Tips to cull mania and prevent hospital?
Hey all,
My wife was diagnosed BP1 in 2020. So far she has had 3 manic psychotic breakdowns that have required 3-4 weeks of BHU care to treat.
In middle of May this year, she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, and we lost our dog that we have had our entire 12 year relationship and shortly after she was hospitalized for 3 weeks with a psychotic manic episode.
I saw the signs, but thought this time was different. Boy was I wrong. Her mania ramped up over I’d say about 5 days and by the 5th day it was crystal clear that there was no avoiding hospitalization. She was convinced she was only hypo manic and it was manageable but I’m learning that this doesn’t really happen with BP1.
So has anyone found an effective way to prevent this full scale psychotic break? Or is it basically once this mania starts coming on it’s too late? I feel beyond helpless when it happens, and I always hope it’s not unstoppable without a BHU trip but this last time I learned that unless we find a way to cull her manic ramp up that it’s bye bye for 3-4 weeks. We have a 2 year old now and this last one was devastating for us.
She takes her meds religiously, but this time it just didn’t work, and her last psych was pretty horrible at helping as we called a few days before she was admitted but received no response. I feel like the graves + loss of our dog really tipped her over.
I appreciate any feedback here. If I could find a way to prevent a full scale manic break then I feel like a completely new chapter would be open in our lives. It’s so exhausting feeling helpless in these situations.