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  • From: jennifer91670
  •   To: All
  • 1 of 3
  • 6/25/10
I have a son who is 21 years old who has Bipolar Disorder, and is no longer on our medical insurance. He has stopped taking his med's and has gotten himself in to allot of legal trouble. He goes through his moods that are so out of control he is so hard to deal with, no matter how much I beg him to do the right things he just never does. Is he even capable of logic understanding and why does he not get i? when someone has Bipolar Disorder is it common that they do things that can cause them to get in to so much trouble with the law, and do they really understand at the time that what there doing could have life altering effects and that it hurts the people that love them the most? 
  • From: sand0605
  •   To: jennifer91670
  • 2 of 3
  • 9/6/11

You are not alone. I have a bipolar son myself and he is 26 years old. I went through so much with him when he stopped his medication. He had over 50 traffic tickets, 6-7 car accidents at his fault, stealing and jail. He was out of control because of his bipolar disorder and substance abuse. As a mother, I was grieving. If I could trade my life to save his I would gladly do so. Now, he is taking his medication, doing better and we both hope that it would be better.
Discipline is difficult when a child has any type of mental or neurological illness. If your child is a rapid cycler, the challenge of responding properly is even bigger. The simple answer is you cannot force a person to take medication but you can educate him. He needs a professional to explain the benefits of taking medication. Perseverance is the key. If he wants his life to improve or if he wants any hope of recovering he needs to be convinced. This relies on alot of marketing. The person needs to have the idea of hope sold to them. Medication needs to be portrayed as a positive thing, rather than a punishment for being who they are. And yes, he had problems with the law enforcement because he was not stable and if he doesn't want to help himself he would hit rock bottom sooner or later like my son did.
When your child is well, discuss measures you should take when he is not able to help acting out. Set up a system of signals he can use to let you and his teachers know when he needs extra help in controlling his behavior. These can help you gracefully remove him from a situation, before things get out of hand. Good luck to you and your son.

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