The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
About five or six weeks ago my A was told he was most likely bipolar by a mood specialist. He told my A that depression was "screammingly obvious" and gave him anti-psychotic medication that is suppose to work along with some pretty heavy anti-depressants. Amazingly enough they seem to be working for him.
One of the main problems we have had over the last three years is that almost all the meds he has been given he has had an almost alcohol-like affect on them which would trigger fear in both of us. I would react as if he had been drinking and would be totally unsympathetic to the fear and guilt he was feeling taking these meds. We didn't know that if he was having these reactions then the meds weren't the right ones for him. He would go off them to keep the peace with me and not tell his doctors, or me, so when they saw him they thought the meds were working and so did I (denial). I thought his body just needed time to adjust to the meds and then he would be okay. But ofcourse things were not okay.
Since starting these new meds he is starting to feel better and I think so am I. I'm sad that he has something else to battle but I guess he has been battling it all along only now we know what it is and can start treating it. It seems to be very common among alcoholics. I am happy to see him starting to get more sleep, more clarity, more motvation to participate in his own life. He still seems somewhat fearful about it but atleast now it is mixed with being hopeful. We have along way to go but there is some relief that maybe now we are headed in the right direction. Not that AA and Al-Anon aren't, believe me we are both very aware of just how much the program is the right path and has saved his life, our marriage, and our sanity up to this point it's just we are only now realizing just how crooked the path to recovery can be for an alcoholic and their family. It is taking us in many different directions and we will do our best to venture there with faith and compaction instead of fear. I am trying hard not to worry about the possiblity of our children (my son especially) inheriting this. Worry is pointless I know but I am a mom. Worry goes with the job but I suppose that is just one more area in which Al-Anon is priceless.
Wow, you sound like you are in such a good place...very happy for you.......my hub was alos diagnosed as bi-polar his problem however, he never follows up.....
Hope you and hub find some peace of mind.
To worry as a mom is something god just place inside of us, it's our job.
My husband is alos an alcoholic who had been diagnosed with bipolar. He is currently being treated with Lithium (about 5 months now) I, like you, had had difficulty over the past years with the medication that my husband was prescribed and the lack of knowledge about addiction when prescribing them. My husband had been "dry" for about 6 years when he began taking various anti-anxiety/depressants. Being a trustworthy person, and eager for anything that was going to "fix-it" he took the medication without question as to how it may effect his alcoholism. Well, he eventually picked up and the devastating spiral began. Since he picked up, the medication obviously was not going to work right and it turned out that some of the medications he had been prescribed we frighteningly similar to consumption of alcohol. He had quite an AH HA moment when he went into detox about a year ago and they tried to give him a medication to detox that he had been prescribed (as needed - LOL - you give a medication to an alcholic as needed???) He questioned it and they told him that they would need to give him something else because he needed to detox from the meds as well, that each time he had taken the med. he might as well have drank a six-pack, the physiological effect was the same.
In the end he did pick up again, he convinced himself that had it not been for the med. he would not have picked up in the first place and thus, chose not to work a program. Anyway, to make a very long story shorter... The last time he was hospitalized it was for suicide not for addiction. He was involuntarily placed into a psychiatric facility (ironically it was at the very place he had detoxed so many times in the past). The focus was on the mental illness piece not on the addiction. He was diagnosed bipolar, put on lithium and kept there until his levels were what are called "therapuetic" ( I found this interesting, since if he was not bipolar he would have serious side effects from the meds and if he is then he would not). His after care plan also included treatment for addiction. He is now "dual-diagnosed". He is sober today, working a program to the best of his ability and following through on the bipolar as well.
He says it is different this time, the guilt of not being able to get it right all those other times was so overwhelming to him. The doctors told him that it would be a near impossibility to truly achieve sobriety with the bipolar untreated, that the two do a dance in his body, mind and spirit, never being sure which one is leading. They are so similiar in so many ways. There is no guarantee. Treating the bipolar will not lead to sobriety necessarily, but if he is not sober, they cannot treat the bipolar and if the bipolar is not treated, chances are he will not be able to remain sober.
I guess one can look at the whole situation as the glass is half full or the glass is half empty. It is either a blessing that there is finally a piece that fits into the puzzle or another battle to fight. For today, my husband is grateful that there is a piece of the puzzle that fits.
PM me any time, I'd love to chat and share information, knowledge is power.
My prayers to you and your husband and I sincerely hope that this new information is a blessing and not a curse, it is up to us to decide what to do with what is handed to us.
