I'm posting this for a friend who is not a member, but want to express her thoughts. :)


I despise people who don't take their medicine. Your problem does not make you special. It is not a "gift from God." It is not your "true self." If you don't like the effects from your medicine. Try another one. Be persistent. Keep trying until you find the right combination for you. I'm tired of hearing excuses. There is no excuse. You will be more "you" when you are well and functioning and on your way to a better life.

I have bipolar disorder. I do not equate my disorder with my identity. I don't like the person I am when I am depressed, that is when I lose my identity the most.

I do not like the person I am when I am manic. I do not trust that person. She gets me into big trouble. When I start to feel too good, I have to stop and question whether I am just happy or whether I am in a wreckless state of euphoria.

So don't make any excuses. Do what needs to be done. And be the person that you are capable of being. This affected person that you've grown fond of is a sad delusion. People hold on to these little spurts of euphoria and try to write it all down, or recapture it in the next bottle of alcohol, thinking it is so very important, such spiritual enlightenment. To the rest of the world you look like someone on an acid trip babbling about something that in retrospect was just that. Babble.

Evil Eva

My frend feels that this thread might be more appropriate in the bipolar forum. Mods, can we move it there ?

Me :D

Something else that makes me mad is when people say "Oh, you don't need meds... there are natural ways..." This is more specifically for ADD. But each persons ADD is different. And some things work on some people that don't work on others. So don't tell me what works on me, when I've tried plenty of things myself.

I hear it quite often from friends and family that meds are not necessary and just how they've managed their conditions without them. As if meds are some sign of weakness. I DO take my meds and I plan on using them until I, gawd forbid, have to make a change. It has taken me roughly 3 years to find the right meds and I'm still battling.

Although I can understand the original posts frustration, I believe many refrain from making excuses and continue to fight the battle and don't plan on stopping anytime soon. It is without a doubt a battle and it is my sincere hope that we will continue to support and share our struggles, in the hopes that others will learn from our experiences.

I hope that we see you as a member sometime soon :)

Speedo,

I also have to take my meds.

I too understand your friend's frustration.

But I also understand that she's really in no position, to judge others decisions, unless they're in her immediate family, and their decisions are going to cause harm to themselves or to her.

She's always in the position, however, to make decisions, for herself.

Not adding to her frustration..just stating my opinion...from one Bipo to another, is all I'm doing.

Nova;

I agree and I am sure she does too. The thing that she did not say was that she sometimes gets really tired of dealing with people who are not trying to face up to their problems at all.

I"m sure that many of the forum members know the misery of having a firend or a loved one who goes on for years with significant issues and never faces up to their problems and the burden it puts on those around them. It's a PITA, really.

Right now she has a friend in another state who is doing very poorly after a lifetime of disorder, and simply won't face up to her problems. The result is that her friends and family now have to deal with it in order to keep her from coming to harm. It is a worrysome mess. Yet, her friend still refuses to admit that there is a problem and still seems unable/unwilling to deal with her issues.

ME :D

I understand.

I have a wonderful friend, who's also Bipo, who has made the decision to not continue taking meds for it.

And he's doing absolutely great.
His personal life, and career are absolutely terrific, and flourishing.

He doesn't create 'chaos' for anyone..in fact, I'd say the opposite, lol !

I know him well enough to say, that he never had a need for 'chaos', and chooses to not be involved with people who 'need' it.

But I'm just talking about him...it doesn't mean I'm not compassionate about your friend's situation.

Sometimes a court of law makes it mandatory for an individual to take meds.

Despise is such a strong word, your post takes compassion to a new level. A rather low one at that.

I have an aunt that is bipolar, she can talk really mean, and threaten people (just when she is off her meds.) We ask her why she stopped taking them, and she says that she just gets sick of taking meds all the time.

A few years ago, a man with Schizophrenia decided not to take his meds; friends and family say this was a common occurrence. This man was experiencing a psychotic episode while driving across a long bridge and drove into an oncoming vehicle to destroy what he perceived as a demon approaching him. The law showed compassion for the man by putting him on probation with one of the conditions being he take his meds regularly. No meds = jail time. No amount of compassion brought the victim in the oncoming car back to life for her family and friends.

I know an angry adult child of someone with Bipolar who didn't like staying on her meds.

Sometimes when we become too emotional we lose track of the more subtle ways to communicate our message and become more concerned with igniting emotions in others; this thread seems this way to me. Although the message may be valid, was it communicated in the best way possible to reach the target audience and bring about the desired result?

I am one of those dumb*****es who has Bipolar who won't take my meds. What can I say? I love my Hypomanic states. I am not a full blown mania peron, but I do get the sucidal depressions. I take Adderall to maintain a hypomanic state and try to take breaks from time to time.I also take a thyorid hormone to keep me in better spirits. I would rather feel everything than feel nothing. That is me personaly. I wouldn't recomend it for the weak. Call me crazy. :P

Thanks so much for sharing that Speedo. I don't feel so alone now in my dark-of-night rantings against the "special ones" who refuse to understand that this is illness, if untreated. It IS a gift, indeed, when properly treated.

I hope your friend feels safe enough to join us here, there are many bipos like me, Hope and Nova that can relate to her :).

What I hate is when people say their meds weren't working so they stopped taking them. And they wonder why they are in the emergency room for a psychiatric evaluation! And what is worse, it tends to be the same people over and over again!

It's a fact. Some people do well without medication. It's also a fact that some people desperately need to be medicted to function at all. This is not a one-size-fits-all disorder.

I've watched my own family members struggle with severe bipolar disorder. I've witnessed them switch from one medication to another over the years as each medication eventually stopped working, and eventually none of the meds worked very well. I've seen other family members stop taking medication, for a variety of reasons that did not add up... and I got to watch as they eventually became delusional and psychotic to the point it became virtually impossible to even hold a conversatin with them.

For some reason a lot of people who have bipolar elect to stop taking mediction, and that too frequently means that their condition worsens. I guess the reasons don't matter a lot. The reason might make good sense... or it might just be an excuse for not facing up to the condition... I think it varies a lot from person to person.

This does not happen to everyone with bipolar disorder, but the plain fact is that it does happen too often and that bipolar disorder is nonetheless a serious medical condition and people need to take it seriously, because the consequences of not caring for yourself in the face of a real and present need are potentially serious.

It's not just you who are involved. It is your friends and family members who care about you and love you more than you may know. Please take care of yourself.

Me :D

Meds of any sort have side effects, some of which can be quite unpleasant, to put it mildly. Sometimes people feel that the pain isn't worth the gain. I can understand that, having made that decision myself about meds for ADD -- for the time being.

I went to college with a good few people who were on anti-psychotics or Bipolar meds. Often one of them would decide to go off meds, because s/he preferred some of the feelings that being medicated took away from her/him, or because s/he wanted to try a natural or holistic or whatever cure (their reasoning being that medicine was "unnatural".) This decisions were never made after consultation with a doctor. Almost invariably s/he wound up threatening to jump off a roof, or having a car crash, or injesting large amounts of "natural" drugs -- read acid, peyote, grass etc. -- until s/he was wandering around in a euphoric mania. Or experiencing other rather scary reactions.

I tried not to judge their decisions too harshly . This happened a long time ago, when medication was clumsier and the side effects worse. But I can't say that going off their meds seemed to restore them to any "real" or "better" self. And none of their elations seemed more creative and all of them ended in what seemed like horribly painful descents.

This does not happen to everyone with bipolar disorder, but the plain fact is that it does happen too often and that bipolar disorder is nonetheless a serious medical condition and people need to take it seriously, because the consequences of not caring for yourself in the face of a real and present need are potentially serious.

It's not just you who are involved. It is your friends and family members who care about you and love you more than you may know. Please take care of yourself.

Me :DThat's just it right there Speedo! Who am I to judge how I may be affecting other people? I have to self-check myself by asking my family how I seem to be doing. Let's face it, I am going to feel just great when I am hypomanic, I might even say that I loved that part of the cycle :eyebrow: but I know for a fact that I don't appear very healthy to others then, no matter how elated I feel about it. With the elation comes a drive to move (and ignore my family in pursuit of...whatever) and a tendency towards extreme irritability that has GOT to be painful to the people surrounding me. When I have that pressured need to talk, talk, talk I would drive anybody nuts!!

Plus to indulge my hypomania would have its equal and opposite price -- the deep depression that follows it throws not only me, but the people around me, into despair. My hopelessness becomes a source of fear and sadness for them. Not cool!

I have bipolar II and its that way for me. I can imagine that bipolar I, with the tendency to take flights from reality, must be even scarier to witness.

Its not all about YOU if you have bipolar disorder. You can and do impact the people around you, and part of being an adult is being responsible for yourself and how you may affect others, on meds and off. I believe they call it a disorder for a very good reason, after all.

I like going off of dexedrine sporadically because I am like a comedian with the impulsive comments ands jokes and other people usually get a kick out of it kind of charges you up a bit

Thanks Speedo for sharing that.

Coming from a family chalked full of diverse diagnoses of BPD/ ADHD and other fun stuff.

And coming from the world of being on and off meds. I agree.
I have had this struggle wiht family members, my kids, and myself.

I agree. There is no excuse for not taking your meds and the bad behavior that follows.

If you need to be on meds...by all means take them, for yourself and others. If they are not working I agree with others keep trying.

If you don't need meds, good for you, you are of the lucky few who can find others methods. If you need them...take them, for a better quality of life.

I have finally found the combo of meds that appear to be making my life worth living on a daily basis. I never want to go back.

It isn't about excuses or the wilful intention of not taking medications.

Some people with psychotic disorders have actual neurological problems in the part of the brain that controls 'insight' into their illness.

They cannot understand (it is not an education or denial thing; the CAPACITY is simply not there).


When I was a Nursing Student, I spent a Term on an ACT Team. Each day we would go to people's homes and rooming houses to give them their medications and make sure they were swallowing them. (Some people "cheek" their pills.)

Beats having to rescue Uncle Wally from the TV Tower when the schizophrenia gets bad and he needs to intercept the Alien Signals -- or picking up Aunt Flossy from at the Cop Shop (yet again) for getting into full-blown mania and becoming belligerent and punching a Police Officer.

LACK OF INSIGHT is an untreatable -=feature=- of these illnesses, it is not a "choice", or simply "not bothering to take their pills".

LACK OF INSIGHT is worse in some people. Some people, on the other hand, do not have insight problems at all.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1489928

As you can see from this above article, one can have good 'cognitive function' and still have seriously impaired 'insight'. It's not about 'intelligence', or 'knowing better'.

I've met some brilliant people who cannot take their daily meds. I have met some people with an IQ of 65 who can take their daily meds.

We simply have not discovered enough about the BRAIN yet to pinpoint what is wrong with the "Insight" area of the brain, and what is going wrong there for some folks.

In the same vein, I don't believe that it is fair to say that street people with mental illness 'want to live in 20 degrees below zero', etc.

Which is why we need laws to protect those who cannot protect themselves -- while still respecting their human rights and dignity.

Some people with psychotic disorders have actual neurological problems in the part of the brain that controls 'insight' into their illness.While I am sure this applies to people with psychotic disorders, I cannot and will not accept this as something that applies to a person with bipolar disorder! A person with BPI enters manic episodes that may or may not become psychotic episodes; they do not have a psychotic disorder. If they take the medications when in a stable state and continue to do so, they will not suffer the severe manic episodes that detach them from reality.

Yup. But some people cannot accept that they 'get as sick as they get', when they are not sick. :)