How Family and Friends of Those with Bipolar Disorder Can Help Themselves
Rashmi Nemade, Ph.D. & Mark Dombeck, Ph.D., edited by Kathryn Patricelli, MABipolar Disorder is a condition that affects the entire family - mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, husbands and wives, and children.
In cases of children with bipolar disorder, siblings may feel jealous of their affected sibling getting all the attention and focus. This can create an unpleasant and exhausting home life in which parents are always acting as referees to stop arguing.
Spouses and partners have to handle responsibilities for the person with bipolar disorder during times when they are most ill. Jobs may be lost and the family deprived of an important source of income. Insurances may be difficult to obtain. Normal child care routines may become severely disrupted, throwing the family into crisis. Family instability can lead to stressful holidays and family gatherings. Severe depression resulting in bipolar suicide impacts everyone related to the suicidal patient.
Family members can do only so much to prevent those with bipolar disorder from entering into dangerous mood episodes. Beyond doing all they can to support the person, family members may also need to insulate themselves as best they can from the extremes of behavior that they may have to endure. There are several ways that this strategy of insulation can occur:
- Family members can educate themselves as to the nature of bipolar symptoms so that the various behaviors that may occur will not surprise them.
- Family members may participate in bipolar support groups or family therapy situations where they can talk about and process their experiences.
- The family may find it useful to develop an ongoing relationship with a family therapist who can provide advice and crisis management services
- Patients' direct access to family finances can be limited, or protections can be put into place requiring additional signatures for any substantial purchases.
- Regular testing for sexually transmitted disease can occur for both the person with bipolar disorder and spouses/partners when sexual promiscuity is involved. Similarly, long acting birth control can be used to reduce the risk of unwanted pregnancy (in women).
Taking these and similar steps can help family members to survive a loved one's severe bipolar symptoms.
Bipolar Disorder Suicide
Bipolar Disorder Reading List
Resources
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Articles
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Introduction to Bipolar Disorder
- Introduction to Bipolar Disorder and Mood Disorders
- Energy States: Mania and Manic Episodes
- Hypomania and Hypomanic Episodes Defined
- Bipolar Disorder - Major Depressive Episodes and Mixed Features
- Recognized Types of Bipolar Disorder
- Bipolar Disorder Versus Other Conditions
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Current Understandings of the Causes of Bipolar Disorder
- Prevalence and Course of Bipolar Disorder
- Contemporary Understanding of Bipolar Disorder: Causes and Outcomes
- Bipolar Causes: Diathesis-Stress Hypothesis
- Bipolar Causes: Genetics
- Neurochemistry and Endocrinology in Bipolar Disorder
- Immunology and Bipolar Disorder
- Body Rhythms and Bipolar Disorder
- Brain Imaging and Bipolar Disorder
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Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder
- Bipolar I Disorder
- Specifiers for Bipolar and Related Disorders
- Bipolar II Disorder and Cyclothymia
- Other Forms of Bipolar Disorder
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Medication Treatments for Bipolar Disorder
- Bipolar Medication Treatment
- Bipolar Disorder Treatment - Lithium
- Bipolar Disorder Treatment - Valproate and Carbamazepine
- Bipolar Disorder Treatment - Lamotrigine and Calcium Channel Blockers
- Bipolar Disorder Treatment - Antipsychotic Medications and Omega-3 fatty acids
- Bipolar Disorder Treatment - Antidepressant Medications
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Psychotherapy and Other Treatments
- Bipolar Disorder Treatment - Hospitalization and Electroconvulsive Therapy
- Bipolar Disorder Treatment - Psychotherapy
- Bipolar Disorder Treatment - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Bipolar Disorder Treatment - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Continued
- Bipolar Disorder Treatment - Family Focused Therapy and Interpersonal/Social Rhythm Therapy
- Self-Help and Helping Others
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References and Reading List
- Bipolar Disorder Reading List
- Bipolar Disorder References
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Introduction to Bipolar Disorder
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Questions and Answers
- Does This Sound Like Bipolar?
- Do I Have Adult ADD?
- Why do I Have These Mood Swings?
- Bipolar
- Soon to be 15 Year Old Step Daughter Who is Physically Abusive to Family Members
- I Can't control my Mind Anymore, do I Need to Leave?
- Bipolar Medications That do not Cause Sexual Dysfunction
- Bipolar or Depressed or Neither?
- How Can I Help my Fiancé?
- Depression
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- What's the Best Option?
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- Bipolar Obsessive Thoughts and False Memories
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- Is There Something Wrong With Me?
- Bipolar Girlfriend 55 Years Old
- Am I Always Going to Feel Like This?
- Bipolar Teen Son, ........
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- I Just Feel So Depressed
- Helping and Watching a Friend's Recurrent Depression?
- Boyfriends Daughter
- Intrusive Thoughts!?
- Serious Manic Episode Plus Alcohol
- Diagnosis Second Opinion
- Paranoid Thoughts
- Bipolar Disorder and ADHD
- Will He Hit Me Eventually?
- I Really Need Some Advice...
- Bipolar Boyfriend
- Relationship With My Bipolar and ADHD Girlfriend
- Delusions and False Memories
- Anger Driven Down Wrong Road
- I Don't Know What To Do
- New Diagnosis...My Doc Says I Am Not Bipolar. Should I Go Back to My Medication?
- Bipolar Woman with Secret Lives
- Dealing with Bipolar Dsorder
- Is This Bi Polar?
- A Mom In Need of Help
- Im so confused...is is BPD or Bipolar?
- Not Normal
- Anger and Irritability in my husband's behaviour
- I am bulimic for more than 10 years, and it is killing me...
- Can I survive without all these horrible meds?
- Where can I get the energy
- Bipolar sister, Narcissist boyfriend
- Should I Give Up On This Marriage?
- Is she mentally ill and is there anything i can do?
- Bipolar and children
- Will I be ok without professional help?
- Pregnant with bipolar
- Is it ok to feel this way?
- abuse toward bi-polars
- Loyalty or Love?
- Possible borderline?
- Dealing with a family member's complete personality change
- What type of exams can proven that a person has bipolar disorder?
- Am I bipolar?
- Bi-polar with PTSD
- Yoga help Bipolar
- Is Bipolar Inheritable?
- Physically Abusive Mentally Ill Son
- An Empty Shell
- Sarcastic And Wanting To Change
- Out Of Control Friend
- Bipolar Parenting
- Odd Eating Disorder
- Can ADHD Turn Into Bipolar?
- Is Bipolar Inheritable?
- Single, Stressed And Guilty
- Bipolar and Drinking...
- Marital Crisis
- Do I Still Need Therapy If I'm Medicated?
- Hope For An Alcoholic Manic-Depressive
- Are Bipolars Abusive?
- Parttime Bipolar Girlfriend
- How Can I Help My Bipolar Wife?
- Marijuana?
- Possible Klonopin Addiction
- Bipolar Wife
- A Test For Bipolar Disorder?
- Did I Cause My Daughter's Depression?
- How Can I Help My Alcoholic Unmedicated Bipolar Girlfriend?
- Treatment is Too Much Trouble
- Bipolar Illness
- HMO Blues
- Problem Child
- Helping Someone with Bipolar Disorder
- Cyclical Moods
- Depression and Friendship
- How Can I Help My Friend?
- What To Treat First?
- Bipolar Chat Rooms?
- Bipolar or Just Moody?
- Alone and Bipolar
- Merlin writes:
- Suzanne writes:
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Tests
- Goldberg Mania Questionnaire
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Book & Media Reviews
- A Tragic Kind of Wonderful
- Active Treatment of Depression
- Adult Bipolar Disorders
- Agents in My Brain
- American Mania
- An Unquiet Mind
- Bipolar Disorder
- Bipolar Disorder Demystified
- Bipolar Disorder in Childhood and Early Adolescence
- Bipolar Disorders
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48 more
- Bipolar Kids
- Bipolar, Not So Much
- Crazy
- Daughter of the Queen of Sheba
- Depression Is a Choice
- Detour
- Electroboy
- Essential Psychopharmacology of Depression and Bipolar Disorder
- Fast Girl
- Hurry Down Sunshine
- I am Not Sick I Don't Need Help!
- Lab Girl
- Lithium for Medea
- Living with Bipolar Disorder
- Long Shot
- Loving Someone With Bipolar Disorder
- Madness
- Manic
- Manic Depression
- Manic Minds
- Mommy I'm Still in Here
- Mood Genes
- New Hope for Children and Teens with Bipolar Disorder
- New Hope For People With Bipolar Disorder
- Night Falls Fast
- Overcoming Depression
- Perfect Chaos
- RX
- Scattershot
- Surviving Manic Depression
- Swing Low
- The Best Awful
- The Bipolar Child
- The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide
- The Devil and Daniel Johnston
- The Hypomanic Edge
- The Mother of Black Hollywood
- The Naked Bird Watcher
- The Noonday Demon
- The Pits and the Pendulum
- The Years of Silence are Past
- To Walk on Eggshells
- Toxic Psychiatry
- Undoing Depression
- What Goes Up
- What Works for Bipolar Kids
- When Someone You Love Is Bipolar
- Zelda
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Links
- [2] Associations
- [3] Community
- [19] Information
- [1] Assessment
- [28] Videos
- [1] Blogs
- [5] Apps
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Videos
- Bipolar Disorder Video
- Overcoming Depression
- How to Talk About Bipolar Disorder with Anyone
- How to get stuff done when you are depressed
- Tell Me About Depression
- Depression: More Than Just the Blues
- Can people with depression harm themselves?
- Treatment of Bipolar Disorder
- Childhood Bipolar Disorder
- Understanding Bipolar Disorder in Children
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18 more
- Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment of Depression
- Getting Help for Family Members of Bipolar Patients Video
- Tell Me About Bipolar Disorder
- Individualized Depression Treatment
- Bipolar Disorder
- Optimizing Lithium Treatment
- Treating Youth with Bipolar Disorder
- Laura Bain - Living with Bipolar Type II
- Feeling, thinking, and creativity in bipolar disorder
- The Mindful Way Through Depression
- Depressive and Bipolar Disorders
- #StrongerThanStigma - Michael Angelakos: My Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis
- It’s Bipolar Disorder Not Depression
- 5 Types of Bipolar Disorder
- What is bipolar disorder?
- Bipolar Mom Struggles With The Daily Routine
- Living Bipolar
- What is Depression?
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More Information
- An Interview with Meg Hutchinson on Music and living with Bipolar Disorder
- Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Lorna Hyde Graev on Living With Bipolar Disorder
- Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Yulonda Brown on Surviving Abuse and Bipolar
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