Not Bipolar Disorder, It Is Only Stress
Before I could understand my daughter’s medical diagnosis as one having a bipolar disorder, I needed to reflect on my family’s history.
I grew up in a rural town in Florida in the 1960’s. My mother was rather eccentric, while my father usually stayed in his bedroom. My father was an army officer during World War II. He was known as a ‘90 Day Wonder,’ or as the label implied he became an officer through three months of specialized training.
The horrors my father must have witnessed from going to Nazi Germany prevented him from sleeping at night. Supposedly, he had seen dead bodies floating in the water along with the smell of rotting flesh in shallow graves when he entered Germany . Father never spoke much about his life as an army officer, except to say that he never wanted to go hunting for game again. He kept a rifle in the bedroom closet and placed a box of bullets in a safe place. Not one of my three brothers or me ever touched his rifle. We knew it was forbidden.
Tip! Winning The War Against Depression is a plain english book which puts you in the drivers seat, enabling you to quickly understand your depression.
Before I could understand my daughter’s medical diagnosis as one having a bipolar disorder, I needed to reflect on my family’s history. I grew up in a rural town in Florida in the 1960’s. My mother was rather eccentric, while my father usually stayed in his bedroom. My father was an army officer during World War II. He was known as a ‘90 Day Wonder,’ or as the label implied he became an officer through three months of specialized training. The horrors my father must have witnessed from going to Nazi Germany prevented him from sleeping at night. Supposedly, he had seen dead bodies floating in the water along with the smell of rotting flesh in shallow graves when he entered Germany . Father never spoke much about his life as an army officer, except to say that he never wanted to go hunting for game again. He kept a rifle in the bedroom closet and placed a box of bullets in a safe place. Not one of my three brothers or me ever touched his rifle. We knew it was forbidden.
My father met my mother during the war when he was stationed in Montreal , Canada . He was instantly smitten when he saw her, while she was eager to find someone to marry. The only eligible bachelors were either too young or too old. It was a short courtship and my mother eagerly left with him to live in the United States .
Emotional Stress, Not Bipolar Polar
After the war, my father returned to Plant City , Florida and started a construction company. His business began at the same time as the famous Jim Walters. In fact, he knew Jim Walters and had dreams of his business becoming equally successful. However, that was never meant to be. The first time I knew Father had a problem was when he would scream at night. For years he had trouble with insomnia, which he kept to himself. Father’s medical condition caused him to go bankrupt and we nearly lost our home. My store-bought clothes quickly changed to hand-me-downs. Warren, my younger brother and I, became children living almost on the street. For most days, Mother and Father would argue about the bills. Mother wanted to believe that Father was just lazy and needed a swift kick on his behind. Our escape meant exploring down countless dirt roads near our home. We would rise early in the morning and not return until lunch time. Once when we ate, we could go out again and return when the sun went down.
When we went on welfare, it was Mother who had to pick up the boxes of subsidized can and boxed food at the delivery site. On those days she was as mad as a hornet. She felt degraded and became more upset with my father. She believed he should be the one to pick up those boxes and not spend the day lying in bed.
Consuming the subsidized food was difficult. There was not anything fresh in those boxes. We learned to live off of salted cheese, lumpy powdered milk, canned vegetables and meat. We knew we should be glad for what we had, since it was better than going hungry. Eventually, Father received money from the government as being somewhat disabled. Mother learned to become a thrifty shopper, while Father stayed in his bedroom taking his daily medication. I can still remember the smell of peppermint and waiting to use the one toilet we had. Father was constantly constipated from the medication he took. He was nothing more than a lab rat taking medication which had profound effects. Instead of Father getting better, he would either talk all the time or sleep. When the medication was banned from having side effects, he was declared as being totally disabled. When Father was weaned off of the medicine and became more aware of his surroundings, he had confided in me. He told me that he should never have been placed on that medication. It was the medication that had ruined any future he had. What he needed was a better diet and an effective, on-going exercise routine. In other words, he could have worked out the problems he was experiencing if someone had taken the time to offer him an effective solution. Instead, he was forced to become dependent on prescriptive drugs.
Does My Daughter Have Bipolar Disorder?
Therefore, when my daughter, Michelle, was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder, I wanted to understand more about it. Did she really have this disorder? If so, would she become dependent on any medication she would take? I certainly did not want my daughter to alter her goals in life, such as what had happened with my father.
Eventually, I learned that Michelle had been misdiagnosed. She had been give Zoloft by a primary care manager and when she took herself off the medication without being weaned, Michelle experienced side effects. These side effects were misinterpreted as signs of one having a bipolar disorder. Unfortunately, Michelle was given medication for having a bipolar disorder. She would need to slowly wean herself off the medication or experience much more severe side effects than what she had experienced from being taken off of Zoloft.
The question that pops in mind is what prompted her to take Zoloft in the first place. Michelle believed she had a depression, because she listened more to what her friends told her than what was really going on. Michelle was taking an overload of college classes and working a part-time job in the evening. She literally burned herself out. Michelle never seemed to find time to relax. She believed that since her close friends were capable of handling this kind of lifestyle, so should she. WRONG! What Michelle learned is that we are individuals and have our own limits in what we are able to handle. Stress is our worst enemy and we need to know more about how we can handle it in our daily lives, such as diet, exercise and methods of relaxation. When we take the time to understand what the problem might be is when we can select from a list of options rather than depend on a quick fix.
About The Author: Sharon Oberne is the author of the book: From Hell to Heaven: Is It Bipolar Disorder…or…Something Else? Her website is: http://www.geocities.com/buzzinglight/buzz.html
