How to Cope With a Family Member With Bipolar Disorder

Having a family member with bipolar disorder can be extremely challenging. Fortunately, there are a number of positive steps that you can take to ensure that both you and your bipolar family member are safe, and to enjoy having that person in your household. In this article, I will discuss some of those steps that you can take.

Learning About the Disease

One of the most important things that you can do when someone in the family has bipolar disorder is to learn about the disease itself. There are dozens of good books on the subject, and many of them are written specifically for family members of people who are bipolar. Knowing about the disease will help you to identify what is going on in the mind of the person and what to look out for.

Learning to Manage Triggers

People with bipolar disorder have what are called “triggers.” These are events that can lead to episodes, especially to manic episodes. Two of the most common triggers are stress and disruptions of sleep patterns. If the bipolar member of your household is starting to become stressed or is starting to sleep erratically, see what you can do to help ease those problems.

Involvement in Therapy

If the bipolar person is willing, it can be very fruitful to be involved in therapy together. Some types of therapy are designed to include family members directly, while other forms can have you come in to discuss issues from time to time. You often cannot be involved if the bipolar person does not want you to be, but many bipolar people will be glad of the support and interest.

Watching Out For Episodes

Try to be aware of when the bipolar member of your household is starting to become either manic or depressed, and try to respond to those episodes appropriately:

  • If the person is becoming manic or hypomanic, try to reduce the amount of stimulation available in the household. This can involve simply having sedate activities, like going for walks, and avoiding such stimulating activities as competitive games and discussions about touchy subjects.
  • If the person is depressed, try to give the bipolar person some space. You can’t cheer that person up, but you can let the person know you are there for support and then allow them to withdraw a reasonable amount. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ways to Tell If Someone Has Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects millions of people. The sad reality is that there are cases that they do not know that they have it. They are just being told lazy, slow learner, incompetent and even stupid but the truth is dyslexia is affecting their lives and it has nothing to do with their intelligence. There are ways to tell if someone has dyslexia and it is important that the affected person and the people around him or her knows about it.

Being aware that you have dyslexia is extremely important for you to know how to deal with it. Adult dyslexia can cause problems in the workplace and to your personal life. It can affect your efficiency at work and may jeopardize your job that is why it is important to know if you are dyslexic for you to know how to cope and live with dyslexia.

One of the ways to tell if someone has dyslexia is that he or she is encountering difficulties at work. Although dyslexic people have the intellectual qualifications for the job, they may commit mistakes that can put their jobs at risk. They often have trouble remembering appointments and have poor timekeeping resulting to missed deadlines or meetings. They often have mistakes in taking down telephone numbers and notes. They misread or misspelled words even if they already checked their work. They also have trouble in dealing with sequences and taking instructions. They find themselves disorganized and often misplaced files and things. The sad part is that they often do not know why they are always making mistakes, inefficient and forgetting things. Not understanding why they have these behaviors can cost them their jobs.

Due to the problems at work, people with dyslexia often become defensive if their loved ones want to discuss their problems at work. They often prefer to deal with their learning disability or inefficiency alone and when they failed to deal with their inefficiencies alone, they get frustrated and distant. They think that they are a failure so they sulk at home with their frustrations or feelings of being a failure and shut their loved ones out affecting their relationships. Read the rest of this entry »

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