My mother is Bi-Polar and is in the middle of a nervouse breakdown. She is going through a really difficult time right now and I want to do everything i can to help her get better, but I'm not sure how i can go about doing that. All my life she's been this fun, sweet, lovable,and giddy mother and now she's turned into someone i don't know or understand. My mother and I are extremely close and i want to be there for her, what should i do? How do i handle this?

I don't know how old your mother is, but if she's in the menopause age range, most certainly the loss of estrogen
can cause the change you describe. Check with a doctor.
Good luck,

My father is also b.p., he & I had a really good relationship when I was young. As I got older, things started to change lot & as I went into my teens things got really bad. He had a lot of 'mood swings' & whenever he was angry it always seemed to be directed towards me. It seemed as if I was always in trouble, like I could never do anything right in his eyes & I was always getting grounded even for stuff that my sister or one of the other kids did that he thought it was me. It hurt me a lot, being one of 6 children (3 girls & 3 boys) I couldn't understand why it was always me & never any of them. I just figured it ws b/c I was the youngest of the girls & he was always trying to protect me from something, I really didn't know what else to think.

He saw a few psychologists & they tried some different meds for him to help the chemical imbalance. They worked for a while, but I think he got frustrated with them for whatever reason. One day he came home & said that the guy he had been seeing said he was 'cured', said that he didn't have to visit anymore or take the meds. But I think that was a lie, I just think he didn't want to anymore. Things just kept on getting worse - he was such a scary guy without the meds to balance things out. When I was 17, my sister & I got in a stupid fight over a sweater. He got really mad, ran out of his room, grabbed me by the neck & started to choke me. I was so scared... but the look in his eyes was the worst, even why I think of it now it scares me. I moved out & into my b/f's house after that for a while. My parents ended up getting divorced & he moved out - that is when I moved back in. Unfortunately, he & I don't talk anymore - we haven't in over a year.

I hope none of those horrible things happen to your family. I really hope that your mother is able to get herself some help, has she ever gone & talked to anyone about this? Maybe she could go & you could go with her sometimes. It's good that you want to be there for her b/c she will need the support - but she has to want to do it for herself, you can't do it all for her, even if you want to!

Good luck & I hope everything gets better http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif !