Does anyone have any experience of Bi Polar people?

[Lily_Lilbert]

I have a friend who is bi polar. She has a habit of writing the same thing over and over and seems quite self involved. We communicate daily by email but they always say the same thing, sometimes word for word and are all about her. If I say I went to the doctors today and so and so happened she will totally ignore what Ive said and say the same thing shes been saying for years now, mainly about her and what people have done to her. Are bi polars self involved or is it just her personality?

[bernie822]

I have a lot of experience of a bi-polar person and this sounds right.

[TonyV]

Have been in contact with people with bi polar - but none with symptons you say she is displaying - how old is she. Mental health is a difficult issue and to diagnose a particular "pigeon hole" to describe somones condition can be difficult sometimes.

[ljdksa]

I work with a few people that are bi-polar. Most of them are quite unaware of how their behaviour affects others. None of them repeat things and they all ask how I am and seem interested, so maybe symptoms vary a lot between people.

[LDC134]

I have a bi-polar friend - she is very caring and thoughtful to other people but she does hanker back to the same old thing, repeats herself and doesn't seem to 'move forward' with her life. To be honest I have never been sure that bi-polar was the right diagnosis.

[Lily_Lilbert]

LDC thats exactly what she does,Ive tried telling her we've been over this topic/issue and done it to death but she still continues

[wolf63]

I'm bipolar and it is a strange ailment - it affects everybody differently.

Before I was put on Lithium to stabilise my mood (1997) I would have a short period of being manic (for me this was a fun period - for others not so much), then I would be clinically depressed for about a year, this was followed by about a year of good mental health. And the cycle started again.

It is difficult to know whether your friend's character traits are due to the illness. With my medication my moods still bounce all over the place, but generally I am living in a little world of my own - my ability to remember things and concentrate for any length of time cause problems. I can write sensible sentences but holding a conversation with me is hard and I bounce from subject to subject.

Some times when I am depressed I get all wrapped up in how ill I am feeling and this could be how your friend is. She sounds like she has much going round and round in her head and she possibly doesn't even recognise that you are saying something.

You can be there for her as a friend - but if she is stressing you out cut back on the contact with her. She surely has family and a support network that will help her - but many don't and many don't take their drugs.

Susan

[askyourgran]

It's a very strange illness to me, and a relatively new one. It seems to be something that has just (fortunately) been recognised by the medical profession. Probably lumped together with another illness before now. Wolf's description of her symptoms is interesting in that she can describe them and know what is happening to her.

[wolf63]

It's previous illness was manic depression.

I am relatively well just now - after about 2 years of total awfullness (new word). I actually think that I would be much better without the medication they make me take.

[anneasquith]

very brave post wolf, thanks for giving so much information.................do you think you would stay stable without medication ?

[DTCwordfan]

It is unbelievably complex and though there are commom symptoms between folk, there are differences. I have a very close friend who also suffers "normal" depression on top....just to add some cream to the mental cake.

She has been sectioned 6 times, once in France.......I have witnessed it but once and it was not very funny. She has been on lithium too, but if you lose 'control' its like an earthquake going off - the chock and then the major tremors; you can't just bring it back into the normal emotional tunnel.

K is a very caring person overtly, and a very good friend; she knows all about me and I her...things only very, very good friends share, - her sex like, mine (and remember this is female to male)....however, when she 'ascends' (which in many ways is even worse) or 'descends' out of the normal 'tunnel' that we exist in emotionally, then all hell breaks loose. It is very frightening how the dark side of the brain can take over and the way it works in scenarios based on some semblance of reality......but completely turned through 270 degrees and then turned again to come up with the most perverted (not necessarily sexual but sometimes) scenarios....

K's husband has been a complete saint - the patience needed when your mother is accused of knocking off an Indian boatman......just one 'very small' example.

It is very frightening for the uninitiated - you have to realise that this is not your friend or relative that is talking, it is a very dark spirit......they will lose friends and relatives as some of the vitriol is so aggressive and invasive........it takes courage to stick with the,.

Yes, there is a gradation of selfishness, but if she is suffering you need to take/search out necessary professional help be it her family, her managers, whoever......you are her friend - stick with her. They need help - but you need a lot of balls to be able to do it and rationalise some of the 'hatred'

[DTCwordfan]

that might come your way......the perosnality is seriously very different ot when they are 'compis mentis' and you will need tremendous resilience and patience too.....it is not pretty but if they are tru freinds, you will all win in the long term.

And it ain't likely a one off sequence of events....sorry, I know that is not good news. But then neither is the subject of bi-polarism.

[society]

"Does anyone have any experience of Bi Polar people?"

I think we've all met someone at one time or another...

[wolf63]

DT - your friend sounds like she has some roller-coaster journey for a life.

I know that I am lucky - my depressions are deep and awful but the manic episodes can be the most destructive. My manic episodes seem to get to a certain point and then I run out of steam. I had massive debts at one stage due to spending when I was manic. My hallucinations were never really scary - I was in much too happy a mood to be scared. ;-)

I had to give up working about 7 years ago - I must have been he11 to work with. I was paranoid and obsessive and did very little work - my job was calculating overpaid benefits for DWP - and I had/have a very short attention span.

anne - I am scared to try life without medication, the Lithium may be deadly and toxic but I think that it helps. I just wish that I didn't get so confused all the time. The internet is great because I can just take things at my speed.

society - it is an illness which just seems to bring out the extremes of normal human behaviour. You are right in that we are everywhere - I think 1% of the population have it.

If I was asthmatic (my cat is) I would be open about the illness and try to help people understand it and cope with it, mental health problems should be the same. We have all been there in one way or another - we need to lift the stigma.

My brother said "In every family there is a crazy relative - in this family it just happens to be you".

I'm off to raid the fridge.

[joko]

has she been diagnosed? or has she declared this herself?

i know a few people who claim this as a way to excuse themselves and also others who use it almost as an insult

[anneasquith]

joko. hows your chest ? excuse me lily.

[joko]

hi, not great, but i think it might be getting a bit better, so i thought id wait a couple of days before going back to the doc, just in case its just lingering and will clear up
thanks for asking.

[SizzleSquid]

no its just her personalty. bi polar isnt an ilness like schizophrenia, eastenders got it all wrong, do some online research
ipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) causes serious shifts in mood, energy, thinking, and behavior–from the highs of mania on one extreme, to the lows of depression on the other. More than just a fleeting good or bad mood, the cycles of bipolar disorder last for days, weeks, or months. And unlike ordinary mood swings, the mood changes of bipolar disorder are so intense that they interfere with your ability to function.

During a manic episode, a person might impulsively quit a job, charge up huge amounts on credit cards, or feel rested after sleeping two hours. During a depressive episode, the same person might be too tired to get out of bed and full of self-loathing and hopelessness over being unemployed and in debt. many 'normal' people are like ur friend