[Marie67]

Hi,

I have a young adult daughter with bipolar disorder. She is not currently on medication and had seemed to be doing fine without a therapist. She was on Prozac and went through several therapists of different sorts a few years ago, and overall it was not successful, but she did better later on her own.

I thought she was doing okay, just an occasional edge to her attitude. This morning, however, I found a mostly empty bottle of whiskey in my car next to the driver's seat. I don't know whether she was drinking and driving or just bringing the bottle home from a party (bad enough), but in any case she clearly violated the open container's law if nothing else. When I confronted her, she told me a very unlikely story and then became irate when I offered to dump the whiskey, which she had supposedly taken away from a drunk acquaintance. She proceeded to call me some pretty ugly names and tried to shut the door on my physically (pushing it hard on me) when I tried to leave for work. Since then, she has been in her room except to go to the bathroom a couple of times and to go outside for a few minutes to smoke a cigarette. She is clearly avoiding me. I did tell her that if she were going to 1: carry booze in the car (and she's only 18), 2: swear at me and 3: physically attack me, she could no longer live in my home, and she had 24 hours to think that over. What I'm worried about is that she missed two college classes tonight for the first time, and that maybe she is severely depressed. I don't know whether I can talk to her. I don't know whether I am going to have to call an ambulance at some point. We have no insurance. I have no money. But she might need serious help. I'm not backing down on what I told her; I've had enough abuse from assorted family to last a lifetime. But I still want to do the right thing as far as getting her help if she needs it, and she might not cooperate -- probably won't.

[madisgram]

hi marie...a tough situation...it was suggested to me by my docs that my bipolar never is cured and it will rear it's ugly head whenever it chooses to. thus i stayed in therapy and continue to take my meds. there are "free prescription" phone numbers out there for those who qualify-sounds like you all do.
it's possible your daughter is using alcohol to self medicate. this is not unusual (for people with BP) if in fact the booze was for her. can you contact your daughter's doc for a consult? it does sound like she is spiralling...and if gone untreated it may get worse. you are smart to address this question/concern.

[mokie]

as madisgram said she does sound like she is self medicating. I would get irritable if questioned about the same issues but only cause I was the one drinking but making excuses as to it was someone elses. She really needs to find a psych that she can feel comfortable with and stay on meds. It is helpful if she allows you to go with her cause she may not see what the bipolar does to her and you can provide useful information from the other side. Seeing a therepist is also helpful cause she can get the support of learning what her illness is and how to cope with it, and if you could go with her it would benefit both of you as well. Support groups are good too cause she can see others who are dealing with the same illness and how they deal with it as well. Helping her through this well help her get stable to where she and you can learn as much as you can to find triggers to cause symptoms to spiral out of control. It has not been easy for me it has taken me over 20 yrs to finally come to the point of accepting my illness and wanting to learn all I can to stay stable enough to be here for my husband and daughter. There is a book called loving someone with bipolar disorder. I have read it and the examples in there really opened my eyes to accept that this is the illness that takes over me but that I can take part in staying stable. As for no insurance where I live we have what is called Carelink for people who can't afford insurance and you pay a monthly fee according to what your income is. This provides all medical needs and meds. As well as madisgram mention each pharmaciticul company has programs that can help you get free meds. Psych can also help her get some meds for free from the samples that drug reps leave them in their office. I was giving free meds till I was able to get Carelink. You could also ask a pharmacits if they know of any programs to help with the meds. Wish you luck and I am always open to give you any suggestions that has helped me.