Dear jblair1064, you question regarding that you feel your wife might be bi polar doesn't give any reasons as to why you think this. I'm assuming she's showing classic signs. I'm not a health professional, however one of my sisters & 2 cousins, & my pastor's daughter suffer from this illness. I know A LOT about it because of the dark road we as a family have been down. I also know there is much help out there & that there can be an end to the darkness. There is a specific test a dr. can give your wife to determine if she truly has this illness. And as for you, does she hear voices, do abnormal things at possibly abnormal hours, take baths for hours without washing or go days without a bath, does she flip out, violently flip out over nothing, is she doing dangerous things such as hitch-hiking, sleeping w/strangers, walking for long distances at night, etc.? In other words, what are the symptoms that you see that makes you feel she has this problem. My sister is a great success story. She suffered 1 nervous breakdown at 19, then another complete breakdown a couple yrs. later. She did & said things that were not her at all, she did everything & more mentioned above. It came to the point that the sheffif had to come to my father & tell him nicely but firmly that he was going to have to do something about her else he would be forced to pick her up with a med-team & straightjacket & have her committed himself. Naturally our father committed her the next day. My sister felt betrayed, abadndoned, unloved, & unwanted. But after 30 days in a health care faucility, where she was diagnosed & stared on meds., she began to recover. Part of the recovery was seeing that she did truly need help, realizing she was loved & wanted. However, one of their problems is believing they don't need to take their meds once they begin to feel like their old self so they'll stop. She had to be montitored, quite actually, it came down to our mother beginning to make her smoothies, where the medication was crushed & hidden. Then after months of being on the meds. & doing so well, we told her she'd been taking her drug all along (w/her phychiatrist present). She was then able to understand she indeed did need her medication & has been on it since. My sister is fully productive, finished college, is a basketball coach/P.E. middle school teacher & married. No one would ever know she ever had or still has a problem. After meeting many other people who suffer from the same illness & take their meds routinely....you can still sense, if not literally tell, that something is amiss about these women. They are not functional in a normal sense & still battle severe emotional issues. The vast difference between my sister & these others is one thing....we as a family are Christians who have prayed, prayed, prayed, loved, loved, loved, & spoke the Word of God over my sister for 20 yrs. now. The Word of God says"By Jesus Christ's stripes we were healed" and that "He bore our sickness & infirmities for us on the cross" "And the chastizment of our peace was upon Him". Those are promises, & between those a perhaps 50 more, we prayed by speaking these promises over my sister night & day. And we continue to do so. My sister did things during her dark days that I don't feel at liberty at the moment to go into....as she is very embarrassed about all that junk back then. What I'm saying is, she was in trouble, seriuos trouble, we could have lost her. The point is, she wasn't just a little this or that....it was bad, almost as bad as it can be, she didn't sleep with a student or murder someone but that's about all the poor thing didn't do. And now look what has happened, she may not be completely well, but she is so very normal, able to function on high levels, & even more, she's happy...giving all the glory to God. One of our cousins hasn't been so fortunate. No one in her family would commit her & then when they got her home MAKE her continue her drugs. She kept running away until finally they all gave up on her. She lives under bridges & in shelters in San Antonio, where the voices told her to go! She has no contact with her family. We only know certain things about becasue of rescue missions, etc. taking down our names & numbers & calling collect to keep us informed as to where & how she is. She once hitch-hiked from Texas to Maine because the voices told her she had to get to Stephen King, that he had a message for her. We do know that she was raped on her journey. SO....get your wife to a doctor, tell him alone your fears & why you think she has this, then ask for the test. Whatever is dianosed, she MUST take her meds. It takes about 2-3 wks for any med we take every day to get completely in our system. Becasue she isn't going to believe she needs the drug or will think you're trying to poision her, you must commit her for 30 dys where she'll receive couseling, nutritional meals, monitored at all times, as well as made to take her medicine. Good blessings with this, whatever the problem is, nothing is too big for our God, so pray! And I will be praying for you both. Let me know what you decided & found out. Your friend, Trishahearon
