[Meta]

My brother is Bipolar I. He was hospitalized twice for mania in the last twenty years. he has also had unhospitalized
episodes. Before all of these episodes his main symptom was running through lots of money and some delusions of grandeur. Two years ago he was fired. Its hard to say if he did this because he hated his job or if he got fired because an episode was already beginning and he imagined great success for himself if he was free to pursue that. He took money out of joint accounts(with his wife) and used it for various money making schemes that failed. He has delusions of close connections to rich and famous people. He has probably lost upwards of $20,000. If he could get a hold of more money that would be gone too. He's been drinking a fair amount which of course is probably self medicating. He and his wife are in the process of divorcing. He will have a considerable amount of assets and money when it goes through. All of my brothers and sisters believe all of that will be squandered in a matter of months. Is there any way to prevent this legally? I would like to know what other family members have done in this situation. My brother does not think there is anything wrong with him.

[cocoabeans]

Your brother is an adult. Bipolar diagnosis or not he is rightfully entitled to squander his money how he sees fit. All you can do is encourage him to take care of himself. Trying to take away his personal rights and freedoms is only going to make it worse because you'll be removing yourself from his support network.

[BuggsBunny]

You and your siblings might want to encourage him to invest some of the money in stocks for retirement, Certificates of deposit or IRAs, at the bank, and if there is enough, perhaps some (paid off) property of his own. Those make it very difficult to get at money easily, and cut down the chances of impulse buying. I would get property that he can pay in full, so he doesn't run the risk of foreclosure if he has run out of extra money. It depends on just how much money he will be coming into.

Other than that, there really isn't much you can do. He is probably a competent adult, even if he is bipolar. I'm really sorry for those of you that have to sit by and watch this happen, but unless he understands that he impulse buys and is willing to let someone else help him invest and make the financial decisions, nothing is going to change. Sorry.

[argv]

Originally Posted by Meta

My brother is Bipolar I. He was hospitalized twice for mania in the last twenty years. he has also had unhospitalized
episodes. Before all of these episodes his main symptom was running through lots of money and some delusions of grandeur. Two years ago he was fired. Its hard to say if he did this because he hated his job or if he got fired because an episode was already beginning and he imagined great success for himself if he was free to pursue that. He took money out of joint accounts(with his wife) and used it for various money making schemes that failed. He has delusions of close connections to rich and famous people. He has probably lost upwards of $20,000. If he could get a hold of more money that would be gone too. He's been drinking a fair amount which of course is probably self medicating. He and his wife are in the process of divorcing. He will have a considerable amount of assets and money when it goes through. All of my brothers and sisters believe all of that will be squandered in a matter of months. Is there any way to prevent this legally? I would like to know what other family members have done in this situation. My brother does not think there is anything wrong with him.

Nobody with a mental disorder thinks there is anything wrong with them because they don't know what "normal" or "standard" is. Or "balanced". I remember when I first started taking meds and it took me a while to get used to NOT having racing thoughts and crazy plans, and yadda yadda. I'm still working on it.. of course, my meds have changed too recently, but... yeah. until he knows what life is like NOT being 'crazy', he'll think he's fine and normal. Might even think he's "super normal" hahaha

[BuggsBunny]

I have to disagree with that, argv. I knew something was wrong with me from an early age, and was glad to have it diagnosed.

[argv]

I always thought I was special!