I think a family member is manic and bi-polar and it is scaring

[mopinko]

21. not much i can add here, but

does this person have a regular doc? it never hurts to look for physical problems first. they are more intertwined than our current stove-piped medical system would suggest.
i have gone through a fair amount of this stuff, some physical, like my ex's horrible bout of apnea that had him depressed and me scared witless, to a bi-polar daughter who was out of control at 14.

in my ex's case, it was clear to me that it was intertwined w sleep. he had an abscessed tonsil (!) that threw his sleep in the shitter. i got him to see a pcp, and talked them into a month of ambien. even w the apnea, he was able to get some decent sleep and felt better.

i would try to find a good shrink, check them out, try to figure out who would be a good fit. dont know where you are, maybe there isnt a lot of choice to be had. but if there is, it is a whole lot easier to say- i think this person can help you- than- lets get out the phone book and see. somehow the idea of picking a name out of a hat was more than i could bear, for them or for me, trying to cope w it.


hang in there. stay in touch.