Sunday, March 17, 2024

How To Convince Bipolar To Take Medication

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Offer Facts About Bipolar Treatment

BIPOLAR DISORDER: Shame & The Consequences of Stopping Medication

So my best advice is to take a very logical approach with a loved one and deal with each fear one at a time. Sit down and ask the person why they are refusing treatment. Only he or she knows for sure, so make sure you at least understand his perspective as its absolutely real and valid.

And then start dealing with the fear. If the person is afraid of doctors, this is perfectly reasonable. You can help by researching what will happen in the appointment ahead of time. You can help by researching doctors in the area and finding the best one. You can help by facilitating and going to the appointment. You can help by supporting the patients wishes during the appointment. Doctors absolutely can be scary but what a patient really needs is someone on his side so that he doesnt feel out-gunned by someone in a position of authority.

If the fear is lack of trust or faith in medical treatment, this is understandable too. Then its time to do research on treatments and find success stories for the person to read.

In short, calm, rational conversation can often pinpoint exactly why a person is refusing help and doing some research on your part can help assuage whatever fear the patient may have.

Pharmacologic Interventions For New

Steven J. Garlow, M.D., Ph.D., discussed pharmacotherapy for 3 types of new-onset or breakthrough acute mood episodes: manic, depressive, and mixed. Manic episodes can cause severe behavioral disturbances, activation, psychosis, and agitation depressive episodes can cause neurovegetative symptoms and psychosis and mixed episodes can cause agitation, distress, and psychosis. When patients present in an acute bipolar mood episode, they may or may not already be receiving treatment. Untreated patients may not be receiving treatment because they have never been diagnosed and treated or they have stopped taking their maintenance medication. Alternatively, patients may present with a breakthrough episode that occurs despite adhering to maintenance pharmacotherapy.

Dr. Garlow emphasized the overall treatment goals for patients in acute mood episodes: rapid relief of symptoms and transition into maintenance therapy that will prevent or minimize mood cycling. Rapid relief of acute symptoms is critical because of the high risk of suicide29 and the devastating consequences that an acute mood episode can have on a patient’s life. Urgent intervention in acute mood episodes is necessary to prevent hospitalization or shorten a hospital stay that may be stressful and demoralizing for the patient.

Outline Benefits And Have A Plan Ready

As long as your loved one is still in a position to have a rational conversation about treatment, you can engage them and have a serious discussion. Talk about the benefits treatment could bring. For example, if your loved one is struggling to live the life they want to, talk about how treatment can help them make changes and set and achieve goals.

Hone in on specific things about their life that they dont like. Maybe your loved one has a hard time maintaining a long-term relationship or keeping a job they enjoy. Talk about how untreated bipolar disorder is probably getting in the way of achieving a healthy relationship and a rewarding career.

It also helps to have a plan already in place when you start this conversation. Be prepared with a few options for rehab, therapy, and treatment plans. This makes it easier for your loved one to take the concrete step to get help, but also gives them a choice and a say in where their treatment goes from here.

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Tips For Coping With Bipolar Disorder In The Family

Accept your loved ones limits. Your loved one with bipolar disorder cant control their moods. They cant just snap out of a depression or get a hold of themselves during a manic episode. Neither depression nor mania can be overcome through self-control, willpower, or reasoning. So telling your loved one to Stop acting crazy or to Look on the bright side wont help.

Accept your own limits. You cant rescue your loved one with bipolar disorder, nor can you force them to take responsibility for getting better. You can offer support, but ultimately, recovery is in the hands of the person with the illness.

Reduce stress. Stress makes bipolar disorder worse, so try to find ways to reduce stress in your loved ones life. Ask how you can help and volunteer to take over some of the persons responsibilities if needed. Establishing and enforcing a daily routinewith regular times for getting up, having meals, and going to bedcan also reduce family stress.

Communicate openly. Open and honest communication is essential to coping with bipolar disorder in the family. Share your concerns in a loving way, ask your loved one how theyre feeling, and make an effort to truly listeneven if you disagree with your loved one or dont relate to whats being said.

Supporting a person with bipolar disorder

What you can say that helps:

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If you decide to keep the guide, take the next 45 days to go through every bit of information I’ve included in How to Get Your Loved One With Bipolar Disorder To Take Their Medication. Take notes, and test some of the strategies for yourself.

If you don’t agree that How to Get Your Loved One With Bipolar Disorder To Take Their Medication gives you the blueprint you need to get your loved one to take their bipolar medication, I demand that you ask for your money back.

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Sometimes All Of These Things Make Me Feel Like Im In A Losing Battle But More Often Than Not The Medication Wins

Because, well Im happy.

I dont want to romanticize medication. Because it, for most of us, isnt a cure. I see mental illness as being a long-term, chronic condition, and its one where youre in a constant state of recovery.

My symptoms havent completely gone. I still experience occasional mania and depression, but nothing like it was before.

For me, remembering to take a few little pills in the morning and evening, despite the side effects, is worth it.

But at the end of the day, everyone deals with their mental health differently and everyones opinions on medication are valid. For some, like me, it works but for others, it doesnt.

As long as you find a non-dangerous way of getting some help, support, and treatment that works for you, thats all thats important.

Factors That Affect Treatment Adherence

One of the main barriers to effective treatment of bipolar disorder is patient nonadherence to clinician-recommended therapy. According to a recent study,69 45% of patients with bipolar disorder are nonadherent with pharmacotherapy. Nonadherence to mood-stabilizer treatment predicts higher utilization of health care resources, including psychiatric emergency visits and psychiatric hospitalizations.70 Because proper adherence to treatment can increase the chances of symptomatic and functional recovery, lessen the severity and mortality of bipolar disorder, and reduce the economic costs of bipolar disorder, treatment adherence is an important goal for patients and their clinicians during maintenance treatment.

According to Dr. Jackson, a key determinant in maintenance treatment is the therapeutic alliance between the clinician and patient. The choice of treatment itself is a part of this alliance because of the cost, possible adverse effects, and ease of use of different medications. Other variables that affect the therapeutic alliance include the patient’s insight into his or her illness, insight into the available treatments, and logistical challenges faced by the patient, such as making and keeping appointments with health care providers and acquiring insurance coverage.

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Overview Of Bipolar Disorder

If you want to know how to support a friend or loved one with bipolar disorder, learning more about the condition can be a helpful first step. Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition characterized by extreme fluctuations in mood. These shifts in mood make it difficult for a person to function in their daily life including at work, at home, and in relationships.

The mood fluctuations that people experience can include mania, hypomania, depression, and mixed episodes. It is also important to recognize that bipolar disorder is strongly influenced by genetics, but environmental factors, such as poor social support and trauma, are also thought to play a role in triggering the onset of the condition.

Statistics suggest that around 4.4% of adults in the U.S. have bipolar disorder.

Some things that you should never say to someone who has bipolar disorder include the following.

Some Bipolars Dont Want Treatment

3 Reasons Why Staying on Bipolar Medication is So Hard | HealthyPlace

People with a mental illness are just like everyone else some of them want to change, some of them dont. Some heroin addicts want to change, some dont. Some people with bad fashion sense want to change, some dont. But you cant change any of these people unless they want to change.

No matter how much you care about Joe, this might just be something youre going to have to accept.

APA ReferenceTracy, N. . How Do I Convince My Friend To Get Help For Bipolar Disorder?, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 2022, February 26 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/breakingbipolar/2010/09/how-do-i-convince-my-friend-to-get-help-for-bipolar-disorder

So true everthing I have read. I am going through this with my 35 year old daughter. I have come to the point of cutting myself off from her due to the abuse. It is killing me. Like everyone else no matter what you do its not good enough. One minute they love you and the next the phone is being blown up with the most awful and hurtful texts. She thinks we are all crazy and there is nothing wrong with her. I am now at a loss.

In reply to by Anonymous

Natasha Tracy

In reply to by Anonymous

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Bipolar Disorder Is A Stigmatized Condition

Stigma surrounding mental health conditions still exists in the media, online, and via word of mouth. Many people with mental health conditions dont seek help because theyre concerned about being treated differently whether thats at work or in their social lives.

But its not just stigma from others that creates challenges in accepting bipolar disorder.

If youve recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, you may carry that stigma yourself. You could have internalized a certain prejudice against mental health conditions that makes it harder for you to come to terms with your diagnosis.

The recent news of your diagnosis might bring up thoughts like: Im dangerous. Im incompetent. Its my fault. Why try?

This kind of internal monologue is often the result of self-imposed and societal stigma. To help you understand and change these unhelpful thoughts, it may help to read about someones experience going through something similar.

About 3 in 4 young adults and teens seeking information online about depression said they were looking for personal stories from people who went through what they did in the past.

The value of sharing stories isnt exclusive to depression or being a teen. It can be incredibly comforting and inspiring at any age, particularly if youre living with bipolar disorder.

Not sure where to start? You may want to check out one of these many blogs devoted to bipolar disorder.

Maintenance Treatment Goals And Barriers

Guidelines for the treatment of bipolar disorder85,90 state that the goal of treatment is to seek full remission of all symptoms and to maintain wellness over time. Dr. Gardner reported that common barriers to full remission in patients with bipolar disorder include mixed states, depressive relapses, and subsyndromal mixed, manic, and depressive symptoms. Mixed states raise the risk of suicidal ideation in patients with bipolar disorder,22,93 and subsyndromal mixed and manic symptoms often predict syndromal relapse.7779 Depressive relapses and subsyndromal depressive symptoms are particularly associated with impaired functioning and impaired quality of life in patients with bipolar disorder.77,94 Finding ways to seek full remission of symptoms and sustain robust wellness is the ultimate goal of maintenance treatment, since functioning and quality of life are inextricably linked to patient treatment goals.

For maintenance treatment to be successful, attention to safety, tolerability, and treatment adherence is essential otherwise, patients and clinicians may face poor patient outcomes.95 Reviews9597 of safety and tolerability profiles of bipolar treatments conclude that continued patient monitoring is necessary for both treatment adherence and optimal treatment outcomes.

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Refusing Medication Because They Believe They Dont Need It

Unfortunately, this can be the hardest situation. Once a person is well, they see the medication as a hindrance, forgetting that it is the medication that made them well. This is a trick of the mind. No one wants to be on medication and this is a trick the mind plays to provide an excuse for refusing medication.

A loved one can approach this situation with logic such as, remember before the medication, you did such-and-such, whereas on the medication, youre able to such-and-such . . .

However, the truth is that the patient may simply have to fall before they realize that it was the medication that was holding them up. For a loved one this is painful to watch but try to remember to be there if something like this happens and help out with returning to treatment.

Everybody Has Mood Swings Sometimes

Bipolar Teens More Likely to Develop Drug Addiction

That’s true. For one thing, 8% of American adults and 4% of adolescents have major depressive disorder, having periods of euthymia and depression. Even among those who do not have a diagnosable mental health disorder, people experience changes in mood.

But only people with bipolar disorder, cyclothymia, schizoaffective disorder, and related severe mental illnesses have repeated and severe mood swings between mania or hypomania and depression.

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Practical Strategies For Assessing And Stabilizing Patients In Urgent Situations

Tracey G. Skale, M.D., noted that clinicians have a number of sources of information at their disposal concerning treatment options, including scholarly articles, treatment algorithms, and medication package inserts. In light of these sources for treatment recommendations, Dr. Skale posed the question, what actions should a physician take when a patient presents in an acutely manic, mixed, or depressed bipolar state? Dr. Skale went on to detail practical approaches that psychiatric and nonpsychiatric clinicians can employ to ensure safe and rapid reduction of symptoms for bipolar patients in urgent situations.

You’ll Never Find These Strategies Anywhere

The methods in How to Get Your Loved One With Bipolar Disorder To Take Their Medication come from real life.

These are proven strategies. I know, because I have used them myself with my mom.

You’re going to be amazed at how simple it will be to use these strategies.

In this guide, you’ll learn the answer to one of the most difficult aspects of supporting someone who has bipolar disorder, and that is: How to get your loved one to take their medication. You may have already experienced what I did – that when your loved one doesn’t take their medication, they go into a bipolar episode, and when it gets too out of control that it can’t be handled at home, you may have to have them hospitalized involuntarily.

No supporter wants to do that to their loved one.

There HAS to be a better way!

To find out how to enable you to get your loved one the help they need, I didn’t use just my own experience. I also used the experiences of hundreds of other people that I’ve interviewed, so you could benefit from their experiences as well.

I picked up dozens of useful tips and strategies and you will, too.

Some of the things you’ll learn in this e-guide are:

You’ll find so many strategies that work well that NOBODY ever talks about!

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How To Help Someone Stay On Their Bipolar Medication

Just like someone with type 1 diabetes will always need insulin, a person with bipolar disorder will likely need to take medication for their whole life. Research shows that many of those who stop often find their symptoms return within a year.

As important as it is, people often don’t stay the course with their medication. There are some common reasons why someone might skip doses or stop taking drugs. If you have a friend or family member with bipolar disorder, you can help them stick with it. And knowing the reason the person quits using the medicine can help.

Make sure you tell them that you care about them, that you believe medication is key to their being well, and that you’ll be there to support and help them along the way.

The reason: The drugs don’t seem to be working.

Encourage patience. Many medications can take up to 8 weeks to kick in. So it’s not unusual to think they’re not working at first. Sometimes, they and their doctor may need to experiment for months or even years before settling on the right drugs and doses. Reassure them that most people are eventually glad they stuck with the process because they end up feeling a lot better.

The reason: They just forget.

The reason: They hate the side effects.

The reason: They just refuse.

There could be a number of reasons someone refuses to take a medicine. They might have a concern they’re not willing to talk about. Or they may not want to accept that they have a mental illness or that they need medicine.

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