@bewildered
(continued reply from Connie 31 March 2026)
support my son as much as he can, as do his two sisters. This is a wonderful family, and we are both thankful for their important role in our lives.

I am retired, and will turn 80 this year. I have some social activities that I try to participate in on a regular basis. In these groups, I have several good friends. One of my special friends has a daughter who has bipolar II disorder. We are able to lend each other support, and we get together and share the status and condition of her daughter and my son. Neither of them is able to work, due to this illness. I think it helps to have friends whose children have a similar illness, and face similar challenges.

My son is an excellent patient, with no compliance issues. He takes his medication as prescribed. He has an excellent psychiatrist. His long time therapist passed away in Dec. of 2024, but he now has a different male therapist who is covered by his insurance. That relationship is working out, and is helpful to my son.

My son was quite withdrawn for many years, after he was diagnosed. His bipolar disorder sometimes has schizoaffective features, and he is a rapid cycler. Now he has an active social life, and many different friends he spends time with. He also volunteers at a retirement home near where he lives. He simply visits with some of the residents there, on 2 or 3 days a week. He enjoys doing that, and talking to the old folks. He is quite good at relating to older people. Part of the reason for that is that we lived with my father during the last 6 1/2 years of his life, after my mother had passed away. I left my husband when I was 44, and my son and I moved in with my widowed father. He was 80 at the time, and my son was 9. They bonded, and formed a very special relationship. My son still often talks about his grandpa, and is grateful for all the help and support we both got from my father.

These are some of the positive things I have in my life that help me to carry on, and try to stay positive, even though I am constantly aware of the seriousness of my son's illness, and of the restrictions it places on his life. When he has to be hospitalized, and seems to be making little or no progress during his hospitalization, those are especially stressful times for me. At those times, I try to take good care of myself, and I try to be his advocate with the hospital staff. I try to make the health professionals aware of his issues and his history with his illness, so that they will understand what will and will not be helpful to him in these times of crisis.

My son lives on his own, in a condo that I own. He usually comes to have dinner with me on Sunday evening. He currently has a roommate, and she sometimes comes with him to dinner. My son understands how fortunate we are to have the financial resources that we do, and he frequently thanks me for what I do to try to support and help him, and to see that he always has good care.

When my son was first diagnosed, I read good , reliable information on bipolar disorder, including good books that were available at that time, in order to educate myself. I also attended many support groups run by the DBSA (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance), for patients, and for family members and friends of patients. I learned a lot from attending those support groups. The web site for the DBSA is http://www.dbsalliance.org. It is a nationwide organization, with support groups throughout the country. There is a lot of good information on their web site. Another good source of reliable and up-to-date information is the site http://www.medscape.com. That site is free, but you have to sign up as a user, and get a password. (reply is to be continued, from Connie)