It can take some time to get the right meds for him because everyone is different and there are lots of side effects with meds. Also it can take some time to come to terms with the diagnosis and actually take your meds all the time. A lot of BPers are not very compliment with meds.
Once you get on the right meds some people function very well others never find meds which work for them.
I've got BP and am fully functional with just some minor mood fluctuations since my little boy was born 9 months ago. Before that I was functional for many years.