The Vine: August 24, 2007
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on August 24, 2007 – 2:19 PM7 Comments
Hi Sars!
I love the site, and I was hoping your readers (or you) could help me out. I’ve been looking online for a support group/message board for people with bipolar siblings. There are a lot of sites for parents of bipolar children or people with a bipolar spouse/SO, but none for siblings, or at least nonee that I could find. It seems like an easy thing to find, but I’ve combed through tons of links without success. Could you or your readers point me in the right direction?
Thank you!
Al
Dear Al,
I’m sure the readers will have some resources for you; let’s find out.
Share!
Tags: Ask The Readers health and beauty the fam
Try http://www.nami.org and look at “online communities” under the Find Support menu. Best of luck.
I’m a spouse of bipolar, not a sibling, so I don’t have any direct advice for you, but I do want to share where I found my support system, because it surprised the heck out of me at the time, and maybe it’ll help you.
Mental illness, as I’m sure you’re aware, tends to run in families. While I love my partner and her family profoundly, they’re all a bunch of loony birds in one manner or another. I’ve found it takes a certain type to marry into a family like that, and all of us that decided to do such a thing often come together under common cause, as well as ex-husbands and wives who are on good terms with whomever they need to be.
So, in a way, not helpful, but in another way, I’ve gained a father, a brother, an aunt and a grandfather all with chronic mood and personality disorders as well as a wife, and I sort of do the taking care of me part as it relates to all of them in one fell swoop.
So, my advice? If it’s possible, check out your inlaws. They’re likely to know the score pretty well, and unlikely to have matching baggage to yours.
Best of luck in this search. I do research like this for a health organization, so I’m used to trying to find things like this. Here are two resources that, while I can’t back up with personal knowledge, do look fairly helpful and legitimate, and contacting those organizations may help you a great deal. Here are the weblinks.
http://www.bpso.org/index.php – It’s called bipolar significant others, but it’s for family, friends, and s.o.’s
http://www.bipolar.com/living_with_bipolar_disorder/build_support_network.html
– This is the Bipolar Support Network. This link takes you directly to the support group page and you can find a support group in your local area.
take care
sis, is that you?
seriously though, my sister does visit bipolar.com a lot to learn more, adorably and always giving me tips, etc. a good resource from what she, and my inbox, tells me.
My suggestion is to go to your local library – you may have more luck with a large library, or a small library that has a well-connected director. Anyway, tell them what you’re looking for and ask if they can connect you with a Health Informatics librarian. some libraries are better than others and some librarians more or less knowledgeable on such things as others. They may try to just help you on their own, but if you’ve had substantial difficulty with this quest, you probably really do need to go that next step up to a Health Informatics librarian.
They do not normally work at public libraries, rather for hospitals and universities – However, some libraries have information programs set up with them for when the public needs specialized assistance. And even when they don’t, professional librarians and library directors are usually active members of area library organizations that can connect them to these resources for you.
My husband is a librarian and library administrator in TX – He is always able to connect individuals needing significant health information assistance to one of the are Health Informatics librarians, and has even taken done so for us when I was sick in the past. The volume and types of resources my husband has access to as a public librarian are mind-boggling, but the special librarians (health, corporate, etc…) have even more in their respective fields.
Public librarians are in the business of public service – they are there for you. If you haven’t used this resource in the past, I urge you to do so in the future. I had no idea how wonderful they can be until I met my husband. And if you don’t find what you need from one librarian, speak to the branch manager or the director, or try another library. These are fantastic people who are in their field to help you.
Same website as mentioned earlier, but with some more info that might be helpful:
http://www.bipolar.com/family_and_friends/how_to_help_someone.html
Al…I don’t know of any places for bp sibling support, really, but I’d like to say that I have been looking for exactly the same thing!! Most of the support things are for people actually with Bipolar, or the ones for family just talk about ways you can help the bipolar person. But what about how you can help yourself? Anyway, if you have since found anything please write back here and let me know.