Mom of BP daughter
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Mom of BP daughter
| Thu, 06-14-2007 - 3:53am |
My sweet daughter, who is 24, was diagnosed with BP just 2 weeks ago.
| Thu, 06-14-2007 - 3:53am |
My sweet daughter, who is 24, was diagnosed with BP just 2 weeks ago.
Hello and welcome. Your daughter is at the beginning of a long and hard road, but she has the correct diagnosis hopefully, so if that is in order that is definitely a plus. Now, it is too soon to tell if she will be able to finish school, hold down a job, etc., but the chances are good that those things can happen with a lot of work.
I was dxed bp when I was 20, near the end of my junior year in college. After that, my senior year took four years to complete. I was in and out of the hospital all the time. When I graduated, I took some rinkydink customer service job that only came to me after several months of looking (I was working alongside many people who did not share my college degree.) I had that job for two years, but I continued my revolving hospital door pattern. I eventually lost that job because I missed too much time. While I was out of work, I was pretty manicky- at the time, I was seeing some crazy doc that took me off mood stabilizers saying I wasn't really bp. Thank goodness I stopped going to him because he was sexually harrassing me. A new doc got me back on proper meds, but before my mania wore off, I got some crazy idea of going to grad school. I applied, got in, fast forward to two years later (during which time I became stable again!), and I had a master's! Yay! And THIS time I got my degree on schedule!
Long story short, all in all, it took me nine years and many new medicines coming on the market before I became stable for any period of time. The statistics is that it can take an average of ten years before any given bp patient finds just the right meds for him/her. Those ten odd years in the meantime can be a very bumpy road. But the right attitude is to fight, fight, fight!
You, as a mother, will be very important to your daughter. And it will be very hard for you. I know, I was a holy terror to my parents. They even threw me out once. Try to understand, if your daughter is being difficult, it's not her, it's her disease. She needs your help if you can help her.
Good luck to you, your daughter, and your whole family.
Express!
Beth "Petrouchka"
A,
Bless you for being there for her (and I know we can sometimes frustrate a saint, although we don't do so intentionally)!
Hi! My name is Jena and I am Bipolar. I am so sorry for what you are going through. I know when I am having a rough time my Mom worries also. All you can do is be there for her and if you are a spiritual person pray for her. When I first got diagnosed, I was put on Depakote also. At first it kind of took my personality away and I slowed way down in my thought process. I would draw a blank a lot of times and just kind of stare at things. It was really quite sad. Not to scare you, but I also gained close to 125 lbs on Depakote. Depakote is a wonderful medication for some people and she probably is just getting used to the side effects. And being in the hospital for mental health issues is very stressful so she's probably dealing with that. I wish you and your daughter well. ALways come back here if you need support.
Jena
I am unable ot give legal or medical advice. My opinions are based on my experiences and my personal research.
Thanks so much for your kind responses.