Bipolar Lesson: Report the "ugly truth" or suffer later

Hi,

How's it going? Hope you have a good
Monday. Well today I wanted to talk
about something rather bad. Some
call it the "ugly truth."

What's that? Well here's what it
is. When you are supporting someone
with bipolar disorder there are many
ugly truths. Here's just a few of
them:

-There is no cure for bipolar disorder

-Bipolar can be very expensive and destroy
one's finances

-People with bipolar disorder can go into
episodes and say and do things they normally
would not do.

Today I am going to focus on that last ugly
truth.

Here's the deal as I see it. Tons of people
with bipolar disorder are great people to
be around and hang out with. I have lots of
friends and people who work for me with
bipolar disorder.

But like Michele Soloway who has bipolar
disorder always tells me, you have to
remember that a person with bipolar disorder
will always have bipolar disorder and could
go into an episode and say and do things
they would normally never, ever do.

For example, the Religious nun type
person that never cheats, yells, screams,
drinks alcohol or curses might start
screaming, yelling, drinking, cursing,
etc.

Why? Well it's because bipolar disorder
is a mood disorder that affects people's
thinking and stuff. That's why it's a mental
illness because it works on one's mind. This
isn't to say you should be afraid of people
with bipolar disorder or be worried they
will explode without any provocation.

Rather we do have to remember that it is possible
for people to go into episode and say and do
things they normally would not.

THE KEY HOWEVER IS THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE
NOT BEING TREATED

The person that is out of control is the person
who is not being treated.

What does not being treated mean? It means they
are not seeing a doctor generally, or therapist.
Not taking medication at all OR not taking it
right OR they are not taking it all the time.

This leads to a disaster and the biggest ugly
truth--violence and doing extremely bad things.

Some people with bipolar disorder who are not
treated can become very violent. Or they can
do extreme things like make up huge lies, threaten
people, steal, rob, etc.

THIS IS NOT ALL PEOPLE WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER BUT
SOME.

And today's email is going to urge you to report
this type of ugly truth and not to mask or hide
it.

GIGANTIC MISTAKE MADE BY PEOPLE

Is covering up, hiding or masking a major ugly
truth because you feel that it doesn't represent
the person or that you think that if you report it,
they will get into trouble or reporting will make
them look really bad.

I believe this is a big mistake. There are people
that have been very violent and done bad things
and there is NO record of it. Why? Well every time
they do something a loved one never tells anyone
at all. As a result years go by and the person
never gets the right treatment and he/she starts
doing worse and worse things and eventually can
seriously hurt someone.

If you look at the bipolar news that I send out
on Fridays, you hear about people with bipolar
disorder killing people, running over people,
hurting their kids, etc. If you read the cases,
in almost every case, the judges throw the book
at them and sentence them to a long, long time
in jail.

Why? Well, well, first let me say I am NOT
a lawyer, doctor, therapist, financial advisor,
etc. Okay, now let me say that based on what I see,
the courts are not letting people with bipolar
disorder get away with doing really bad things
because they have a mental illness.

It seems judges are saying, "You know what you have,
and you did something really bad, and you will be
punished. Period."

In almost every case that I review, or if I am
able to talk to people surrounding an incident,
the people saw for years a number of ugly truths
but never reported it. As a result, the system,
or person's doctor, therapist never knew how
bad the person with bipolar disorder was and really
didn't take any action to try to prevent
these terrible things.


For example, I personally know someone that
said, "my wife is not as bad as your mother."
I hear that kind of thing a lot. People
suggest that my mom was really bad and
their loved one is not as bad.

When I questioned him, I found out this
guy's wife is FAR WORSE than my mom. His
wife's bipolar is totally out of control.
His wife:

-Hit him with a pot
-Cut him with an instrument and caused him to bleed
-Attacked him multiple teams
-Hits and punches him
-Calls the police on him after she attacks him and cries
-Tells his kids lies about him all the time
-Tells people around town that he is abusive and he is not
-Throws objects at him with regularity
-She drinks and doesn't take her medication regular