I'm not sure how helpful this is, but I'd have loved to have a parent that both understood and was there for me. My (refusing to be treated) bipolar mother tried to convince me to kill myself when I was 15. Having a parent that was going through treatment with me would have been awesome, from my perspective.

I hate taking drugs, too. I take seroquel and zoloft every day - and zoloft used to keep me up all the time, I found going for a run helps a little the nights seroquel just won't knock me out. I usually just run and exercise for hours until I can get rid of all my manic energy... which might make me depressed some times, so that's probably not a good idea either, but at least I can sleep.