder end in divorce. I can't imagine why!

 Anybody else know someone who has this lovely disorder?

[bobg]

 I have a grand daughter with bipolar disorder. You have no idea what she is going to do or say from one day to the next. I haven't seen or talked to her in three years and that is just the way i want it to stay.

[magooch]

Shoot, I just thought that's the way women are.

[BBF]

It appears I have a grand child with this who recently went nuts after smoking some laced pot to get fired up.

[MGMorden]

It appears I have a grand child with this who recently went nuts after smoking some laced pot to get fired up.

Must have been what it was laced with.  Pot has some serious effects, but "fired up" generally isn't in the vocabulary of anyone smoking pot. 

As to bipolar disorder though, my dad suffers from it.  Mostly just incredibly intense mood swings.  He's fine for some days, and then all of a sudden he's pissed at the world - the tiniest things set him off as if they were grave injustices (example: my mom might have the stove a little too high - boiling water - so he'll pitch a fit and either declare that he's not eating anything she cooked that night or if he's already got a plate, he'll throw the plate out the door on the ground - not sure where he picked up thinking that was some major insult).

It does strain their marriage a good bit, but so far they're still together (around 35 years now).  I'm over there at least once every other week just to calm down an argument though. 

[Blackhawker]

Hate to say it but it's a bunch of crap!

OK, yes, there are a few actual isolated cases here and there but most parents put this upon their kids.  I'm not saying "ALL" cases but in MOST cases when a parent can't figure out what's wrong with their kid and they don't seem to have any control over their kid, it's sort of a "get you off the hook" ticket when a doctor tells a parent that the kid has bipolar disorder and he or she needs meds to fix the problem.  90% of the time, the meds have placebo effect and the parent is happy because it gets them off the hook for doing a s****t job of raising or just basically handling their kid.  Once the kid sees that his or her parent accepts it, the kid then uses it as a vice on their parent and the kid ends up running the house.  The big problem begins when the kid grows up and has to actually accept and take responsibility for his or her own life, not to mention to begin to have real relationships in his or her life.  Basically, they're doomed and if they have kids, guess what happens??  His or her kid just carries on the family line of work!

[MGMorden]

I don't think bipolar disorder is that often diagnosed in childhood.  Lots of ADHD diagnosis (which may be what you're thinking of), but the vast majority of the bipolar diagnosis I see are adults.

I will agree though that a lot of the ADHD diagnosis are questionable.  Particularly with a study I saw recently that showed a much higher rate of diagnosis amongst the younger half of any given class.  When you're in kindergarten or the first few grades, that 1 year possible spread in ages within the class can make a huge difference in maturity, and sometimes people mistake the actions of the child that is simply a bit younger than his or her peers as being out of the ordinary, when in reality they're not really that bad.

[Blackhawker]

I don't think bipolar disorder is that often diagnosed in childhood.  Lots of ADHD diagnosis (which may be what you're thinking of), but the vast majority of the bipolar diagnosis I see are adults.

I will agree though that a lot of the ADHD diagnosis are questionable.  Particularly with a study I saw recently that showed a much higher rate of diagnosis amongst the younger half of any given class.  When you're in kindergarten or the first few grades, that 1 year possible spread in ages within the class can make a huge difference in maturity, and sometimes people mistake the actions of the child that is simply a bit younger than his or her peers as being out of the ordinary, when in reality they're not really that bad.

CORRECTION:  You are right, I'm thinking of ADHD.  Sorry about that!

HOWEVER, I have a relative that has been diagnosed with bipolarism.  He has supposed blackouts, runs off to a few states away and tells his mom and dad that he had no idea how he got there.  YEAH, RIGHT!!  He's been to doctors of all types and his parents are convinced that meds will help him.  Well, it's been at least seven years and I haven't seen one bit of help.  What I have seen is that he is taking FULL advantage of the supposed "illness" and has basically ruled his parent's household.  At this point, he is near his mid 20's, he cannot hold a job and lives under his parent's wing as if he was 12 years old.  Personally, that's what should have happened when he was 10 or 12 and perhaps he wouldn't be like this today....if you see where I'm going. 

If you ask me, people use these medical and psychiatric analyses and terms as things to hide behind because they are too afraid of looking at themselves in the mirror and visualizing and admitting to themselves of their shortcomings.  This goes for parents as well as the "patients".  What they really need is to get their heads screwed on right via a constructive means.....religion, faith, stay off the cell phone with friends and come back to family, or a good therapist...however they do it, they just need to admit that they have a problem and try to get themselves fixed. 
Again, yes, there are some few isolated cases of true bipolarism but I think there has been a bandwagon effect over the past 20 years for the people who are afraid of themselves and they use these "illnesses" as places to hide.