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Having someone in your life who has bipolar disorder can be hard. Helping to care for the person takes time, patience, and understanding.
At times, you may feel like you’re responsible for making someone well. But you’re not. Your support is just one part of this person’s treatment.
To work well, treatment for bipolar disorder includes several things. They are: Doctor’s care, counseling, education for the individual and family, and, in most cases, medicine.
To help, it’s important that you learn all you can about bipolar disorder. Knowing about the illness and how it is treated helps you give your loved one support in managing bipolar disorder.
How you can help:
- Learn about bipolar disorder, its causes, and its treatment. Talk with a doctor, if possible.
- Learn to recognize the warning signs of mania (extreme highs) and depression (extreme lows). You may notice the symptoms before the patient does. If you notice symptoms, talk with the patient in a caring manner and suggest a visit to a healthcare provider.
- Encourage the patient to stay with treatment. If treatment doesn’t seem to be helping, or if side effects are severe, encourage the patient to talk with his or her doctor. If things still don’t get better, consider suggesting that the patient get a second opinion.
- Work with the patient to help him or her keep doctor’s appointments. Help make a list of the patient’s medicines (include the name of the medicine, how much to take, when to take it, how to take it, and what it treats), the name of his or her doctor and counselor, and phone numbers.
- Help monitor medicine use—it can be dangerous to stop or restart a medicine without a doctor’s advice.
- Use of alcohol and street drugs can make symptoms worse. Help the patient understand the potential consequences.
- lf the patient has a mood episode and feels you are interfering, remember that he or she may not be rejecting you. It could be part of the illness.
- Do things with, rather than for, a person recovering from an episode.
- When your loved one’s mood is stable, agree on a plan to limit damage during mood swings. This plan may include withholding credit cards, car keys, or banking privileges. Be aware that during an episode, the patient may not comply with the agreement.
Bipolar disorder is a chronic, lifelong illness, but with appropriate treatment there is hope. Your support can make a difference.
How much help is too much?
How much help is too much? Am I being protective—or overprotective? Should I pay off credit card debts from a hypomanic spending spree? Which of my actions will help and which will hurt?
These are hard questions, and the answers may be very different from person to person and family to family. Family members or caregivers should stay informed about bipolar disorder. Some people benefit from counseling or support groups. The stress on you can be very great. Find out how others are dealing with similar questions and what might work for you.
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