Hi,

How are you? Yesterday I sent you an email about
a person that I interviewed that was really
successfully managing his bipolar disorder.

I said in the email that he talked about
“catching” a bipolar episode before it became
a full fledged episode. He said that if
you don’t catch it in time, it has to
run it’s course.

I agree with what he is saying and think his
thinking makes perfect sense. With that said,
I received emails from people asking if you
could catch bipolar disorder from someone.

Many bipolar supporters indicated that they
felt like they were catching bipolar disorder
or becoming bipolar from being around their loved
one who has the disorder and is not stable.

Here’s the deal. First let me say I am not a
doctor and not offering medical advice. Based
on what I know and have read and I have studied
this for a long time now, you can NOT catch
bipolar disorder.

BUT, I know for sure, there are these situations
that can make a person feel like they are catching
bipolar disorder from someone else.

If you are around an unstable person with bipolar
disorder long enough you may:

-start mirror their behavior
-get really frazzled and start acting erratic
-start to feel angry and have mood swings yourself
which tends to go along with your loved one’s mood swings
-get depressed about the situation you find yourself in
supporting a loved one with bipolar disorder
-feel really angry that you are not making progress with your
loved one
-scream and yell at other people because you are taking out
your anger on them
-find yourself missing appointments because you have lost track
of time trying to help your loved one
-feel like you are going “insane” because your loved one accuses
you have so many things, and says them with such certainly,
you feel almost crazy when you hear the accusations.

If you look above some of these things I listed are signs
of bipolar disorder. SOME but not all. And there’s a lot
that goes along with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. I find
that if you are experiencing the feelings that I just wrote,
it’s perfectly normal if you are supporting someone with
bipolar disorder and they are not stable.

It’s not that you are catching bipolar disorder rather
your situation is causing you to feel a lot of things
that the person with the disorder actually can feel.

THERE’S A SOLUTION

The solution to this problem is to focus on getting
your loved one proper treatment. Once your loved one
has proper treatment, he/she will not do all the things
that cause you to feel like you are catching bipolar
disorder. You may be thinking, “Well Dave, that’s common
sense.” Although it may be common sense, it’s really
uncommon with many supporters in this situation. Most
keep banging their heads against the wall not really
having any strategy, focus or goal rather only
hoping for some kind of miracle that will fix their
loved one and make all the problems go away.

This won’t happen generally. If you are a supporter,
you have to help your loved one. And I will say this.
If I had bipolar disorder, I would want someone who
is my supporter to go all out to help me get the
right treatment so I would be stable and not be
doing and saying things that create lots of problems.

In my courses/systems:

SUPPORTING AN ADULT?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11

SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarparenting.com

HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.survivebipolar.net

Many supporters talk about feeling like they
were going insane or that they were getting sick
themselves. BUT, the people who are success when
it comes to supporting someone with bipolar disorder
focus on getting a loved one into treatment even
if they don’t want to go. This is why in my material
for supporters I have a lot of information and strategies
on how to get someone into treatment that doesn’t want
to go.

Well I have to take off for the day. Have a great day
and see you tomorrow.

Your Friend,

Dave

P.S. Check out my F.ree blog with copies of emails
that I have sent in the past and lots of great
information for you:
http://www.bipolarcentral.com/supporterblog/

P.P.S Check out my F.ree podcast. Hear me give
mini seminars designed to teach you information
you can’t learn anywhere else.
http://bipolarcentral.libsyn.com