Hi Julie,

Recently, my daughter switched from Risperdal to Abilify. I am hoping Abilify will be good for her, contrary to what I have heard. Do you have any information regarding the success of bipolar people on Abilify?
T.

Hi T.

Risperdal and Abilify are anti psychotic drugs. They are often used in the treatment of bipolar disorder. If a person is really manic or psychotic and has to go to the hospital, anti psychotic are often use to get the person to come down from the mania and psychosis. The dose is often very high. When my partner Ivan was so sick in 1994, he was immediately put on anti psychotics and mood stabilizers just to get him out of the mania, so this is common.

What a person takes depends on their symptoms. Many people with bipolar disorder do well on a mood stabilizer such as Lithium. I do well on a depression, rapid cycling prevention drug like Lamictal. I can’t take anti psychotics due to side effects. Anti psychotics are often used in combination with other bipolar disorder treatment drugs.

Abilify is a relatively new anti psychotic and is known to have less side effects than some other well known drugs such as Zyprexa, especially in terms of weight gain. This doesn’t mean it’s a better drug than Zyprexa- just that it’s a good choice for many who gain too much weight.

Abilify can be agitating, so that has to be watched. It just makes me sleep!

What matters is that the drug works. Finding a right dose can take a lot of time. It’s a balance between effectiveness and side effects.

So, this is a long answer to a short question- yes, people with bipolar disorder use Abilify. It works for many. It is not a treatment for depression, nor is it a traditional anti manic drug. It is mainly for psychosis.

I suggest your daughter uses her Health Cards for psychosis and sees if the drug helps.

Your daughter has to make sure she is on all of the right meds.

She is so lucky to have a mother who looks out for her!

Julie

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Hi Julie,

My son, age 33, is bipolar and has made bad choices/decisions.  I have tried to assist him over the recent past.  The issue is how do I tell whether I am assisting or enabling.  I am looking for appropriate support organizations or resources to guide me.

Can you advise me?

Thanks,

R

Hello R,
 
You can look into the family to family program at NAMI- if you go to www.nami.org you can find a location near you.
 
My book Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder is for couples, but it has great info that you can use as well – the issues of caretaking are the same.

BP Magazine at www.bphope.com has a lot of info for families. I write a column for each issue.

My family uses my Health Cards to help me. They are life savers. You can use them yourself whether your son participates or not.

I need to write a book completely for family members!

These are resources here in the Us. I will find some more worldwide organizations and post them later.

Julie

Dear Julie,
Do you have any information on how to help someone (my brother) with BP who is required to pay child support, but cannot due to his BP condition?  He is headed for jail b/c he is so behind on his child support payments.  There must be some type of justification in the courts that understands that he cannot work enough to make the payments. It is very stressful for all of us. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thank you,
L.C

 Hello L.C.
 Wow, this is quite a question. The justice system is very used to seeing
 mentally ill people- but are not always up on what to do.
Here are some ideas:

- Get an official letter from his doctor with detail on his diagnosis, the meds he takes and his work ability. Can he get a doctor’s statement that he’s actually not able to work?

- Search your county for a court that is known to understand mental health concerns. He is probably assigned a judge, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Here in Oregon, we have mental health courts- they are changing the way the justice system handles mental illness.

- Find out if he has any rights under American Disabilities Act- this is a long shot, but worth a try.

- And finally, he needs to talk with his partner and explain the situation- he has probably done this many times, but it has to happen.

If he is not able to financially support his children, I am sure she wonders who will. It is not her fault your brother is not able to work and I assume she just wants his help. I think your brother has to look at it from both sides. What would he do if he were in her position?

I, of course don’t know any of the details of the situation, but it seems that there has to be better communication all around. This may be a very frustrating answer to your question as you may have tried all of this already, but if it didn’t work the first time you have to keep trying.

Does your brother use a very effective treatment plan daily so that he can hopefully go back to work one day and support his children? That is a goal that is reachable and one that will certainly help the situation.

Yes, this is complicated, but there are options.

Julie

Hi Julie,

In your radio show you spoke of your “brain chatter”? Can you explain what you mean by this? (You may have explained it already and I missed it.) For myself, sometimes I just run the same words over and over in my head when I am anxious, maybe in a group of people. I do not believe it to be psychosis (i.e. audio hallucinations), or even a delusion, but one thing I do know it to be: annoying. It is even as if it exists in a certain physical location in my skull.

Weird—huh?

I told my sister about it who said, “No you don’t!”
I lied and agreed with her, “You’re right, I don’t.” 

C.

Hi C.

Ah, brain chatter. This is what I call the brain in a blender feeling I get when I’m sick. I have so many thoughts and sounds in my head I have trouble functioning. It’s like having a group of people following me around while talking to each other through my ears.

I get it with agitated depression – the opposite would be catatonic depression where I don’t really have thoughts at all.

Agitated depression is noisy- there are often comments about what you’re doing wrong and how you’re never succeed. You can hear conversations you have already had or ones you’re going to have.

The brain chatter is really bad when I’m psychotic as the noises are distorted and very confusing. They just won’t be quiet. Sometimes I hear someone talking to me or feel like I’m at a very loud party where I’m not a welcome guest.

You can have manic brain chatter as well.

I simply use the term brain chatter to mean the thoughts, sounds, noises, voices, music, etc in your head that you don’t want there. You didn’t ask for it and you want it to go away so that you can think clearly.

When I started to get a lot better last year, the main improvement was LESS BRAIN CHATTER.

My book Get it Done When You’re Depressed has techniques for getting rid of it.

That’s funny that you had to lie to your sister! We can’t expect everyone to understand our weird brains!

Julie

Julie, it took my fiancé to call the cops twice to make myself sign into the hospital for treatment. I was hurt and angry @ first as to why she did this because  I didn’t understand what was going on at that time. I yelled at her and told her I didn’t want her to visit me. That’s when the doctor told me I was full blown bipolar disorder and more.. But  since April, 2006 a lot changed: the right meds- a great pysc dr and  counselor and things have been going great..

Curt in Altoona,  PA