A Question About Bipolar and Medication

[brittany575]

My mother has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and has been taking medication for her problem for over 5 years now. My question is, does medication completely remove the symptoms of the disorder or does it just lessen them? I have noticed she is still very depressed, will not leave the house, does not care to have friends etc. Can anyone tell if medication alone is supposed to fix this problem? What else can I do to help?

[Amy4891]

The medications treat the symptoms only they are not a cure. The medications help to lessen the severity of the manic and depressed episodes so she may still have mild mood issues. If you think her depression is more severe possibly like the others have said medications can become less effective or stop working over time.
Bipolar can be a lonely illness indeed. I don't have any friends either. Alot of people do not understand bipolar and that sometimes makes it hard to keep friends. I have given up on having friends too. She is not the only bipolar person to not care about having friends. My mother is 54 she has bipolar also and she stays in her house most of the time. She doesn't really have friends either. I just make sure I go visit her often. Since we are both bipolar I guess that makes it easier to understand one another. Also loss of interest in life can be a symptom of depression.
I know you are young and it must be hard for you dealing with your mother at times. I didn't know much about it at your age either so I did not understand much about what she was going through. I spent alot of time being confused about her and myself and the bipolar disorder. I suggest you learn as much about it as you can.

[brittany575]

Oh she is not old at all. She is only 53. I am 19.
She has been to the hospital and definitely had both mania and depression. (Scared people were coming after her, Thinking she was going to be the queen, Slept maybe one hour a day, Racing thoughts spoken out loud etc.)

And yes I did mean our GP I didn't know who else to go to. I just thought maybe this ghost situation could be linked to her bipolar but I could be wrong.

[adel_ezz]

how old is she.

some old aged people talk about ghosts as part of a fantasy. it isn't necessarily hallucinations. Unless when she speaks about them she seems very scared. Sometimes Alzheimer pts have this.

you said our family doctor , does it mean the GP of the family because you need to talk only to psychiatrists.

about her mania, have you read the literature or internet about mania symptoms because it's very specific. a doctor has to see her during this phase and not just your opinion. has she been to hospital?.

in short apparently she constitutes a kind of burden to you but also you feel responsible. if the case persists and you can;t help it especially if she is home-bound or lives away from you then you can look for special homes particularly if her case is serious.

good luck  

[brittany575]

I think she has Bipolar 1 disorder? Before the medication there was definitely mania as well. Now its much more of a depressed state. However, I do believe she still also has hallucinations, because she tells me ghosts will poke her shoulder, or arm.... I am wondering if i should tell my family doctor about this because when I ask my mom if she believes the "ghosts" are caused by her bipolar, she swears it is not the cause. Just a bit confused on what to do.

[blackcat111]

medication is not a cure. wouldnt it be nice if we could take a pill and hey presto we were better. i have bipolar disorder and i suffer from the worst depressive lows. i sound alot like your mum i dont want to leave the house. i guess you just have to enjoy the highs and try to survive the lows. i take seroquel xr and seroquel and lexapro. it can sometimes can alot of goes to get the right medication combo.

[schizofriendia]

Medication just alleviates the symptoms where you can deal with them and survive, if the drugs work.

[adel_ezz]

if you mean complete remission NO. But it alleviates the bad symptoms a great deal.

As to the phases of BP, some manifest mostly depression others tend more to the manic side but by definition the pt should pass by both phases while others cycle between both phases rather quickly.

As to your mother feeling depressed all the time she needs an antidepressant sure. The more one gets older he needs antidepressant. Because the liquids in his body start getting depleted. He can have a little of diabetes due to lack of insulin, depressed for lack of seretonin, arthritis in knees for lack of lubricating fluids, low libido for lack of sperms, etc... So i suggest you ask your pdoc or another one about her depression. If antidepressants don't do well perhaps ECT etc...

Also when the person doesn't do anything interesting in his life he usually get depressed, so try to let her get involved in the society or perhaps her friends can visit her to encourage her to go out with them. Depression is difficult to treat.

It is rare that a person over forty starts to be diagnosed with BP usually it develops after adolescence. It;s mad that pdocs discover that a person has BP at that age. Could she have unipolar depression only or she had mania before. is the pdoc you saw is not a GP because some doctors write all types of drugs they think they will eventually changes the person attitude and activities, sometimes they write useless drugs. medicine is more of an art  Because if after 5 years she still feel depressed then the drugs aren't good enough

[Samantha_Dragon]

Medication alone can but does not fix depression. I would suggest your friend start going regularly to a therapist, which they should be doing anyway bacau we depression medication is tricky. Sometime it isn't effective sometimes it just stops working and a lot of the time it's the wrong medication for the person.
Let your friend know that your worried about them and tell them to go get help.