Coping with Bipolar Disorder

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Bipolar Disorder

This post is – as should be obvious from the title and first heading – about Bipolar Disorder.

To be absolutely clear: This post is NOT about me.

I do not have Bipolar Disorder.

Bipolar Disorder is something that affects me, however, because one of my partners has it.

And so – since I’m focusing my A to Z on ‘health’ this year – I thought it might be useful/helpful/interesting to have him write a bit about how Bipolar Disorder has affected his life. Also, I think that while there are a lot more resources available now than there once were on the topic, most of those resources are geared toward people who have been diagnosed themselves. There has been very little helpful information I’ve found that is geared toward partners. (Except a standard, “they can’t help it” message intended to somehow encourage blanket acceptance of any and all assholery. Which, as I’m sure you can imagine, goes over really well with me. NOT.)

So I’m going to chime in here and there as well. 😉

His words are in green.

My [bracketed commentary] is in black.

CONTENT NOTE: The text below discusses bouts of mania, depression, thoughts of suicide, PTSD, and abusive relationships. If you choose to read on, it is important to me that yours is an informed choice. 🙂

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Advocacy

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Taking On The Role Of Advocate

When I first married my husband, I largely left his medical whatchamahoozits up to him. He made his own appointments, took (or didn’t take) his medications as needed/prescribed, and generally just Handled His Own Business.

And then, a little while down the line, I realized: He’s not really equipped to do that.

It’s not that he’s unable to take care of himself.

It’s more a matter of his needing support.

(We all do, honestly. Especially in medical situations.)

So I started going to appointments with him once in a while. I got clarification on what kinds of things he should/should-not be doing where medicine and diet and physical activity were concerned, and sort of… I dunno… Coached(?) from the sidelines, with little prompts like “Remember, Doctor Hardtopronouncelastname said…” and “Make sure you eat suchandsuch before you…” and whatnot.

And then came our first experience of surgery.

It was an emergency, something completely unexpected. And when, at some ungodly hour of the night, the doctor emerged and told me my husband had made it through the procedure just fine, I stayed at the hospital long enough to see him settled into his room then took myself home to sleep off my catastrophic migraine for the rest of the night (with full intention of returning the next morning).

When I returned the next day, I realized my mistake.

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THE LIST: Sex(y) Bloggers A-to-Z’ing

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The following Feverish folks (a.k.a., members of this blogging community — *grin*) are participating in the annual April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge along with me (listed alphabetically, because of course):

If you are a member of my community and are playing along but your name is not on this list, please let me know. I will happily add you. 🙂

To see how the project works, to check out the entire list of participating bloggers (people all over the world participate in this thing every year, from every country imaginable and from all walks of life), or to sign up yourself, you can visit the A-to-Z site here.

[Signing up on the main list is not required to play along with me. 🙂 ]

To those of you who are writing for this challenge: I will come support you!

For those of you who are reading here during the month of April and are looking for some new blogs to read: Please click one of the links above and show our fellow bloggers some luv!

{This post will remain on my landing/home page through April 10th.}

2020 A-to-Z Blogging Challenge

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Tomorrow, it begins!

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