bipolar/hypomania

Hi Lulu

It sounds very tough in deed for you at the moment! Obviously it's a mistake to offer any definitive diagnosis over a forum.

However-the grandios feelings coupled with extreme restlessness and paranoid thoughts do certainly sound like mania. Manic episodes can be related to drug taking, genetic predisposition to bi-polar disorder or even be produced through severe sleep loss. Is your husband sleeping much at the moment?

You can't force someone to be treated under the mental health act unless they are deemed unsafe either to themselves or others. If he were to be sectioned he would receive a course of treatment in a hospital. His doctor would be the first port of call if it had to go this far.

Manic episodes may not be proceeded by a depression but do often develop after a period of greater than usual stresses.

Relaxation and calm are what a person going through mania needs. Instinctively he may be turning to society's most popular relaxant-alcohol. However drink further interupts qaulity sleep which will further increase the mania.

All you can do is be supportive, talk to your/his doctor about your options, encourage him to relax, as relaxation has a balancing effect. You could even ask him to teach you to meditate and relax so that he feels he is doing something 'spiritual.'

The pay off will be that herelaxes more.

thanks for your reply.

I think the sleep factor might have something to do with it, as he has not been sleeping too well, and only well when he's had quite a bit to drink. He's also not eating enough - I have to keep encouraging him to eat properly - if I don't, he will get by on coffee, crisps, cigarettes and beer. I have had to adopt a real 'motherly' role, but he seems to be better when I give him that kind of additional support.

We both have been under a huge amount of stress lately which really hasn't helped, and he knows that he really needs to relax and slow down. He has been doing some Tai-chi which has helped, but it has also become something he is rather obsessive about - he likes to talk about it alot and will also do demonstrations at any given opportunity!

Thanks for the tips about the meditation - I think he will respond to that pretty well.

Thanks for your advice - it really means a lot to know that I'm not alone.
L

Hi Lulu,

I just joined up and was drawn to your post. It is quite bizarre because it sounds like you are describing my brother. He also drinks very heavily and recently self-destructed his life, his work in the city and his marriage, for a lover who has recently been sectioned as a bipolar schizophrenic.

For most of his adult life he was a beast of burden - super responsible - married young and well, rather boring.

There is a depth in the sudden eruption - however - which is certainly bathed in psychosis (although when someone drinks heavily it is hard to determine what is causing the mental imbalance.) When my father was 39 he died suddenly from the weakness of years of alcholism. My brother was 16. Our parents had been divorced seven years earlier and we were geographically removed so the death was a deep shock and there was no public grief process - on the contrary grief would have been a betrayal of my needy mother.

My brother is now 38 and I believe from my own experience of a the same pattern that what is manifesting is a frozen grief process - in him it is especially harsh as he is a man - with no father role model. He is also desparately hungry for spirituality and is finding signs under every dust-pan.

I found that under the guidence of a grief therapist and with a lot of internal work, I was able to liberate great parts of myself that had been frozen since that bereavement. It involves moving through the pain and the fears and a lot of courage but there is instant pay off when direction is found. It is very empowering.

But the alcohol has to be taken care of. It is extremely unbalancing. There is a place in Islington called th Core trust which offers holistic therapy for coming off drink and drugs. The psychotherapists there come from a background in contemplation so his spiritual yearnings would not be thwarted.
There are some other places around the country that do live in but they are expensive.

There is also a guy in London called Manuel Shoch, you will find him on the internet. He is a student of a remarkable spiritual healer Bob Moore. He has a background in psychiatry and psychology and would be able to cut to the chase with your husband very quickly.

I also feel the need to say that you are part of this problem. I say it without judgment. Patterns develop and faciltation of a particular state in our loved ones is often coming from a need to maintain stasis - to survive. If you are committed to each other I would really reccommend you consider going into a growth process together.

I would be happy to discuss this further with you. My heart goes out to you in a situation so close to one which has taken up much of my energies in recent months!