Hi,

Remember when you were little and played Let’s Pretend? You might have pretended that you

were a ballerina… Or a cowboy… Or that your dog was your horse… Or that your coffee table was your spaceship… Or that something handy was your gun to kill the aliens… Or you dressed up in mommy’s clothes and pretended to be an adult… Or any number of things.

That’s what children do. They pretend. It’s part of their growing up experience. But as they get older, they learn that Let’s Pretend is only a game. As they get older, they learn that reality is a serious thing, and that they have to learn to face it. Those that don’t, have serious problems.

You can’t just play Let’s Pretend when you’re an adult and you’re facing situations like those that come with bipolar disorder and think that they’ll just go away by themselves.

You’re not a child anymore. And this isn’t playtime – this is real life. You may see this behavior in your loved one. They may get so stressed out that they start to pretend that their problems just

don’t exist anymore. They just don’t deal with them.

Say, financial problems. They stop paying the credit card statements. So what happens? The statements keep piling up – they don’t just go away because your loved one is pretending that they don’t exist. And pretty soon you’ve got bill collectors calling you for the money you owe.

Let’s Pretend isn’t funny any more. You are in serious financial debt. Your loved one isn’t dealing with it, so what can you do?

Well, for one thing, you need to cut off the credit cards, or at least freeze them until you can get the balances down to a reasonable level. And make sure that your loved one no longer has access to the credit cards.

Keep one card for emergencies, and in case you need to make hotel or plane reservations or rent a car. Then destroy the other credit cards. This way you will be protected and your loved one can no longer use them if they go into a manic episode.

Then begin paying down the debt on those cards until you are out of debt and the balances are zero on those accounts. Then cancel those credit cards, just keeping the one for emergencies. This will keep you out of future debt.

This may sound drastic, but financial debt is one of the biggest problems that bipolar supporters face when their loved one goes into bipolar episodes, especially manic episodes.

Taking control of the finances may be hard at first, but you will see that it will make things easier in the long run. Eventually, you will become financially stable.

Well, I have to go!

Your Friend,

Dave