Ask the Therapist
Bipolar and Addiction
My daughter who is 20, is in recovery for cocaine addiction.
At age 18, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and borderline personality traits through intensive psychological testing. The treating doctors and psychiatrists never knew the extent of her drug use. We now know that she is has been using all types of drugs and alcohol since the age of 16. So, all the doctors trying to treat her depression, mood swings, and bipolar were really seeing the effects of drug use. She never exhibited true mania, mostly depression, anxiety, mixed moods, inattention, impulsive behavior. She has had a few episodes of cutting behavior but not for several years.
My question is how do we know if she has bipolar disorder and really needs to be taking all this medication for it?
She seems to think there is a magic pill for everything that ails her and is extremely med compliant. She is just now being discharged from a treatment center for addiction. She is taking naltroxene, lithium, lexapro, geodon, trazodone, inderal, synthroid. This seems like an outrageous amount of medicine. I wonder what she is like without all these meds.
She complains of chronic anxiety, panic, depression and continues to complain to psychiatrists who give her more medication. She has also gained weight especially in the stomach area since quitting cocaine.
Is she substituting the legal drugs for the illegal ones?
Any ideas are appreciated.
In a word...Yes. I don't know you're daughter's case, specifically, but I'm
guessing it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this one. That is an
outrageous amount of medication for someone who is not psychotic.
My suggestion to you would be to put her in a residential detox program with
the specific intent of taking her off everything. Once you've accomplished
that, have her evaluated. If she is bi-polar or does exhibit some
characterological dysfunction, she will be in an environment that will be
able to handle it. If not, you get to find out that your daughter is simply
a chronic addict and not psychiatrically disturbed.
Back
