I posted in the megathread and then halfway realized it probably deserved its own thread. Had a deep conversation with some of my friends recently and found out three of them have someone close to them struggling with severe bipolar disorder. I know a little bit about the disorder, but not much, not enough to be of much support. One of them in particular has a sibling a little younger than us who’s been struggling. Sounds like they’ve alienated a lot of their old social group and have fallen back on social media for a lot of social fulfillment. I kinda suspect that’s gonna interfere with improving their condition even if they find an effective medication regimen, and we have a pretty solid social group, so I’m thinking we should make a concerted effort to include them in hangouts and stuff. Lot of us knew them growing up anyway, and they have hung out at least once and had a good time, so I don’t think it’d be some unnatural thing that would backfire. The fact is, though, I just don’t know much about dealing with that disorder, what considerations there should be, how to provide the best support we can as a group of people who care about them, so I’d love input from people here who have had people close to them struggle with bipolar or struggled with it themselves. It’s not like I have delusions about being able to solve everyone’s problems but… I think often the social structures we’re lumped into under capitalism in the US make it really hard for people with severe mental illness like that to recover enough to lead rich, dignified lives. It often falls solely to family and significant others, putting impossible strain on them. So any experience and advice in this community would be much appreciated. I want to try and do what I can for the people within my reach.
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