It was difficult to know what, when and how much to tell our child’s school administration. We moved our daughter from a large competitive school to a very small school whose faculty had experience with kids like our daughter. We credit that school with her eventual high school graduation after she’d discussed dropping out and getting a GED for several years.

Medications during the chaotic years included anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, anti-anxiety drugs, ADD drugs, drugs for sleep and anti-psychotic drugs. Some of the side effects have been serious and frightening. No combination of medication has been very effective for our daughter — we are still searching. Throughout the ordeal, we have used talk therapy in conjunction with medications. We’ve found that this combination gets the best results in the medical literature.

The ideal basic treatment for bipolar disorder would include regular sleep habits, good diet and daily exercise, but our daughter cannot comply with this basic regimen. Either due to her illness or the side effects of her meds, her sleep is disturbed, her diet often geared to make her feel better and her exercise habits erratic. She often uses recreational drugs in an effort to self-medicate, and this almost certainly makes the treatment regimen less effective.

For us, family therapy has been critical in understanding how to deal with this tragic and disruptive force in our household. We had another child who was born deaf and had other disabilities since birth, so we’re already a household with more challenges heaped on the marriage and family dynamics. Therapy for the other family members in addition to the bipolar child is probably what has allowed us to continue as an intact family.

We have learned to continue plodding ahead each day, trying to improve our daughter’s health and hoping that maturity “evens her out somewhat” — as so many providers have predicted.