After giving birth to my first son I had post partum depression for several months, and I was back to my old self, doing just fine....no meds....unaware that I had BP....5 years later I conceived my second son by IVF....unaware I had BP, no meds....Post partum depression was severe, lead to full blown mania....
I lost custody during as divorce battle. Now medicated, stable, I wouldn't change anything. My sons are a blessing. If I do pass down the BP to them, I will know how to help them, unlike their father that thinks having BP is the same as being a piece of shit....

I dont know if this has been mentioned as I didnt have time to read all the responces but it is a possibility theyre saying this for your own good.,


It has been documented that pregnancy and child birth can indeed make your BP much much worse.

Yes.

most of the time wish i had never been born. my nanny and my aunt were schizophrenic, my great aunt suffered from major depressive disorder and my mother was then called manic depressive(aka bp). on my mothers fathers side of the family there were 3 alcoholics and a schizophrenic. that said, there was no known heridarity connections. i should have been smarter. i have 2(of 5 of us) alcoholic siblings of my own but i am the only one dx'd bp. the other 2 are just bitches.

i wasn't dx'd until kidlet was 7. but if i wasn't born, the world wouldn't have the wonderful person she is. she has made a difference in this universe.

brave new world...

as i sit here trying to type with the son i dreamed of when i was 18 laying across me, i couldn't imagine not having my kids...

I have learned to walk away if i will not act right. i have learned that taking care of them means taking better care of me. it has not been easy, but when is raising kids ever easy...

i am glad i know about the bp to help my kids, but never to keep me from having them. i am an interesting person, so are my kids... and so are all of you!

fuck the haters

My therapist has told me he will no longer see me if I get pregnant, because he has a problem with women with psychosis having children. My pdoc, while she has not come right out and said it, is also VERY unsupportive of me getting pregnant (because I'll need to stay on meds). My new endocrinologist has also given me the skank-eye for wanting to get pregnant on meds.

However, I am working with a perinatal psychiatrist team and they are giving me hope. They are the most supportive people I've come across- all they deal with is women with bipolar and Schiz who are pregnant and want to get pregnant, and they are all for responsible and loving parenting- and believe that women with serious mental illness can be good parents- with proper medical supervision.

I wasnt dx'd with bp until after my 3 kids were born. I dont regret having my kids; I just regret the way I behaved when they were small. I was a practicing alcoholic until my oldest was 9 or 10. I wasnt abusive physically, but Im afraid that I was pretty unavailable until I quit drinking.
Once I quit the meds began to become effective. I know my kids love me, but the scars have got to be there. I have a daughter who is bp and a son who is a recovering alcoholic. The sins of a mother past on. It really has been bothering me alot lately. I have tried to talk to my kids about the past. They want nothing to do with it. I have many regrets.