My mother is definitely misdiagnosed as just depressive. I am positive she is Bipolar II.....When she gets shock treatments to get her out of severe depression, she is fine for a while and then she is on an anti-dep. for a while then she stops and I notice a change. She gets up really early, shifts things around, very busy but house is continuously messy, is calling old friends out of the blue, spends way too much money, drinks, paints things incessantly, irritable, cocky, all the while thinking this is completely normal........My question is, how do I get her to listen that she is experiencing hypomania? My Dad does not even want to bring up the subject for fear of a lashing out.....How does she not recognize she is acting entirely different? She is very good at fooling people in that she looks alright from the outside....but when I visit I notice something is wrong......Please help. It is very difficult to see my Dad come home after work and get the business from her........And we are afraid she is going to plunge into depression again......
Thanks!
If she is receiving ECT and anti-depressants... then, she has a psychiatrist, right?
Only a psychiatrist can evaluate and properly diagnose Bipolar and if she is receiving care from a psychiatrist... then, does the psychiatrist not know of the differences between the ECT treatments?
I've not personnally had ECT treatments nor would I choose to willfully undergo them. I've not really read enough to feel confident that they actually do anything to help overall - however, many would likely say they have helped them and if so, I'm glad.
What I do know though.. is ECT alters the electrical current in the brain and in doing so, changes logically would occur from what was her state prior to the treatments and what is her state afterwards. I also understand that it often times affects behavior control, memory, and cognition abilities (speech, etc..) for many.
Are we not sure that what is happening in between isn't a "reaction" to the ECT treatments perhaps?
Has your father been granted permission to speak with her psychiatrist about her condition and is he involved in her ongoing treatment? If he has permission, then maybe he should bring these issues up with her psychiatrist.
Even if he doesn't have permission to confer with the doc - he could still run the information by the doc. The doc just can't speak of your mom's condition with your dad without her written permission - but he/she can certainly listen.