Hi,

Guess what happened to me? I was volunteering at support group the other day. There was this man who was totally out of control. He was talking loud. Interrupting. Walking around. He was scaring people. Circling around them. He came over to me. And said all kinds of things to me. It was really making me mad. Then I just looked away. I saw several people walk out. I thought that this person might attack me. I actually prepared for it in my head. At the end, I went up to the other members. I complained to them that this person should not be there.

They said, “Well he is a good member normally.”

I said, “That’s great. But you can’t let manic people disrupt the meetings like this, for their own safety and the other people’s safety.”

The person running the meeting said, “Dave it’s not worth the fight.”

I was like, “And you are supposed to be a facilitator with that kind of attitude?”

I told him that there should be someone who should have stopped this man from doing that

kind of behavior.

And it seemed like I was the only person who was, like, scared of this guy, you know?

Everyone else just acted like this was NORMAL!

I tried to reason with people, but I finally gave up. Sometimes you can’t reason with unreasonable people. If they couldn’t see anything wrong with letting a manic person “run the show,” no amount of my complaining was going to do any good. Even if I was right.

Let me tell you something: Bipolar disorder does NOT give you a FREE pass on bad behavior.

Remember that.

There have been cases when people did all kinds of crazy things. And supporters just stood by.

They didn’t know what to do. They were embarrassed. They didn’t want to fight with a person with bipolar disorder. The person got fired or suffered other dramatic consequences. Supporters were made to look like fools.

But it’s your duty as a supporter to step in and get your loved one into treatment. Don’t be like the people at that meeting I went to. Don’t let your loved one be the manic person who goes crazy acting out and just doing whatever they want to just because there’s no one to stop them.

Just remember that bipolar is NOT a FREE pass on bad behavior.

Your loved one needs to be held accountable for their behavior.

You know how sometimes the way they act during a bipolar episode makes you angry?

You need to be able to tell them so! And there need to be consequences for their behavior, too.

There is right behavior and wrong behavior. Good behavior and bad behavior.

And bipolar disorder is NOT a FREE pass on bad behavior.

Just like you or me or anyone else, your loved one is accountable for their bad behavior.

Well, I have to go!

Your Friend,

Dave