Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder

Written by an author who has bipolar disorder (and who lived with a partner who also has bipolar disorder) and a coauthor with over ten books on the topic of mental illness, the book offers specific, practical and realistic tips on how a couple can work together as a team to create a treatment plan that teaches them to live with the illness while still maintaining a loving and joyful relationship. (Though this book is written for couples, friends and family members can use the techniques in the book as well.)

Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder provides hope and encourages couples to work together to create a plan they can use to help stabilize bipolar disorder so that their relationship can focus on love and companionship instead of the illness. Chapters include ideas on how to create a comprehensive treatment plan that incorporates medications and supplements, diet, exercise and behavior and lifestyle changes into one practical approach to this very serious illness. The partner of a person with bipolar disorder learns about communicating with their partner when they're ill, getting real about the situation and how to take on other roles in healing besides caretaking. Other specific topics include work and money, emotions, sexual issues and much more. The goal of the book is to help couples create a relationship that is based on support and prevention instead of constant crisis control.

Amazon.com
Julie Fast and John Preston have written a ground breaking book for couples who want to prevent manic depressive disorder from hijacking their relationship. Fast, a health writer diagnosed with bipolar illness and clinical psychologist Preston are ideal companions. Their innovative ideas will be welcomed by exhausted partners of "bipolar individuals"--whose illness can cause them to alternate between manic and depressed behavior. Once medication has been prescribed, the key is studying the specific ways your partner is effected. This allows couples to develop pro-active strategies for treating and stabilizing mood swings and symptoms, before they develop into full-blown crises. The techniques emphasize prevention, rather than putting out fires. These include understanding the difference between the person and the disease (know when "the bipolar disorder is talking") listing your partner's specific symptoms, identifying the triggers that lead to these symptoms and transforming the "bipolar conversation" The goal of all the tools is to pinpoint early warning signs of a manic or depressive episode and be prepared with a holistic treatment plan. Other segments of the book deal with the work (checkered resumes) and financial problems (spending sprees) created by this illness. The author's ideas are engaging, compassionate and realistic--an oasis of relief and hope. --Barbara Mackoff

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Helped at Home, 2008-09-01
I read this book and Caring: Home Caregiving For A Loved One With Emotional Illness by Dr. Fredric Neuman and now have a better understanding on how to treat a loved one with emotional illness. The way I look at it is that if I can gain at least a few useful tips from these books it just makes life easier and better.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Wow..., 2008-07-13
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder almost 2 years ago and since that time I've found the proper medication and therapy to help me along. I stopped having major depressive and manic episodes but I still had so many behaviors and problems I couldn't explain. I had decided that they stemmed from a personality defect and unless I changed myself, as a person, I could never have a successful relationship.

Upon reading this book it was nearly like reading a memoir of my life. Every unexplainable thing I do was here, things that I never found in any other readings about bipolar disorder. I was always lead to believe that bipolar disorder was so black and white, manic and depressive, and no in between. This book has lead me to be simultaneously relieved and afraid at knowing now why I do the things I do. I feel less ashamed knowing that I wasn't a bad person, and it was really just the disorder. I have the book to thank for that.

The book has an amazing emphasis on not blaming the suffering for behaving the way they do and not thinking that you can talk them out of their symptoms. I appreciate this very much and am glad that there is a book circulating where this is said. I'm also very grateful for a book that says exactly how each individual symptom can be dealt with and is completely tailor made for this disorder, rather than empty, shallow comments about "communication" and "understanding". This book may very well save my relationship. I would recommend this reading for EVERY person suffering from bipolar disorder or those close to the ill.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Awesome, 2008-06-25
This book is a MUST HAVE if you live with anyone who suffers from bipolar. It was like reading my life story.


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder, 2008-06-14
Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder by Julie A. Fast is a very important book for my family. We have recently started this journey upon receiving news of a bipolar diagnosis for someone we love. Although this book is intended for a partner, it is very helpful for anyone who loves someone in this situation. I was so ignorant about the condition, I almost swallowed this book whole out of a desperate need for answers. This book did, indeed, provide many answers, but it does much more than that. It gives a realistic hope and walks people through a dynamic process that will help all involved to grow in their understanding of the person they love and the issues they constantly deal with. I admire Julie's honest vulnerability about her journey on this path; her courage for "going public"; and her everyday practicality in explaining the process. It has given me and my family a workable plan for supporting someone we love, and hope for a manageable future. Thank you, Julie!


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder, 2008-03-29
I had this book recommended to me by a social worker. She had actually not read. I think this book is mandatory reading for anyone who has been supporting and enduring someone who has bipolar disorder. I believe that had I encountered this book (and if my husband would have acknowledged his ailment) our marriage could have been saved. I also think that, although the book is written for supporters of people with the disorder, sufferers should read it as well. Through it they can better understand that there is hope for them, for their relationships, and also understand what their behaviors do to their loved ones. The book is (in my case would have been)so helpful that I loaned to the social worker with the expectation that it will help her with her patients and their families.

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