Dual diagnosed bipolar--Identify and Survive

Hey Y'all!

I can't thank you ENOUGH, especially all of you who are newcomers to the bipolar support forum, for your posts during the past few days!

I have been laboring with a nasty virus of a kind which I always seem to get during strawberry season here in Florida. So, blame it on the strawberries, but I have simply not had the strength to participate in this forum with my usual excess. I do, however, "dial in" several times each day, and I just want you to know how much your participation has helped to strengthen me--and that's really how it works. When we are many in the same cause, one of us may fall down, but the rest together may lend strength to get back up.

Before I go back to bed now, I would like you to think about the role which substance abuse may play in our disease--how, in fact, a tendency to addiction of one form or another threads its way into our bipolar disease and how, in fact, addiction may make our recovery so much more doubtful and difficult.

http://bipolar.about.com/cs/dualdiag/a/0008_dual_diag.htm

The above link is just one more comment or opinion about something which, I believe, is hiding itself among us so effectively that our doctors cannot see the signs and so effectively that even we ourselves do not realize it.

If you know or suspect that you have both bipolar disease and the disease of addiction or alcoholism, or if you see any signs or you have any doubt, won't you please give some of your time and truth to post on this forum. Your admission and your story may help someone else identify with you and it may help someone else step from the darkness of dispair, to survive and to live. It's really that simple...!

Indentify--survive!

Thanks again!

Your friend,

Jim

I showed my sister your post (we've been raised by a bipolar mother). She's still chewing on it.

Just letting you know how much your help... helps.

Will keep coming back.

That was a rather interesting article. I, myself, self-medicated for years. From '99-'o5 I was a functioning alcoholic and I used to drink for two main reasons. #1- In order to be around people without getting too anxious & #2- To freakin sleep!

Now that I've been diagnosed and am being treated for bi-polar I rarely have the anxiety like I used to so I don't feel the need to drink like I used to. I still can't sleep worth a shit but I'm working on it.

I do find truth in the article though. My father was never diagnosed but ended up commiting suicide and he was an alcoholic. My sister who is diagnosed is also an alcoholic. She recently quit drinking and is seeking treatment.

Hope you're feeling a little better!

Nice to see you here. I was wondering where you went. I hope you get better, soon.

I also self medicated for years. I consider myself dual diagnosed. I got sober before, I got diagnosed. I think the use of drugs and alcahol to self medicate kept the bipolar hidden, and once, I got sober, It was able to show itself.

Now, I have a double blessing. I have the tools from my recovery from alcaholism, and the tools from my treatment for bipolar. They add to eachother. But if I don't deal with one the other suffers.

I have a couple of friends who have relapsed on alcahol because, they weren't dealing with their bipolar, and eventually they ended up in the hospital, or prison.

So, anyway, thanks for the article.

Thanks for posting this.

i hope you feel better soon.

and shasty...keep up the fight. it's scary but all you can do is keep up the fight and ask for help when it's too hard to do alone.

I just recently found out that bipolar was perhaps the primary culprit in my inability to stop alcohol and pot! And that is after 8 yrs. of AA. I was using alcohol at the end of the workday to relax and get a little boost and a little sugar boost right. Then after 3 beers or so, hit the pipe. Another beer smoke a cigarette hit the pipe. Continue process. It helped me to achieve at least hypo mania.Pot did anything but mellow me. I was alive and functioning. Answers were coming. I had arrived. one problem, you have to quit and go to sleep. That is where continued drinking was necessary.

I was manipulating my bipolar with alcohol and pot!

I am so glad to be 7 months removed from that. I got to where I could not function and am still living with my mom.

Love you all,

Jeff Davis

Welcome back? I have bipolar, and am in AA, too. I have 6 yrs sober.

So, I can relate to the bipolar effecting my addiction, and vica versa.

Congrats on the 7 mos.