BP Type II

Detecting BP in kids

I was asked if I had noticed any BP tendencies in my two sons (ages 3 and 1).  I haven't, and I am feeling good about their chances of not having to deal with this crap at all.  According to New Hope for Bipolar the chances of BP being passed from BP parent to child are actually much smaller than I thought.

First, and foremost, if you see any behavior that is out of the ordinary with your kids, get a professional evaluation.  BP is tricky and the earlier it's found the better chance they have of dealing with it.

If one parent is BP there is a 7% chance the child will be BP and an 11% of suffering from depression.  Adding up to an 18% chance of any kind of depressive disorder.  It was of some comfort to me to find out that they have a good chance of not getting this to deal with.  However, even if they do get it, they will have me as a resource on how to deal with the illness, I wish I had had something like that.

How To Cope And Deal With Your Loved One's Bipolar Disorder

Link: How To Cope And Deal With Your Loved One's Bipolar Disorder.

This is a course on how to live with BP. Curious if anyone has tried or if anyone has thoughts on the same. It costs $60, and I am curiuos if its really worth it or not. I guess I know I'm not manic, because I didn't sign up for it right off the bat. Let me stress, I am NOTrecommending this, I know nothing about it. I am curious if anyone has tried it or something similar.

Bipolar Disorder - manic depressive illness from diagnosis to medications

Link: Bipolar Disorder - manic depressive illness from diagnosis to medications.

Interesting BP community on the web, I am playing around looking at what they have to offer. Also they have a published chat schedule here:

Link: Bipolar Disorder Chat Calendar.

Watch yourself

This is a message to all BP's out there.  Monitor yourself closely.  Look at how you are feeling.  The moment when you want to be alone, when you don't want anyone around, that's the moment you have to run to your family, friends, docs, therapists or whoever. 

I have realized that I almost always have a prelude to my cycles.  I take steps to isolate myself, I spend more and more time alone, or more time withdrawn from others around me. 

The BP Diet

Well, here's the summary of my readings on the dietary concerns:

First and foremost eat a generally healthy diet and eat reasonable amounts, this avoids blood sugar spikes and lows, it also helps you avoid the natural depression that comes with being unhealthy and/or overweight.

Now the specifics.

Avoid processed sugar and caffeine. Both of them cause energy spikes and lows. These highs and lows can cause mini-cycles which can lead to bigger ones.

Avoid white flour when possible. Highly processed and refined flour is easily converted to sugar by the body (almost everything you eat is converted to one type of sugar or the other, but white flour is converted at a high rate). This process can cause the same types of highes and lows discussed above.

Finally, what to eat. Get your RDA of fruits and vegetables, that means at least 7 servings a day. It doesn't take long to get used to this, but the expense can get to you. Fresh fruits and vegies aren't cheap.

Diet

I had some requests for more info on the optimal BP diet. I am going to go through my books and hope to have something up on it by this weekend. Just remember a few things before you follow my advice:

1. I am not a doctor
2. I am not a nutritionist
3. I am not qualified to set up diets for anyone &
4. I am a diagnosed crazy person

With that in mind, if you still want to follow my advice on diets feel free. I'll have it up sometime this week.

Fail Safe Systems

I wanted to pass along an additional thought I had regarding controlling BP. It's a concept used in designing aircraft: system redundancy. Basically, have back ups for everything. With depression comes the risk of doing nothing; with mania comes the risk of doing stupid, cruel, dangerous or harmful things in a spectacular way. In order to deal with this you have to do two things. First, find the meds that work for you, work with a psych and therapist and get yourself on an even keel. Once that step is done you can start planning your back ups.

Basically, I treat my manic and depressed selves as if they are separate people (only conceptually, I am not suffering delusions). Then I look at the various aspects of my life that are important to me, and I try to make sure that I have safeguards in effect so my manic and depressed selves can't screw everything up while I am checked out.

How to cope with people like me

Saw this in this month's DBSA's "Friends and Family E-Newsletter" its a rough guide to dealing with crazy people like me:

Coping with a Loved One's Depression or Bipolar Disorder


1. Learn all you can about your loved one's illness. Stay informed about the latest treatments.

2. Remind yourself that your loved one's illness is not your fault or theirs.

3. Resist the urge to be a "fixer". Be loving and supportive, but know that your loved one is ultimately responsible for his or her own treatment and lifestyle choices.

4. Work on seeing the difference between your loved one's true personality and his or her illness.

5. Recognize when your loved one is having symptoms and realize that communication may be more difficult during these times.

6. Know that symptoms such as social withdrawal come from the illness and are probably not a reaction to you. During less symptomatic times, ask your loved one to help you make a list of things you can do or say that would be helpful.

They also provide a link if you want to know more about the illness:

Visit DBSA's Friends and Family discussion forums to hear how other friends and family members are coping.

Useful Links

Here are some links I found useful when attempting to learn a bit more about my illness.

http://www.dbsalliance.org/
http://support4hope.com/
http://www.psychiatry24x7.com/index.jhtml?product=bipolar (have to register, but its free)
http://www.moodswing.org/
http://www.crazymeds.org/
http://www.mixednuts.net/
http://www.bpso.org/ (for spouses and significant others of BPs)
http://www.allaboutdepression.com/dia_05.html (Diagnosis info)
http://www.mentalhealthchannel.net/bipolar/index.shtml
http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.bipolar.html (tons of good links)

Brain Scans

It took me a long time to admit that BP was, in fact, real. One of the things that drove it home for me was stumbling upon brain scan images of "healthy" and BP brains. It finally let me know that there is a real difference between the funciton of my brain and that of a healthy human being. Full details are available at brainplace.com

Normal human brain seen from above:

BP human brain seen from above: