The majority of my bipolar disorder coaching practice involves a crisis situation where I help family members and partners get a loved on into treatment. In over 50% of the situations, the person with the illness is a heavy pot smoker which fuels the episode.
I have a plan I use and it WORKS, until we run into law enforcement that simply have no idea what they are up against when they go to the door of someone who has a mental illness.
In the past three days, I’ve worked with clients to locate the loved one who is ill so that we can send help. In every situation, the police arrive and the person with the illness 100% talks them out of this help. I have faith that law enforcement can change where needed. There is training out there!
One parent wrote me recently and said that the police officer who was sent to help his suicidal son who is aggressive and disruptive to the family called the father back and said- “This looks like a family problem, why won’t you help him?”
Can you even imagine a doctor saying this if we called for help for someone who is having a stroke or heart attack?
Here’s a quote from a People Magazine interview I did about Amanda Bynes called ‘Why It’s So Hard to Help Amanda Bynes’.
“Indeed, Bynes was released from the psychiatric facility following a mandatory hearing that occurred three days after a judge ruled she needed to spend at least another month in treatment.
But her release doesn’t mean her mental illness is in check. Says family coach Julie A. Fast, who’s written several books on mental health, including Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: “Somebody with psychosis can be raging, screaming and threatening to kill you, but in front of an authority figure they can completely calm down.”
There is good news- my goal is to get someone into treatment and I do help families and partners make it happen. Sometimes we get help from the police and most often we do it on our own. It is possible! I wish Amanda’s parents would call me!
Julie
PS: We are in a marijuana crisis that is growing daily. Pot and bipolar disorder don’t mix. Ever.
Click here to read more about my family and partner coaching. I am here to help.
I have never did dope or smoked anything i am not boasting either just stating a fact about me. Yet I am a BP sufferer. I can imagine they wouldn’t mix and you wouldn’t be doing yourself any favours by trying to mix them either. I yhink BP is hard enough to control with adding fuel to the already lit fire.
Dear Julie and Ohers,
Pot I feel is low on the list of Dangerous drugs I feel the Scourge of the 21st Century is METH so many young lives are being ruined by this Sreet Drug.
Lets just say I know of at least one person now almost 50 Diagnosis is Bi-Polar and Border Line Schitzo..
Stopped taking His Meds for his Mental Illness and switched to Street Drugs and Meth and is now Homeless Dillusional accuses Family of having Chips installed in his Brain says he Inherited Facebook and it was stolen from him now his friends say he is starting to threaten them with harm.
Police say they can not act unless he actually does something.
5150 hold and Eval no help as soon as he mentions Brain Chip implants and Facebook Inheritance etc they turn him loose..Thought you would be interested how bad Meth is and this is where someone is not violent.
Hello Ben,
Pot is now high up on the list due to the high THC content. I was talking with an ER doctor yesterday and he said that now that pot is legal here in Portland, Oregon he is seeing older patients come in with psychosis because they thought the pot they smoked in their youth was the same as today. I’m NOT ANTI POT. It has its uses, but I do not feel its safe for people with bipolar disorder. Meth is dangerous as well. I live in Oregon- one of the highest drug states in the US. Meth is at epidemic proportions, especially on the streets. Pot is catching up with this now that it’s legal. Thank you for your opinion and please keep writing! Julie
I’m just sharing my experience with Bipolar II to let those who experience this know that there are others feeling the same way.
Everyday I live life like it’s a dream and I feel like I was born into the wrong body. Nothing people says, or do, will really change how I feel. The days pass by and at the end of the day I ask myself, “Did I do anything today?” because all the feelings just vanish and I don’t feel any emotions or remember anything. No emotions when I watch TV, read, talk to people, etc. I end up becoming depressed, because I’m depressed. I know how I should be responding to things that happen, to what people say, but I just don’t feel anything. At the end, I end up just faking everything to seem normal.
Where are those energetic, hopping bunnies that should be within me? There wasn’t really any huge event that changed me. I’ve always been like this for as long as I could remember. Like a lifeless, grey bunny hopping around in a world full of color. Everyone around me feels happiness, empathy, excitement, etc, but I can’t. It’s difficult to think of words to express those feelings because I don’t feel them.
The best thing to do now is to share this experience with your family, cousins, friends and peers. There needs to be more coverage on Bipolar and one day a treatment will be found. I’ve started to share this only recently because I was scared in the past, but life is just speeding past me. I almost don’t care anymore.
By the way, DR. BEN CARSON FOR 2016 PRESIDENT! The candidate with the most experience in healthcare.
Hi,
I personally am not Bipolar, but many MANY people I love, are. My husband, my two very best friends, and several other close friends.
One of my friends, before admitting she needed a diagnosis, did pot to “help her” stabilize her moods.To be very frank, it did not work, and I had to step back from her life because I was watching her downward spiral knowing there was nothing I could do to help her. It’s not an answer, and people who love you and care, don’t want to see that happen to you.
I think it’s fantastic you are publicly saying that pot will not help with bipolar, I wish more people would…
Hello Maddie, It was SO hard to say this to people before the latest research came out- SO many in the legalize industry were thinking about the old pot- not this new super high THC strain. I am not anti pot overall. I actually don’t care what people put in their bodies as long as it doesn’t affect other people. Also, medical marijuana when used correctly can work miracles. I’m simply interested in educating the public about this pot and people with mental health disorders. Our brains are not like other brains. We don’t process substances like people who don’t have bipolar disorder. I used medical marijuana after my back accident and can say from personal experience that I almost went into bipolar disorder one full blown dysphoric mania from smoking small amounts that were relatively low THC. I will never use pot again. It’s a personal choice. I don’t like being manic and psychotic! Good luck with your friend- if she can get pot with only traces of THC it might help her see the dangers. Thanks for speaking out as well. Julie