Bipolar Disorder Support Group
Bipolar disorder is not just a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders marked by periods of abnormally high energy and euphoria, often accompanied by bouts of clinical depression. This is the place to talk about your experience with bipolar disorder, learn from others' experiences, and find support.
Ok, here it goes:
I was supposed to graduated in May, but since at my college you can walk with up to 12 outstanding hours, I did. I am finishing my senior thesis this summer; as long as I pass the defense that will be in early August, I'll get my degree. (I'm a comm major with no intentions of staying in the field)
I didn't finish up because I had fucked myself over by taking 18 hours, playing softball, and interning in Atlanta. I was interning at a prominent tv station as a very, very cheaply paid intern.
They let me stay on as an unpaid intern for the summer, even though they have a summer intern (this is for the marketing dept...they make commercials).
I've been living with my girlfriend's parents (yes, I'm gay, yes, my mother hates it, my dad doesn't care) and working on my thesis and a radio show I'm doing.
I took a trip to TN (my home) for the dentist, and well, I just kinda stopped going to the station (yes, without informing them what's up, and I realize how poor of a decision this was, etc, but that's not the advice I need). They called my mom (emergency contact) who then called me, screamedddd at me for not going to my internship. I stopped going because I stopped caring (I was literally not doing anything but making DVD copies bc there was another intern) and it was an hour drive each way. So, I've been in Gainesville working on my thesis and my show.
When I told my mother that ("what the fuck have you been doing with your time"/"you irresponsible piece of shit"), outside of lots of name calling and empty threats (i'm 22 and generally independent, other than my parents health insurance...for my RXs), she blamed "the medicine i'm on" and thinks i should "try life without it for awhile."
My dad, who is generally much less hot headed (my BP comes from my mom, who is undiagnosed/untreated/unbeliever of BP who desperately needs some help) has been brainwashed by my mother to believe that maybe that's a good idea.
He (who is currently working in WA state) wants me to come home to "get a 2nd opinion", but not from a psychiatrist, because he "isn't sure about those meds I'm on" and "just wants me to be happy."
He's referring to moving home (I hate my mother and would probably kill myself before it happened, because she is my number one trigger) and working a part-time job there while i "figure out my life (he's trying to be nice)"
It's not the medicine, lol. It was a bad judgment, and I blew an voluntary intern position. Lesson learned. I'm not going home.
Neither of my parents really know anything about BP, and so I have no idea what to do.
My psych of 2 years is here in GA and I am not leaving my girlfriend. In August, she's starting grad school at GA State and we are moving in together...and I don't care if I'm a convenient store worker, I'm not going back home. I'm 22, and I've been with Jess for 3.5 years. It's not happening.
How the hell do I convince my parents that I made a mistake---that it wasn't "the evil drugs"??
HELP!!!!!!!!
I was supposed to graduated in May, but since at my college you can walk with up to 12 outstanding hours, I did. I am finishing my senior thesis this summer; as long as I pass the defense that will be in early August, I'll get my degree. (I'm a comm major with no intentions of staying in the field)
I didn't finish up because I had fucked myself over by taking 18 hours, playing softball, and interning in Atlanta. I was interning at a prominent tv station as a very, very cheaply paid intern.
They let me stay on as an unpaid intern for the summer, even though they have a summer intern (this is for the marketing dept...they make commercials).
I've been living with my girlfriend's parents (yes, I'm gay, yes, my mother hates it, my dad doesn't care) and working on my thesis and a radio show I'm doing.
I took a trip to TN (my home) for the dentist, and well, I just kinda stopped going to the station (yes, without informing them what's up, and I realize how poor of a decision this was, etc, but that's not the advice I need). They called my mom (emergency contact) who then called me, screamedddd at me for not going to my internship. I stopped going because I stopped caring (I was literally not doing anything but making DVD copies bc there was another intern) and it was an hour drive each way. So, I've been in Gainesville working on my thesis and my show.
When I told my mother that ("what the fuck have you been doing with your time"/"you irresponsible piece of shit"), outside of lots of name calling and empty threats (i'm 22 and generally independent, other than my parents health insurance...for my RXs), she blamed "the medicine i'm on" and thinks i should "try life without it for awhile."
My dad, who is generally much less hot headed (my BP comes from my mom, who is undiagnosed/untreated/unbeliever of BP who desperately needs some help) has been brainwashed by my mother to believe that maybe that's a good idea.
He (who is currently working in WA state) wants me to come home to "get a 2nd opinion", but not from a psychiatrist, because he "isn't sure about those meds I'm on" and "just wants me to be happy."
He's referring to moving home (I hate my mother and would probably kill myself before it happened, because she is my number one trigger) and working a part-time job there while i "figure out my life (he's trying to be nice)"
It's not the medicine, lol. It was a bad judgment, and I blew an voluntary intern position. Lesson learned. I'm not going home.
Neither of my parents really know anything about BP, and so I have no idea what to do.
My psych of 2 years is here in GA and I am not leaving my girlfriend. In August, she's starting grad school at GA State and we are moving in together...and I don't care if I'm a convenient store worker, I'm not going back home. I'm 22, and I've been with Jess for 3.5 years. It's not happening.
How the hell do I convince my parents that I made a mistake---that it wasn't "the evil drugs"??
HELP!!!!!!!!
Do your best and if your best isnt good enough, back away. Best wishes. Hugs
Make some space between you and your parents - that is, instead of immediately responding to your mom when she calls, ask if you can call her back. This will give you a bit more control of the conversation. And when you talk to her, tell her how many pages you got written, how many hours you've spent researching, If you speak in terms of what you're accomplishing, it will take the focus off of what has happened in the past, and hopefully get your Mom talking about what's happening right now.
Re: the internship. Do your parents know that you were doing so many things at once? Playing ball, the internship, and the course overload? If it comes up again, you might just say that you had too many things on your plate, and that happens to a lot of college students. You were likely to drop something, and it was better to drop an unpaid internship than courses that you were paying for.
I wouldn't talk about the medicine at all. I'd talk about all the things that were happening, coursework, etc.
Best wishes on that thesis and defense!
S.
One thing I've learned to do is to redirect them sometimes. When I know that they've opened a subject that's gonna go down a bad road, I find a loosely related subject and connect them as if I didn't even notice they were going down a different road with what they were saying, and it usually works.
As far as your meds go, if I were you, I would be looking toward the near future, and seeing if I could come up with a plan to get some other insurance or something, so that if these problems persist, you will have a backup plan for how to continue your meds and treatment.
As far as your personal successes and failures go, you're doing a LOT better than some people do with this illness, and it sounds to me like you're progressing quite nicely. Sure, the whole intern thing was a wash, but it happens. Usually that just means it wasn't the thing for us. Too much credence is given to sticking with sinking ships sometimes, IMHO. I think you're accomplishing a lot, and it's just like an undiagnosed BP parent to expect that you should be doing more. Is she crazy? LOL. No pun intended. How could you be doing much more and still stay healthy and sane?
I guess the only thing I can think of as a temporary patch for the meds problem is maybe you could get your doc or pdcoc to write a brief explanation of your treatment and progress. Something like telling them that since you've been on the medicine, s/he has seen this or that kind of improvement, and that certain side effects like taking on too much and having to drop some of it is common for people with BP.
OR......maybe you could actually use a trick.........but this is kind of a last resort----talk to your doc about this first, but if you're having ANY problems at all with the meds you're taking, see if there is something you can switch to, or perhaps, ADD to your med regime, and THEN, you can tell your mom that maybe she was right, and now you're on DIFFERENT or MORE meds, so that should fix the problem. It won't work forever, but that might shut her up temporarily.
And sorry to hear that your mom trips about you being gay. If she's religious, have her watch the documentary video called, "For the Bible Tells Me So". Usually if a parent is the same gender as you are, and they are the ones that are especially phobic, it's because they're afraid they might be a closet bi or something. Usually people are actually afraid of themselves, not us rainbow folk. ^_^