Mum to 20 year old son with bipolar 1

Hi there @Elsie-may

Welcome to the SANE forums! It's great to have you here and thanks for telling the community a bit about yourself and your son. I'm sure the forum members will be able to offer you support, information and connection. I'm the moderator on duty right now.

Feel free to ask the SANE forum team or the members if you need help with how to use the forum. You might like to check out the Guidelines as they can be pretty useful in understanding how it all works https://saneforums.org/t5/help/faqpage#community-guidelines.

Take care.

Whitehawk

@Elsie-may Hey Elsie-may being diagnosed with a mental disorder is a tough ride. I was firstly diagnosed with bipolar I now schizoaffective disorder. I also have a son2 with mental health issues including schizophrenia. It is hard to come to terms with particularly for young people. The most important thing for your son is that you are well and the rest of your family are too. You must take good care of your own well being during his recovery which could take months .... it took years for me to be honest..... same with my son2. If you could encourage your son into taking his meds to avoid hospital that would be a good start (that works for my son2) and eating well, no or limited alcohol, no drug taking and exercise .... everything a young person doesnt want to hear lol but true unfortunately. Take care. greenpeax

ps: if you want to talk with me or anyone else on the forums put a @ infront of their name like I did for you then a notification will be sent to them of your post.

Thanks @Bunniekins. I would be greatful for any tips on how to convince him to stay on his medication. You would think 3 hospital admissions for psychosis would be

enough! We do all we can to support him, but also understand he has to make the choice himself, and its so hard watching him make the wrong choices and suffer the consequences.

@Elsie-may yes if I was young I would find the meds hard to take. They make one drowsy and put on weight etc. not fun but are necessary to be stable, without voices and to lead a normal life. I was talking with my psychiatrist and she said that the more a patient has episodes the worse the prognosis is ..... it figures really but maybe that will put the fear of god into him. With my son with schizophrenia just the thought of going back into hospital is enough for him to take his medications. We take ours together morning and night. Being cray-cray is not a good look so maybe that is another way to help with your son to adhere to his medication regime. It is tough as he being 20 he can do as he likes but with that comes the consequences. pea

Hi @Elsie-may ,

Welcome to the forums!

It is so challenging to watch your child go through such difficulties. I can only imagine how tough things are for you, and with three kids to take care of as well.

Not sure if you have come across this yet, but I found this resource here from Headspace, which could be helpful for you to take a look at 😀

Take care, Peonies