my best friend has bipolar?

Question

hi i added a question about my best friend and wondered if she considered me as just that still. Turns out she got diagnosed with bipolar about 2 days ago at college. she told the counsellor that i was the only one who understood her because of me having schitzophrenia and that i was doing counselling. I used to worry about her leaving and things because she got really hyper and wanted to go out all the time then next minute she was angry then the next really depressed. I understand that it isnt me now. I told her when she told me that i still see her as my best friend not someone who has bipolar although i will do everything i can to help and support her. I am on here to ask is there any ways i can help her when she does get extremely down or hyper or angry? i dont want to make things worse with my symptoms when i get down. Please help!! she trusts me and told the counsellor i understand her and vise vera. i do but sometimes i feel so close to her the next miles away. its hard. Ruth x

Answer 1

It's hurtful to a see your Friend go threw these different stages of emotions, but you're a true Friend, because you're try to understand her difficult emotions. And you understand that the things that she does is not towards you. All you can do is been there for her , just like what you're doing right now. Beside there medication that she can take for her Bipolar Disorder. I hope that I help in some way....

Answer 2

Hi Rufu. I am so sorry that your friend was diagnosed with Bipolar. However you can be a good friend to her since you have schizophrenia and can understand most of her symptoms. The symptoms of different mental illnesses overlap. Most mental illnesses are caused by a dysfunction in brain neurotrasmiters. In your case since your brain neurotrasmiters are unbalanced you are able to perceive things that a regular person can. In your friend case, the mood swings are also caused by an unbalance in brain neurotrasmiters. The spiritual explanation is that she has a spirit attached. When the spirit rules she feels extremely down and when she rules she feels extremely happy. You can be a good friend. However she needs help from a psychiatrist who can medicate her and diminish her symptoms. I would like to know more about the symptoms of schizophrenia. [e-mail]

Answer 3

well, I happen to have bipolar dissorder. and as a personal expierence i'd have to say, that it's best to let a bipolar person who's angry to just run themselves out. if they do happen to get destructive, try to calm them. not with force, just lightly approach them and ask what's wrong. they may say that nothing's wrong, or that they don't know, but just keep persisting. if and when they get depressed, comfort them in a very loving manner, telling them that it's gonna be okay, and that you're not angry w/ them. and when they're hyper, use it to their advantage, by taking them to play say Football or Basketball, or even Dodgeball... this is the best that i can do for you, if you have any questions just
e-mail me at [e-mail]. p.s. Keep up the good work...

Answer 4

First, I think you should remember that you need to take care of yourself. You say you have been diagnosed with schitzophrenia . You don't need (and probably can't handle) more drama in your life.
Tell your friend you will be there to support her but you are not her therapist. She needs to find a professional to help her. You can just be her friend
Please remember to take care of yourself !

Answer 5

Just try to keep yourself on a level field. Don't go hyper with her or get excited when she does. Just stay calm.. regardless. That helps ALOT.

Answer 6

Chocolate makes ppl happy
exercise wit her it rases your endorphens
just listen to her

Answer 7

I am also friend.

Answer 8

go shopping and a movie..that'll cure it . ;)

Answer 9

I like you to know that my wife is bi-polar and how she gets thou life is first: She sees her psychiatrist every 3 months and stays regular by taking her prescriptions that her psychiatrist recommends. Know that if your best friend is bi-polar know that her condition is medical this means that she has a chemical imbalance in her brain and the only way to straighten it all out and be normal is by taking her Med's regularly. If her doctor gives her something that don't seem to work tell her to tell him immediately. Because my wife told me it took many months and even years to find the right combination of medicine before she felt normal. One of the biggest mistakes I have heard bi-polar people say and plus I can truly tell you personally from experience with my wife that bi-polar people may think that they don't have to take there medicine because they feel fine one moment but they then feel hyper,childlike or depressed another moment. So, am telling you that always encourage your best friend to take her medicine because this is one big important step to have I great,healthily,long and strong relationship with your best friend. In addition, me and my wife are Christians and we believe know matter what life gives us that we believe in God and Jesus to help us through it! I have battle through just depression and my wife like you know is bi-polar and the one thing me and her agree on is that what really turned our lives around before we met each other was these three things: 1. Knowing that God and Jesus Loved us and that we knew we were valued! 2. Knowing we had people on our side at church, in our social life and in our family that cared about us! and 3. We both had to get ourselves out of the atmosphere that we were in! If all you do is stay in the darkness thinking about how it is never going to get better and think why life is not worth living. Than your going to be proving yourself right and it will not get better! But, if you build a personal relationship again with other people and most importantly a relationship with God! Then you will see yourself back with a renewed joy! Know what the bible says about depression: We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed! (2 Cor. 4:8-9)God said: Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired and weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who HOPE in the Lord will RENEW THEIR STRENGTH! (Isa 40:28-31,41:10,Ps.50:15)
I would not be telling you this if I had not experienced what you feel myself! Know God loves you, and He wants to come into your life and give you a joy and peace that you could never experience any other way. Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you" John 14:27. God created you, and God loves you and your best friend. His only Son, Jesus Christ, loved you so much that he gave His life on the cross so you could be saved and break free from in perfectness, sin and this depression to become a child of God. Give Jesus all your worries and burdens. When you accept Jesus Christ into your life, something wonderful and supernatural happens. God Himself comes to dwell within you! You become part of His family, and you can know the joy of His presence every day. If you or your best friend don't know Jesus I would encourage you and your friend to pray. Right now and I encourage you to invite Jesus into your heart, ask him to help your best friend find the right combination of prescriptions if she is indeed diagnosed as bi-polar which only a doctor can tell you! I to will be praying for you and your best friend because me and my wife was too once where you are now and the only way we are still alive is because are faith and trust in Jesus saved us and he showed us the better life we could be living if only we put our faith and trust in Him. I would like to encourage you to read a bible! start with the gospel of John! There you will find a story of a man named John the Baptist the paved the way for another man named Jesus that loves you and will bring you guidance and hope to your life. Know church is a great place to get support for you and your best friend. Know a lot of Church's have small groups and support groups! So, I would encourage you and your best friend to do that because it wasn't till me and my wife started putting Jesus first before our self's that our lives started to get better, we had a whole new image of ourself's and we started to see how much we were really loved and valued in God's eyes. I leave you with a passage from the bible that started to pull me out of the darkness and into the light: TRUST in the Lord with ALL of your heart and lean NOT on your own understanding; in ALL your ways ACKNOWLEDGE HIM, and he will make all your paths straight. Prov. 3:5-6. I would like to recommend two great books to you and your best friend for finding purpose in your life: 1. Joel Osteen: You Best Life Now: 2004 and 2. Rick Warren: The Purpose Driven Life: 2002. My prayer for you and your best friend is to ask Jesus to lead your heart so you may trust him that everything will be all right and the next step you take will be right in line with what he wants for you in life, and what life is suppose to be like in serving him! In Jesus Name Amen
In addition my wife's email is [e-mail], Her name is Stacey if you need farther guidance and help if your best friend would like to talk with her!