Living Bipolar by Landon Sessions Read Free Book Online Page B

That's kind of spelled out in the text. So there's that problem where a mood disturbance can occur by substances, and the substances can be more than just drugs of abuse or recreational drugs. There can be regular medications too that can precipitate these problems. Sometimes, and I'm thinking of a friend of mine, if we think of the diathesis stress model of mental illness, meaning there's a predisposition for a mental illness, whatever that may be -- genetic or environmental -- versus a stressor, then the substance abuse can be the stressor that precipitates the onset of the illness.
    That has certainly been a possibility, whereas, a stressor in someone's life might be the loss of a parent which precipitates a mood change in a given individual, before you know it they have full blown Bipolar disorder, or major depression, or some other disorder. Substance abuse can also cause the onset of Bipolar disorder. Specifically, what's happening in the brain is there are neurotransmitter changes when you abuse a substance, so that in itself can be enough to probably pull out some underlying pathology. Although there doesn’t have to be chances are there's probably some predisposition for a mood disturbance underlying it.
    So if someone's doing a lot of cocaine, and there displaying a lot of manic like symptoms, once they get off the cocaine do the symptoms go away?
    Right. That would be a substance abuse induced mania by nature of the cocaine usage or the cocaine intoxication. Exactly. Versus someone who takes a couple hits of cocaine and then three, or four, months down the road they can't sleep, they have racing thoughts, they're buying impulsively, and they have all the signs and symptoms of a manic episode. This individual would have a predisposition for Bipolar disorder or another type of mood disturbance.
    Is there anything parents, or spouses, can do if they’ve got someone who's Bipolar in their family struggling with an addiction problem? What's the best way for a family to cope if they've got someone who's sick, and the Bipolar patient needs to take their medication for Bipolar disorder, but they are struggling with a substance abuse problem?
    For instance a family might be wondering if their loved one has a drug problem, or a substance abuse problem -- what do they do?
    As long as we've ruled out it's not a substance induced mood disorder, and we clearly have an existing Bipolar disorder, that the person also has problems with addiction, yes the information for the families would be: be informed as much as possible to know that both of these illnesses occur together, and for the family to understand there's a high rate of co-morbidity with the illness. Education with the family, and the patient, that abstinence and sobriety is vital for the mood. Additionally, it’s important for the family members not to personalize how they handle their loved ones problem. They have to recognize the coexistence of both problems. But families can sometimes have a problem if there's not the coexistence of both those problems.
    For example, parents can have a problem when they find out that their loved one is Bipolar in the first place, and the family does not know exactly how to handle that problem. They might have a hard time understanding the notion of mood swings, ups and downs, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, hospitalization, and the chronicity of the illness, and how important it is to be on the medication. Even when the patient is compliant, it's still difficult to get the patient to stay on their medications, and remain taking the medications, and sometimes there's a breakthrough in the mood, and how do families handle that? Geez, you're taking your medication, you're seeing your doctor, what's going on? You're still not where you should be, or where we think you need to be. Versus what kind of progress that individual is making themselves, that's an educational process, and support groups can be very helpful for this, because