Topic Tuesday // Recognising and managing mania // 28 March, 7 - 9pm AEDT

Welcome @Froggett - your brother is lucky to have a sister who is interested in what she can do to help him.

To answer your question, you can encourage your brother to take his medications every day, to see a psychologist, and to start to learn his triggers so he can avoid future episodes. Unfortunately, it is possible that if things get bad you may have call the authorities and have your brother taken to hospital. Even though it might feel really hard, it’s the right thing to do.

If you want to do some reading, the Bipolar Caregivers website is a great resource which explores these issues in detail, see http://www.bipolarcaregivers.org/

EDIT: Typo

Welcome to the discussion @Froggett.

@Jess2 that's a really important point you raise about work and other people's perceptions and misunderstandings of bipolar.

How do others approach stigma in the community, workplaces and even friends and family @davidharper_bal and @SusanaBA?

When I was wrongly diagnosed having Schizphrenia and medicated accordingly, was the only time I experience hallucinations, more auditory.

My understanding is that tose symptoms are regular ones for people with Schizophrenia.

However, in bipolar it could happen and the nature of what the peron sees and hear are very different. In bipolar are related to real things, you believe you are virgen mary (psychosis) and it passes in certain time.

In schizo. the heavy hallucinations are rlated to thinking the TV is talking to you, or you see ailiens, or imagine your neighbours having talking to you(when they are on holidays and the house is empty.

@SusanaBA (and whoever else who can answer this), is it common to have other diagnosis with bipoar?

@CherryBomb @Jess2 unfortunately stigma about mental health conditions is still very high, so handling things in the workplace can be tricky.

I personally feel that how you handle it depends on the situation, but to be specific to the issue @Jess2 raises, I think letting people know that you have a condition which can cause specific symptoms ahead of time helps to frame their thoughts about events which may subsequently occur.

Issues related to employment can sometimes be a major problem for people with bipolar, due to the episodic nature of the illness. That means working with a psychologist to understand the triggers which may exacerbate symptoms can be really helpful.