The Daily Life of Supporting a Bipolar

So one thing any "real" doctor will tell you is there is thing to the "Full Moon" and the "crazies" that happens. 

We actually warn each other on the support group when the full moon is coming.  For us, signs of an upcoming full moon are....hypomania, unusual happiness, increased sex drive, increased spending, decreased need for sleep.  In my case, these changes start about 4 days before the moon, the day of the moon can either happen two ways, he can be either be in full mania, or he can crash. 







Crashing is a whole nother story. 

Crashing means he will sleep all day, for about 3 days straight.  He will get up to go to the bathroom, maybe eat a yogurt, and take his meds, have a smoke, and go back to bed.  If I am lucky he will let the dogs out, but not usually.  

The hardest thing about this cycle is he will complain he hates it and wants to stop it, but he doesn't recognize the cycle.  I can write it on a calendar and show him when it will happen or when it happened last, predict the next time it will happen, but he won't believe me. 

When we were looking for his new psychitrist, I asked the dr "do you believe in the full moon?" he replied "I am supposed to tell you no." which made me smile and laugh.  We both really like his currrent dr.  It's important to a good dr, one your trust, who will work with you and listen to you when you have issues with the meds.  When he needed to make a change to his meds, the dr was more the willing to work with us.