Friends & Mental Health

[Sunflower4]

Do any of your friends have mental health issues? A few of mine do. One is actually bipolar and I have found that are times that I'm not always sure how to "relate" to her. Anybody else ever experiene this? On my mind at this point and time actually, cause I recently started working with the SAMHSA and one of their programs is the What A Difference A Friend Makes program. It's this whole campaign to raise awareness about mental health issues and basically show people how to be better friends to those who suffer (instead of ostricizinig them or whatever) cause the support of truly caring friends can really increase the chanes of recovery. That's pretty cool. Anyway, as someone who has friends that suffer from mental health issues I thought the website had a lot of good resources and wanted to share. Here's a link if you want to check it out - www.whatadifference.org/mentalhealth (http://www.whatadifference.org/mentalhealth)

[cachehiker]

There are only two types of people: abnormal ones and those I haven't met yet.











-rat maxim #9, pearls before swine
I have a best friend who is bipolar and has trouble paying for his meds and is too proud to accept anything he considers charity. I help him out as best I can but I have to be wary. It's unfortunate but I'll admit to getting pretty scarce when he goes off the deep end. When he gets to drinkin, he's been known to get himself and his friends into fights. He's of course completely plastered and a puddle of crap when it comes to actually defending himself so that always turns into his friends trying to prevent his getting arrested or stomped into a crimson stain on the sidewalk. I don't want any part of that.

Another naturalist buddy is schizophrenic and lives in a group home. Of all the residents, he's the closest one to being "normal" but his meds make him a little slow. You tell a joke and there's a few seconds before he realizes you're not serious. I realize how much he values his friends but he's a bit clueless about crossing the line that separates being helpful from being taken advantage of. One day you're helping him move and the next he's hoping you'll spend the following week helping him fix up the place.

I don't ostracize anybody who hasn't made a conscious decision to be a dick, or an idiot, or a ...

[archbishop]

My wife is bipolar. It makes for an interesting marriage. It's great, but sometimes challenging to say the least. The traits really didn't become noticeable until after our third child. Some doctors think that pregnancy can be a trigger to release the illness that is dormant or not as pronounced otherwise. Meds can be a very tricky thing to get balanced, but it does really help her and our marriage.
One day at a time.

[Sunflower4]

Anbody visit the website? Did you find it useful at all. Would love to hear what you thought!

[hank moon]

sunflower4 smells like shill

[Jaxx]

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