How Do You Help A Bipolar Adolescent?
Helping an adolescent with bipolar disorder can be not only difficult but painful. Not knowing what to expect, finding yourself stunned by sudden changes in mood, and watching a young person stagger next to the precipice of self-destruction is a nightmare. Thankfully, there are increasingly more effective medications to calm these emotional waters. However, as a parent, relative, or close friend, there are additional ways of helping an adolescent with bipolar grow into an intact human being. Help develop a healthy self-esteem. Remember that even though this young person carries a diagnosis of bipolar disease, they are also going through the developmental stages that come with just being an adolescent. Perhaps the most powerful of these is creation of an appropriate sense of self-esteem. Encourage and praise the adolescent every chance you get. Teach the adolescent about bipolar disorder. Realize that if they integrate the notion that being bipolar means that they are flawed or broken,
