10 Things Not to Do if You or a Loved One is Bipolar

10 Things Not to Do if You or a Loved One is Bipolar February 13, 2020 Bipolar Disorder Overview Symptoms & Diagnosis Causes Treatment Living With In Children Your Rights Peter Dazeley/Getty Images From dealing with doctors and medication to relationships here are 10 things you shouldnt do or fail to do if bipolar is part of your life. 1. Patients: Dont Hide Symptoms from Your Doctor Did you know that it takes an average of nine to 10 years for people to be properly diagnosed with bipolar disorder? There are two big reasons for this. One is that ?doctors miss the diagnosis all too frequently, even when hypomanic symptoms are brought to their attention. The other is ?the  failure of patients to report symptoms. More often than not, it is depression symptoms that send people to see a psychiatrist or other therapist. You may have viewed past hypomanic symptoms as just not depressed, feeling like a normal person or feeling good. If you respond to antidepressant therapy, you may think, Wow, its working and not recognize that youve gone into a hypomanic state (the severity of mania makes it much more likely to be recognized). But if you dont relate your behaviors to your doctor when youre feeling good, he or she may not realize youve gone too far in the opposite direction from depression until the symptoms escalate into serious problems. 2. Patients: Dont Let Your Doctor Skip Physical Tests There are physical illnesses whose symptoms can overlap with those of bipolar disorder and complicate its diagnosis. They include lupus, epilepsy, and Lyme disease, among others. 3. Patients: Dont Stop Taking Your Medications on Your Own Unless youre having a severe side effect, you should never discontinue medications without your doctors supervision. Abruptly stopping some medications can cause serious side effects, too. For example, the reaction many people experience when they discontinue certain antidepressants is so unpleasant it even has a name: SSRI discontinuation syndrome. If you want to stop taking one or more of your medications, talk to your doctor first. 4. Patients: Dont Keep Toxic People in Your Life You know who they areâ€"the people who hurt your feelings constantly, the ones who drain your energy, the ones who attack you again and again. Depending on the relationship, it can be relatively easy to very difficult to actually remove a toxic person from your life. But its essential that you do something about it. 5. Patients: Stop Damaging Your Body There are some dangers inherent in bipolar disorder that make it more likely youll do harmful things to yourself or be intimidated into letting medical personnel give you inadequate or even improper treatment. Its up to you to take action about these issues. Understand why they happen and what you need to do, with insights from others to help you. 6. Patients: Dont Meddle with Your Medications Suppose youve been prescribed 150 milligrams of medication X, 30 milligrams of medication Y and 50 to 75 milligrams of medication Z per day. That means your doctor has given you permission to take from two to three 25-milligram tablets of drug Z in a day depending on your judgment. But you dont think thats enough, so you start taking 100 milligrams of drug Z or 60 milligrams of drug Y. Almost immediately you start having side effects, have a mood change or another problem occurs. Think thats far-fetched? Think again. 7. Parents: Dont Refuse to Think About Giving Your Bipolar Child Medications Its understandable that a parent may be uneasy about giving a bipolar child the types of strong medications that are needed to guide that child toward stability. Certainly, there are risks involved with these drugs, as there are with all prescription drugs. But remember that your child is suffering, and there are few other options to help him or her. 8. Parents: Dont Miss Out on Opportunities to Help Your Child at School Children with bipolar disorder often need special assistance at school. They can have trouble focusing, have anger issues and be easily tormented by other children. Also, its quite common for a bipolar child to have co-morbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to take medications at school. You need to know your childs rights and implement the available programs. 9. Loved Ones and Friends: Dont Challenge the Diagnosis or Dismiss the Treatment People with bipolar disorder often have friends or family members that refuse to accept their diagnosis or refuse to learn anything about bipolar illness. Common responses include: Oh, youre just trying to get attention; Snap out of it, get a job and quit whining; If you only (prayed more, tried harder, ate more vegetables, etc.) youd be fine; or simply, I dont believe it, ending the conversation. Bipolar disorder is a serious illness that can disrupt every phase of life and even cause death. It can be disabling. Dont refuse to listen and learn. 10. Family Members: Dont Destroy Yourself for a Loved Ones Bipolar Disorder This is an exceedingly difficult issue. When do your needs outweigh the needs of your bipolar spouse, parent or grown child? Only you can decide, but if the time comes when you need to make the decision, do whatever is necessary to take the best care of yourself.