explaining bp medication to children

My 14 y.o. daughter asked what an AP is and I found myself at a loss for words. Then I mumbled: "It's stuff that makes me not crazy." Are there more elegant and insightful ways to present it? Or was it good enough? She seemed to have found it good enough - she did not have further questions.

I said the same thing to my step-kids. I think it's sufficient.

Funny! Same thoughts!

See, I would never say something like that to my kids because I don't see myself as crazy and it would seem perhaps unsettling or upsetting for them if I referred to myself that way. A 14-year-old is plenty old enough to explain what your meds do. For instance, when I was on AP, they helped me with racing thoughts and ruminations, so I would just explain that I have times when I get stuck thinking about things, kind of in a loop, and the AP helps break the loop so I think more clearly. That would be a pretty easy explanation for a 14-year-old to "get".

I told my kids the same thing. It helps me to stay sane and not go crazy.

Just tell her the symptoms that it helps with or say it's for your bipolar.

I would not know how in the case of an AP. In the case of Lithium, sure, I can explain that I no longer spend nights shopping at IKEA. Clear-cut. But Geodon truly makes me not crazy. It is a pretty big thing that cannot be expressed as a list of symptoms. There is an intangible component there. Cannot quite put a finger on it...

The meds are a part of our life, so I didn't have to explain. What was hard for me was the day that my son realized that I have a bipolar dx, too. I wasn't trying to hide it from him, and he knows that we take similar meds, but when he saw me write my medical history down for one of his checkups, I think it finally dawned on him that we share this dx. Now I feel an even bigger responsibility to show him that bp doesn't have to define us. I hate that he is so young and taking the meds, but it has made such a difference in his life and in the dynamics of our family.
Also, I don't mind joking around about being "crazy" as long as it is only at my expense. It isn't always related to the bp. I do crazy, fun things with my kids or to embarrass my them
Bluemountains

Know what's funny? You have to explain this stuff to adult children too. All four of mine are grown, and they were incredulous that I have to take an AP: "Sheesh, Mom, I knew you had problems, but I didn't know you were psychotic". Well, I'm NOT---thanks to Zyprexa---and that's how I explained it to them.

I agree with farmer that 14 is old enough to receive at least a little more in depth explanation. I told my teenage step kids that my meds prevent me from going crazy (again lol) but bipolar is something we talk about openly and freely in my house so they have a good understanding already.

Yeah, crazy is not the explanation I'd give to my child no matter how old. Even if said in jest, you dont want that word hanging over your head, and over your child's life. you want them to grow up and mature with a strong sense of self. Say someone were to call you crazy for whatever reason, you just took away your daughter's ability to defend you, as well as probly raised a whole list of questions which said crazy person is probly not qualified to answer. 'crazy' in my book, was inappropriate...

I don't have kids so I'm not sure how I would answer but I think crazy is not on the list of words I would use as to me it feels insulting from others so why would I use that word.

Kids tend to take things pretty literally and take them to heart. They don't always "get" the sarcasm and/or humor that adults use. While an adult may be perfectly comfortable with referring to himself as "crazy", kids generally aren't and will take you at your word. I work with teenagers as my profession, and even at 17 and 18 years old, they have many misperceptions of mental illness that come directly from adults and media portraying and referring to mental illness as "crazy". That IS where the stigma comes from, and perpetuating it with our own children when we are in the best, most direct, position to educate them and enlighten them just does not seem healthy for them at all.

Age appropriate explanations of our mental health issues is truly what they need and what they truly desire. Kids just want the adults in their lives to be honest with them and not leave them floundering in the dark. With appropriate knowledge, they can feel at least the security in having some intellectual understanding of what their parents are going through.

I would encourage parents dealing with illness, not just mental illness, but any kind of illness, to have honest discussions with their kids (age appropriate of course) because our illnesses directly affect their lives, their sense of who they are, and their sense of safety and security.

I watched a Nature of Things with David Suzuki yesterday about marijuana and schizophrenia, the point of which was that some kids are more likely to get dx'd with sz after smoking the new pot which has more thc and less cannabinoil (or something) than what we smoked in the 60's. the chemicals used to both be at like 3 percent, now the thc is at 20 percent and there is less of the other stuff, which was protective against sz, because the plant can't produce both substances, it's being bred for high thc. Anyway, some dr at the beginning of the show described psychosis as the brain "reading too much" into the information it receives, because of how your dopamine and serotonin is working. A common test is playing white noise, and seeing if you hear voices in it. That means your brain is working overtime to create info where there is none. I thought it was an awesome explanation. the show was called the downside of getting high, or something like that.

I was just recently diagnosed earlier this year and my step-kids are already teenagers. Since I have been diagnosed, we talk freely, honestly, and openly in our house about what bipolar is, answering any questions to the best of our ability so they have a pretty good understanding that I'm not "crazy" but yes, we do make light of the situation and joke at times about it in order to keep the conversation going and to make it not awkward. We encourage curiosity. So when they say, "What's that pill for?" and I say, "So I don't go nuts again", jokingly, they know it's for my bipolar. It's a completely different story to raise a young child with the belief that the parent is crazy and use that as the only label. That perpetuates the stigma and is just plain wrong. On the other hand, I have my own young children, the youngest being five years and we obviously haven't had that conversation yet as they are just too young to grasp any of it. He has seen me take my meds and said, "You're taking medicine because you're sick?", and I said yes and that was the extent of it. We'll take that one one day at a time...

I think that at 14 and 12 my daughters have plentiful sense of humor. Actually, the 12 year old is more endowed with the sense of humor than her sister is.

I much rather and feel easily more comfortable around kids....tiny, medium ....bigger than that maybe but still small..!

they are wise in ways I only once was.

I can only expect that as I was when I was tiny, medium....bigger than that maybe but still small.

...I was pretty much 'just' fascinated by the giants in my life.

....infinitely curious but not judgemental.....at least not judgeMENTAL...about myself as I expect they would be too

kids are great!....and the more we share with them then the better they can help us

My meds are locked in a safe so obviously I've had to explain. It was simple, you know how mommy will clean and clean and clean and go go go? Ya they said... It helps mommy slow down and sleep. My oldest knows I'm bipolar

Yeah, unfortunately mother Nature did not endow either me or my late bp mother with the manic cleaning abilities. I sometimes wish things were different. It has been a couple of months since I posted about it; at that time someone recommended calendaring weekly vinyl floor mopping sessions. Well, I did put them on the calendar. They do appear in the calendar on a weekly basis (the calendaring software does work). Did I ever mop the floors? Make an educated guess!