Newsweek article

It's a busy time for bipolar in the media. Newsweek ran an article this week about bipolar kids. Here's the link: www.newsweek.com/id/137517/page/1


serafena

i just read this in the newsweekly mag and i cried reading it... i didn't find out that i was bipolar until i was 16 but when i think about it i guess i've had it longer. i'm eighteen now and its been two years knowing and i still can't control it i mean yes i'm doing a whole lot ebtter now than two years ago but imagine how hard it is on him i'm just happy he has people to support him and care about him because i know i don't really have that and i think thats why i can't move on and try to help myself get better... anyway my point it just breaks my heart to know that someone as young as max has to go through what he does... i dont know it was a good article i think everyone that is or is affected by bipolar should read it...

Wow! Thank you for that post Serafena.

As I mentioned in my first post I was diagnosed bp around ten years old. That was circa 1979. The doc my mom sought out must have been absolutly cutting edge...

The parallels between Max and myself are uncanny. I don't believe my disorder is as severe but there are remarkable similarities. The one line in the article that really caught my breath was a reference to "feeling everything all at once". To this day I experience this sensation. It is truly dissorienting but I've learned to just stop allow it to pass and then move on. Not to say that it always works, I've escalated many times just as described with Max.

My father is also ret. Military ( Navy Commander ). His approach and attitude towards me was exactly as was described in the article. Any episodes, either up or down, were met with loud domineering orders based on everything being "black and white". This led to private school (6th grade), military academy (9th grade), public high school (10th grade), dropping out of school at the beginning of 11th grade and was out of my parents house before I was 17. I went and stayed with family and friends for a while, got my diploma with the help of a friend's mother, went to the College of Charleston for a short while and have been essentially bouncing around since then.

I am profoundly disturbed that it took me so long to put 1 and 1 together for myself. I'm feeling a lot of anxiety right now just thinking how many oportunities I missed to wake up and latch on to therapy and healing. How many years have I wasted by not realizing that something was wrong and doing something about it? How many others have I harmed through denial and inaction? Thank God for my friend David who is also bp and led me to realization and help. I am now under the care of a doctor and beginning to take meds to get this thing under control. I'm looking forward to living conciously and with purpose, in Control of my own desiny and accountable for myself.
I want to be well. I want to be happy.....

Wow Mauicharlie:

I have a great deal of admiration for someone who grew up dealing with the whirlwind of bp from so young. You learned to cope the best way you learned how. It's unfortunate that your father didn't always understand how to be more supportive. Maybe if he had, you would have had more opportunities to learn how to cope with the disorder as a medical condition early on. Instead you've probably been just trying to take care of yourself. Not that I don't understand that we don't all make crummy decisions. That's part of the fun, right? In any case, go easy on yourself. You don't have to like all your old decisions, but you weren't always given a full range of options either. You're gonna do better now.

serafena