Living with a person who suffers from Manic Depression

Manic depression or Bi-Polar is a form of depression that many people have some know they have it some do not.
Its just chemicals in your brain that make it happen, sometimes because of life events, sometimes the reasons are unknown.
You should be open minded about it and learn about depression if your living with someone with it,
then you know more of what there is to expect, there are some places that offer help with people living with depressed people.
Try and get the depressed person a social worker, a confidential person who they can talk to.
Only problems i had was social workers would not tell me how my mother was feeling and i lived with her by myself so i never knew what was going on most of the time.

What can i expect?

Well i have lived with my mother all of my life, and she had a incident at work that triggered off her depression and she became bi-polar.
I didnt really know what to expect as i was young at the time maybe 13 or 14.
I started to mainly realise the mood swings sometimes my mother could be a real laugh when she was on a high, but on a low she would be asleep on the sofa would not want to go out as she would get panic attacks, sometimes get angry over nothing, also would not eat either, which made the cycle worste as she would have no enegy.

Sleepless nights- Sometimes Bi-Polar suffers have problems sleeping, the mind is racing they maybe tiered but just unable to sleep or sometimes having really strange dreams when they do sleep, sometimes nightmares.
I think the best bet would be to see a doctor for sleeping tablets, i know i would not be happy with no sleep.

Drinking Alcohol

This is the worste thing when somebody is low, can lead to bad things, my mother use to drink red wine and that would make her very angry and turn on you for no reason. There had been many suicide attemps. I know most people like a drink but sometime when people are depressed and drink its really unfair on the people around them. Try not to let them drink much, i know they may not like it but most problems occur when there is alcohol involved,
if they want to drink maybe beer and lemonade or Rose and lemonade not enough so they will be drunk.

Food- At low times they may not want to eat, but try and get to eat something, toast, buiscuits, sweets anything is better that nothing. Heathy food is the best like pasta, healthy diet, heathy mind

Going out- Sometimes all a depressed person wants to do is hide themselves away from the world,
try taking them out to place were they feel relaxed, even going out in the garden for fresh air is good, you have to start somewhere.

What should i do when there manic?

.Keep an eye on what there buying, sometimes it can be best to take care of there finances.

.Dont let them drive, mum use to scare the hell out of me in the car.

.Keep them company

Please if you have anymore idea's or thought on this subject please tell me and i will update and add more.

Thanks For Reading

Dean