My neice is Bi Polar 888sally. I would'nt swear to it but there is no magic cure. She take's Cipramil ,an anti depressant and manages fine. Sorry I cant be of more help.
It is a difficult diagnosis, but really there are a lot of illnesses which need constant mediciation (e.g diabetes etc). If you start to view it like that, it might be easier. There really is no reason for anyone to be ashamed of it, it's an illness like any other. Good luck.
There was a programme on recently about it with Stephen Fry where they asked people who suffered from it whether they would rather not have it, and a surprising number said they would keep it. Make sure that you keep in contact with your doc as from what I've heard there are several different types of medicine so you might need to test out a few.
888sally - Hi, get your friend to read up on CBT ( Cognitive behavioural therapy) If you go on the NHS direct website & put in the search bar ' bi - polar ' it will give you some topics on depression & explains the way CBT works. If you go to a good book shop, maybe ' Waterstone's ' there should be books solely on CBT, hope this helps.
I'm a psychiatric nurse and therefore come into contact with a lot of people who suffer from this disorder. Whilst there is no cure, medication plays a big part in keeping people well and "symptom free" as does keeping stress levels to a minimum (as far as possible anyway). Many people with bi polar are able to function extremely well