Dear David

Luckly I am not one of those that have written death threats to you, said you write nonsense, think you are part of a conspiracy etc…

I am just a supporter that in a month or so is going to marry a lady with bipolar disorder, I am very happy to do so as she is great on following her counsellors advice, taking her medicine, etc., and I am great in having read lots of books, belonging to your e-mail news (and others), and also a very quick learner, so I am good as seeing any little sign that what my Fiance and I are talking, discussing, or debating about, is giving her the wrong signals, so I inmmediately change the subject or suggest that we continue the conversation later or another day, IT WORKS, and after some time she sees that she was getting angry or upset without reason, and writes to me to apologise (she is in USA and at the moment I am in Spain awaiting the Fiancee visa to come), that says a lot about intelligent people and rational people (that has the disorder) that because they follow the professional advice (and of course it has to be the RIGHT advice), and take their medicine, they not only live normal lives but also come to see and realise when they were wrong about something and apologise, as well as being thankful for my understanding, patience, support and love that I show her.

So keep up the good work, and there are fruit cakes, nutters, etc. all over the world, I am glad you take it in your stride and keeps going on with your good work.

Kindest regards.

JJ

I feel very strongly in favour of what David has said in this e-mail. My fiancee, who has Bipolar disorder, stopped taking her medication so that we could live together with a full marital type relationship until we got married later this year. We had a wonderful 18 months together with solid plans to be married & adored & loved each other beyond the written word. On the 18th November 2008 we had our first disagreement & she left me without even saying goodbye. Had I known the exact nature of her illness & known that I could have had some good advice from David (I only found Davids web site after she had gone) then I am quite sure that we would have still been together today. With the support I could have given her (following what I now know from David’s e-mails) I am sure that she would be well controlled. Instead I am heart broken & she is goodness knows where without a true friend in the world. All because she STOPPED taking her medication for my benefit. I feel guilty because of my ignorance about Bipolar disorder. I believe David gives good advice & if anyone doesn’t want this advice then unsubscribe to his e-mails but don’t discourage him from freely giving his advice to those of us who need his help.

I am so glad you have this free newsletter. I know of someone who is Bipolar and what you say is so very enlightening. A former friend is in a relationship with this person and she is scary. I dare say she is dangerous. The courts jusy removed an 11 year old child because it was obvious things weren’t right. We have received phone messages, emails etc from her and they are delusion, threatening, and insulting. She is heard screaming and has made attempts at intimidation. She has this “fantasy going on about the “family” and she said how I needed to bathe in holy water before my family would go to hell…Thank you so much for your taking the time to write what you do.
I am so very aware now of her potential to violence. I believe she is non-compliance with her medication but my former friend is a follower and hasn’t a clue to what she’s gotten into but her daughter is safe now..Her REAL family has her..

looooooosers waaaaa pooooor me what a bunch of woosies dave you and your fake booo hooers just waste everyones time there is no sientific data to back up your so called disorder. Its just a poor me give me waaah attitude that you put into peoples heads. What do you want are you asking for money selling a load to unsuspecting people that have a low self asteam to make your self rich. why dont you tell them the truth. dont be a Jim Jones and lead these people with no life into a cool aid death. how do you sleep at night taking advantage of loosers and make them feel even worse by pushing this disorder down there throat. please take me off your mailing list or i will find a better way to let these people know that they have low self a steam and are looserers but that does not make up a disorder.

boo hooo waahh sniff sniff waaah waahhh please grow a pair dave and stop crying and snibbling and get a real thing going. you and your peeps just are a bunch of winny bunch of winning woosies.

I just would like to say thank God some one with help!!
I just found Dave this year and would have gave anything
to have had his insight 4 years ago when my Son was 19
and got sick.I could not get help and had no clue how to help him.No Dr..OR a new Dr.every time we went to the onily place you could go for med,s no money to fund help
so the places cant keep a Dr.or good help.He had 6 or 7 jobs not for long so no Ins.we just had to take what i could get for him.As a Mother you want the best for your child and what we had to go through no one should have to do that.
So thank God for Dave,s help.I would be glad to tell everyone i know about his web page.
And with good help a good Dr. now his Med,s working he has had a good job he can do for 8 mo.and you would nevery know anything was wrong with him.so yes you can live a good life with the right help and alot of pray and Family understanding (not easy at times)Thank you Dave.One gratefull Mother Deb. P.S. sorry I cant spell

Dear David.

All your emails are interesting and make sense. i don’t understand why people want to hurt an/or scare you. Your emails always make me think. i sometimes forward them to my friends that sincerely care about me. My family abandoned me and I haven’t had any contact with most of them for one year. It is nice not to have the stress and negative attitudes in my life. My life has changed so much for the better without them in it. I wish them well, just not with me. In closing I just wanted to say Thanks for a great job and being here every morning. Take care!

Dear David,

Just read your blog,it is a courageous man who is not cowed by the huge pile of negativity aimed in his direction over his beliefs and a man who has such conviction that he allows those negative responses onto his blog site, you must have a great support system in place.

Just sos you know ‘Keith’Im from New Zealand Ive never subscribed to Davids courses not because I think they are rubbish and only targeted at the vulnerable but, because I simply cant afford them( for now) but in the darkest hours of my daughter’s episode when she was concocting several ways to kill herself – the only light in the dark was Davids daily emails the only light – because you know what Keith- there’s noone else out there doing what he is doing: writing words of positivity in the early hours of a frightenening morning bringing hope when I thought there was none….Íve got my grandson on my knee right here and now and I know his mum is coming back to us and she will recover( shes in rehabilitation) because I read and keep reading those daily emails because they are sensible and and practical and thats what you need early in the morning when your daughter has very serious notions of killing herself
To subscribe to this blog, Keith, in order to make pointless unfounded negative statements that have no basis in truth, is at its worst very unhelpful to those of us facing real life crisis and at (its) best, your remarks ( on this comments column)are simply the empty words of a foolish man, shame on you.

As always thanks to David and his team
Arohanui ki a koe
Shona

this for years. Some people might not agree with what he says but if you dont thats okay. Be thankful that he takes time out in his life to help others. This world needs more people like him. Thanks Bob keep up the good work !

David I don’t like conflict and have always tried to back away from it but i still would like to make a point. I do agree with you, Its hard to know with this blog when someone is ranting whether or not its down to their illness, But manners don’t go astray, Running other people down isn’t on.

Annie At least you know why you reacted the way you did on yesterdays blog, Keith on the other has no excuse or at least he says so himself other than to be rude. When I read yesterdays blog Annie I felt you were saying what most of us were thinking anyway but wouldn’t admit it. you were defending us bipolar people. We all react to things in different ways and that was how you reacted. so be it.

There’s a lot to be said for manners Keith.

God Bless Amanda.

It is sooo sad that some people feel a necessity to tear others down to build themselves up. This happens in all walks of life, I know, but in this case, it’s doubly sad. I have come to the realization that what I’m trying to deal with is severe depression and has been going on for years. I am not bi-polar, but the information you give us has helped me muchly.
Keep the information and encouragement coming – it’s badly needed. Lets hope that those who have had their daily dose of “haterade” (I LOVE that word! Thank you!)will come to understand that THEY have issues they truly should deal with.

It seems to me that both Keith and Troy are in the middle of a full manic episode. When my boyfriend was in his episode last spring he was in total denial of having bipolar disorder. He believed he was God’s special ambassador to save the world and all doctors and health professionals were sent by the devil to stop him. When he was discharged from the psych ward he could not remember much of what happened during his episode. Unlike most people with bipolar, Keith does not seem to be creative or inventive in any way, or he would not spend all this time writing dozens of repetitive negative comments.

DAVE, please don’t let a small minority of people discourage you. A vast majority of supporters and survivors really appreciate your help. Keep up the good work.

i am new to this group here and enjoy it very much. everyone has different ideas and perseptions of what this disorder is and how it should/can/could be treated. every bit of info that any of us with bp can obtain is of help. thank you dave for taking your time and energy to do what you do. and shure there are drug companies trying to push meds all over the us, look at the tv ads, but dave, i don’t think so. most of us need some type of chemical balance change to take place in order to become more aware and present. bp people take meds that’s that. all of you who responded above, kudos and peace.
thanks dave we love ya
laurence

Dear Dave

Both my husband and I are ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. about 2 years ago we got married, to my surprise I found out that he was bypolar/sczsophrenic/manicdepressive,
without any training,or prepration,oreducation. I almost lost
my mind.

I ran for my life,on sep 6, since then I have been fighting for my life
I would not have gotten married into such a nightmare.
I want to say thanks for this undending amount of information, I surely am very greatful, no words to describe how I feel for finding you. many many thanks,

may GOD continue to use you in this purpose, I did not have a clue.looking forward for my next email.

Rev. Elijah Mrs

I have not yet decided to purchase this program, because of many reasons, but I wish to clarify to all of you who question the validity of Bi Polar Disorder, and the nature of it, both short term and long term. One thing I am NOT skeptical of is the validity of the illness. My dad was diagnosed with “Manic Depressive disorder with Homicidal/Suicidal tendencies with Severe Psychosis” over 30 years ago. For many years, we really didn’t understand the illness, and frankly, still don’t completely. However, with that said, looking back over the course of my entire life, my Dad undoubtedly was what is now called Bi Polar most of, if not all of his adult life. It took some really radical and bizarre stuff to happen before he was diagnosed, and then it took many years for him to be forced into stability and ultimately permanent disability. For the past 15 years, he has lived with me, and has been fairly stable on his medications, although for him, never able to live unsupervised and on his own. Suddenly, this past year, he went into a Psychotic Manic state that took nearly two years of very subtle changes to produce. He is 75 years of age and was taking his medications regularly. This is a disease that is never going to go away, and can rear its ugly head when you least expect it. Because of his stability, and our understanding of the disease and how to provide an environment which is conducive to helping to reduce triggers and control outside influences…and our endeavors to do so, I never expected him to go through what we just did. It took three weeks for them to get him sufficiently medicated by changing medications in order for him to be released from the hospital. The toll that this illness takes on him, as well as us is absolutely unbelievable unless you have witnessed it first hand, as many of us have. My dad ages at least 10 years every time he goes through a manic phase. I have a picture of him from about 16 years ago in which he looks like a 90 year old man…so much so that people who have met him in the past several years cannot believe that it is the same man. He has been a picture of health! He now has aged much more than his 75 years, in just a few short weeks.

It is so easy to be harsh and judge incorrectly those situations and people that you know nothing about and don’t understand. I have done it myself, and deal with it constantly from those well meaning people around me who think that people with this illness merely make bad choices that land them in their dire predicaments. What I didn’t used to understand, and neither do these people, is that they don’t possess the ability to make anything other than poor choices, left to their own devices.

This is getting long winded so I should end this, but I want to say that patience, understanding and education go a long way. When you run out of those tools, God’s grace will carry you the rest of the way.

I have an adult son, who is also undiagnosed Bi-polar, who has learned to self medicate. For all the world, I wish I had understood this illness, and recognized what I now know were obvious signs of Child hood Bi-Polar disorder in him from the time he was 3. Because of the self medicating…it will be even more difficult for him to be diagnosed properly until such time as he ends up in enough trouble that the courts or medical personnel will listen to us and force him to get help.

My parents literally lost EVERYTHING that they worked their whole lives for…except 6 loving children, one of whom is capable, by the grace and mercies of Almighty God of caring for an aging mentally ill parent, who also suffers from the permanent physical impairments of the side effects of the medications that he has been on for over 30 years.

While there is hope, this is not a piece of cake walk. It is a journey that will ultimately lead to the loss of our loved ones, physically and possibly mentally (depending on the severity)(my dad has the severest form of this illness) The difference with the helps that David appears to offer…is that the journey can be made a little easier, and we can at least understand what it is that is taking place, and offer the love and support that they need while taking necessary precautions to protect ourselves and them from needless frustration and loss. By doing so, we can enjoy them for as much of the time they have on this earth as is possible to do so rather than dreading encounters with them!!

My best to all of you, who struggle with Bi-Polar, or who know someone who does. It is definitely an illness that affects EVERYONE it touches – in ways that cannot be adequately measured!

David, I wish you the best with your mom, and I will be curious to see down the road many years from now how things have progressed with all of you!
Jo

Hello, Everybody!

I choose to IGNORE the Nutter and his negative comments on this Blog…he knows deep down who he is.

Whilst driving home after shopping yesterday, I said to Martin that IF my Operation was cancelled for today, then Universal forces would be behind it for my protection. Sure enough, the Hospital rang last night and post-poned all the Ops due today because of a Flu Epidemic that was keeping Staff off work and causing newly admitted Patients to take up all the Beds.

At the back of mind I recalled reading about Lunar Cycles and how the book ‘Moon Time’ had suggested that different times of the month were best for different things. As I couldn’t find it amongst my huge collection, I looked it up on the Internet and under ‘Surgery’, found that the Full Moon appeared to be responsible for Operations to have more complications than if it were a New Moon. As last night WAS a Full Moon, I’m wondering if my Guardians were helping me to avoid substantial blood loss on the Operating Table, or worse?

Nightlady, thanks for your advice. I usually do adopt a new pet straight away, but as my health’s not too good at present, I’m going to have a break. My Border Collie’s relishing all the attention now on himself – he’s not grieving as much as other animals have done before and if anything, seems happier with the Status Quo.

I realise that your partner’s chosen you because I’ve kept up-to-date with your e-mails, but he’s got to stand up to the Ex and explain that her meddling and neediness is jeopardising your relationship and that he feels that it’d be better if she were to move on and develope and enjoy her life without him in it in the future. He can do it nicely without damaging her ego too much. If Martin had anybody from his past causing him aggro or attempting to upstage me, he knows that I’d dump him instantly unless he got rid of them.

Take care all,

Sue and all the animals. x