Dear Brainpatch

NP for the thread. glad it was ok i did that.

I'm not exactly stable - but i'm doing better. Thanks for praying for me. That is so kind.

ok, dyslexia / difficulty reading is not a symptom of bipolar, but it is often seen with ADHD. she may also have a learning disability whereby she was never able to learn to read very well. i doubt it's the drugs if it's specifically a reading problem. if it were due to the drugs, it would be due to destruction of brain tissue and you'd see significant cognitive impairment and progressive deterioration.

do you know for a fact she is bipolar? if someone is hyperactive, and also has depression, it doesn't make them bipolar. she may have a different dx, or multiple dxs. only a psychiatrist who sees her personally can make this evaluation. in addition, substance abuse complicates the picture. if some of her sx are caused by the drugs, that will tend to alter the dx. a working dx will have to me made to help her, but a definitive evaluation can only be made once she is clean.

do you know that the mood issues came before the abuse? i don't know how long you've known her. she could also have borderline personality disorder which is psychiatric but usually meds are not the first choice - DBT is (a very specific type of talk therapy). sufferers do self-medicate extensively though.

to get disability, you first need her exact diagnosis/diagnoses. without a diagnosis, she has no basis for a claim. i think there is a way you can apply on her behalf. i don't know the mechanisms but i believe there is a forum here... i will look for it. i don't know what to say about the jail time and i don't know how it would affect her access to disability. depending what her diagnosis, she may be able to avoid jail or do her time in a care facility, if temporary insanity can be claimed. here again we move into legal territory where i am grossly underqualified.

one thing i'd caution against is her being legally declared of unsound mind (as a way to avoid jail)... she would not be held responsible for her actions, but she would also be stripped of ordinary rights, and reversing that once she is being treated could be very very tricky.

Lying is not a part of bipolar. you've said her parents make her feel really bad. she may have developed this as a defense mechanism. Lying is also seen in other pathologies. also when one uses alcohol and drugs generally there are inevitable cover-ups of use. usually it starts with not wanting others to know how much one uses because one realizes one is going overboard. this is in the beginning. once it becomes a habit, i imagine the lying can spread to other things. if i had to venture a guess, it would be that her lying is more due to psychological reasons. her illness and abuse issues will need to be addressed but she will definitely need therapy as well.

step 1. determine diagnosis.
step 2. determine if disability applies when one is in jail
step 3. determine legal situation wrt DUI's, considering dx
step 4. determine what status you must attain (eg medical advocacy) so you can file her disability
step 5. attain that status and file for disability

depending what you discover in step 2, it may be that you can follow up on the legal stuff and disability at the same time.

hope that helps. i might have to bail for the night here. yet anOTHER pesky mig coming on.



~ waves ~