disorder
Being A True Friend To An Adolescent With Bipolar Symptoms
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 | Relationships | No Comments
There is this nasty stigma that is stuck to the phrase “mental illness, bipolar victim or Im a Psycho in a lot of cultures. Peoples first reaction can be shown in their eyes and then their body if they hear you have a “mental illness” or tell them ” I’m bipolar. Their body language will be slightly tense and will tend to back away, without thinking. There have been cases where people whom they consider to be friends reveal that they cannot handle it and leave after the revelation. But there are others who will stick around during those difficult times. Bipolar victims need to stick with these type of people who will stay in there in the good and the worst of times.
Living the Bipolar Symptoms
Children with bipolar symptoms tell us the wave of emotions they experience in the last several years or months. These adolescent bipolar children can have great friends, a wonderful family, a place to call their own, have their wonderful rooms, pets and a wonderful boyfriend who loves them yet; there is no joy in having all of these. At times dealing with anything takes too much energy and so they do not really want to do anything. Even the little things like smiles, eating, picking up the phone takes a lot out of them. This is a sure sign they are slowly sliding downward toward the murky and dark depths of bipolar depression.
Other Signs of the Depression
Many bipolar children prefer to keep to themselves in their home or in a classroom environment because there are hardly any good friends to talk to or even lend a listening ear. Sometime they would prefer to go into their own little world and forget everyone and everything surrounding them. In school they would would not interact with the other children. Because their brain is not in focus, paying attention to what the teacher is saying and trying to learn in the classroom can be very difficult. This is like trying to fly a kite westward but the kite is going eastward because the wind is taking it that way. Controlling the situation is beyond their power.
True Test of Friendship
None of your friends knows what its like to be a young adolescent with bipolar symptoms until they have experience it. The hospitalization, suicidal contemplation, loss of energy, staying in the room for days only leaving to use the toilet or to go to school is not a nice thing for both the sufferer and the people who are there to help. A good friend will not only know that these are happening, but will seek help either in a mental hospital or be referred for diagnoses. If you have a person who will stick by you, stick to them because you will always have somebody to turn to.
A Really True Friend
Even when your family cannot handle you, a person who stays by your side through thick and thin is a good friend indeed who can save your life.