It's sad my daughter stopped taking her bipolar medications and became very sick. Panic attacks and worry and depression.. I had hoped she would not stop taking them.. My son takes his every morning he is 15 and she is 19 and she can be very defiant.. I was very sad when the bipolar diagnosis came in for both of them at different times for different reasons mostly depression. I too am a 13 or so year diagnosed Bipolar and before that it was diagnosis of anxiety or panic disorder.. Although I seem to be stable now it has not always been easy.. My grandfather spent some time in a mental hospital after his young son died.. I think about 2 years.. He was never really right or took medications every Spring he would act up his son my uncle is a diagnosed bipolar and he didn't get that diagnosis until a few years ago and he is almost 80 years old.. That's my grandfathers son.. Also have some cousins with it.. So it came right down the line my brother also has it but my sister doesn't.. I was hoping it would stop with me but it didn't my children are sick with it too.. Although it is a lifelong disease it is treatable with therapy and medications.. When I use the word diagnosis I'm talking about a psychiatrists decision on the mental disorder or as I think of it as a disease..For me when I'm depressed my whole body hurts.. When I'm up I feel like I can do anything.. With the anxiety my heart beats too fast and I panic and sweat and get dehydrated and sometimes become delusional but never violent..I do feel guilty that my children have it and have been told they probably just think they do because I talked about it so much but that simply isn't true... If you were to ask me would I have had children if I knew I was bipolar at the time and would pass it down to them.. I would say absolutely they are worth every bit of it.. My hope is that through science and knowledge the medications will get better and maybe that can do a simple blood test one day to find out if that's what you have.. although it is merely a chemical imbalance in our brain that makes our bodies not just our moods do the strangest things..Oh well, that's all for now more later..
Thanks for reading..
Mary
