Bi-Polar Rollercoaster of Love:
My handsome, witty, vibrant,
intelligent, HILARIOUS, sweet, tender-hearted, self-destructive, lazy, oppositionally
defiant, self-loathing, violent, verbally abusive, insecure, fragile 19 year
old nephew is Bi-Polar. Bi-Polar disorder affects every aspect of his life. He
barely graduated from high school and since graduation he has become stagnant.
It is truly heartbreaking. There are beautiful days when he gets up and out and
wants to do things with the family. These are my favorite days by far. There
are days when he gets optimistic about finding employment or registering for
community college. Then there are days on end when he only gets out of bed to
go to the bathroom. If you try and make him get up then he gets aggressive.
Bi-Polar disorder does not take a holiday; there have been Christmases and
Thanksgivings where he wouldn’t utter a word. He goes through phases where he
wants to take his medicine. When he is medicated he does really well and makes
sound decisions....then just when you start to relax... he backslides. He
thinks "the medications make him feel like a robot" so he just stops
taking them. Loving someone with Bi-Polar disorder is really difficult and
frustrating to say the least, but at the same time I cannot even begin to
calculate how much he has enriched my life. I pray every day that he learns to
manage his illness. I hope that he hears me when I tell him that he is amazing
and is capable of living a good life.
My Aunt is bi-polar so I know how difficult it is loving someone who has this mental illness. She, like your nephew, has really great days where she is talkative and plans outings with friends but then turns around and cancels them all and becomes really depressed. She will stay in her house for days on end and obsess over small things like how much the air conditioner costs to run. She loves to talk to me because I know that she wanted nothing more to be a mother of a baby girl, but since her divorce her life has really been at a stand still. I think the main problem with my Aunt is that she does not fully understand her mental illness because my family seems to want to brush it under the rug and pretend like it’s not there. I think coming together as a family and working through the mental illness together to show your support is the best way to handle mental illness.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to think of someone so young with a mental disorder. When I think of mental illness my mind invariably goes to the adult condition. I was not prepared for thinking of a teenager with such a problem. I am glad that he was able to complete high school in such a difficult situaton. Good luck to you all.
ReplyDeleteOh my God, this is so touching. I have never known anyone who was or is bi-polar so this is truly enlightening. It is sad to think of young people with disorders or illnesses in general. He is still at a tender age at 19 years old. I imagine my teenage son suffering from such dramatic mood swings and it gives me chills. I absolutely love how you described/introduced him, it truly encompassed everything he must be. The good news is that there are also many positive traits in him, and he has completed high school, which is a significant accomplishment. Honestly, I always kind of thought that to some extent we were all bi-polar to some extent, but I suppose from a clinical standpoint we would have to display such extremely different behaviors to be diagnosed as having the actual disorder. I pray for your family and for your nephew to continue to grow and better deal with this unfortunate illness. Godspeed.
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