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Posted
Hi, I'm Heath and my new wife is BP... she's medicated, and seems to be swinging from the "Up" of our early marriage, into a month long "down".

I love her, I love her son as my own, but all I read is, "It's going to get worse... run like hell"

She is verbally abusive one minute, and affectionate the next... I don't know what to say, or who I'm talking to at any given moment.

She is on Lamictal, Prestique, and Zoloft... but her "Down" doesn't seem to be touched by this.

Help.
 
Posts: 1 | Location: Portage, Mi | Registered: 08-02-2009Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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You say she is your "new" wife so I take it you are newlyweds, eh?
You didn't say how long you knew her before you were married or how long you 2 have been married so I will run on the assumption that you haven't been married very long and you didn't know her all that well before you married her.
I say that cause she didn't "just" develop BP overnight, she had to have had episodes prior to the wedding ceremony.
Any change, good or bad, creates uhm change. With change comes stress and with stress comes uhm change in mood for those with Bipolar. The whirlwind of getting married, settling in with a new way of living and relating as husband and wife, bringing the child into the mix may have created a "up" swing at first.
Now, all that has passed, the day to day stressors have sunk in, and now the "down" has entered the picture. Even on medication, even on the right medication, she can still have "swings" and her swings have symptoms of their own.
One maybe verbal language spouted in hostility at any given moment spontaneously.
The medication you listed; Prestiq and Zoloft, if I'm not mistaken are anti-depressants with Prestiq being the newer one on the market. Lamictal is the mood stabilizer ingredient. It is given very low and very slowly at first until it's right dosage is reached to avert potential adverse reactions. You didn't say if she has reached her right dosage on it yet.
I'm just surprised though cause most psychiatrists don't like to prescribe anti-depressants to those with Bipolar. Many folks with the disorder when taking anti-depressants can be thrown head first and flying into a manic and/or hypomanic episode in pretty rapid short order term.
You might want to keep a check on that.
Is she going to therapy? Are you going to the doctor appointments and therapy appointments with her?
If she can get on a med therapy treatment that works and she stays on it and she goes through therapy to help her learn what might trigger things and help her de-stress, she develop a routine and some structure cause we with the disorder do better with routine and structure, there is real hope all will work out well.
Not saying there won't be bumps and valleys and brick walls slamming from time to time but if she makes a concerted effort to manage her illness and you make a concerted effort to support her (but not caregive cause she needs support not a caregiver), there is a real chance things will work itself out.
It will take time and effort on both of your parts but then marriage takes time and effort on both parts anyway, right?
 
Posts: 20 | Registered: 05-19-2009Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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