I'm Bipolar and so is my mom. We were doing so well for almost 3 months without an episode. She has a lot more episodes than me and she never recognizes her manic phase. It annoys me that she only recognizes the depression phase. In her manic state she says she feels great and that she is being productive.
It begins with not sleeping enough. And her mind wanders off even more when she doesn't have a steady sleep. She starts talking a lot more and starts cleaning the house at 6am. She gets defensive and starts picking fights.

She's on a new mood stabilizer but the doctor put her on a very low dosage to start off. We are seeing him this morning and I'll be telling him to give her a higher dosage. She doesn't trust doctors and I know she will fight that she doesn't need a higher dosage.

I'm just waiting because the anger will be showing soon. She gets terribly angry when she's manic. That's really the worse for me.

I take really good care of myself, seeing my psychiatrist and therapist and taking my medicine, but I hate when she gets manic. Her anger always makes me so anxious. I never know what to do, but let it ride out.

This is the 2nd time in the last year we have changed her mood stabilizer. I'm just hoping for the day we find the right dose where she can be stable for more than a few months.

Living with her is so difficult but financially I can't go anywhere right now. I ask for strength, lots of strength to get thru the difficult days.