{"id":6395,"date":"2014-06-05T00:03:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T07:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/?p=6395"},"modified":"2018-05-15T09:56:58","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T16:56:58","slug":"are-you-in-there-ivan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/are-you-in-there-ivan\/","title":{"rendered":"Bipolar Disorder Mania and Psychosis: Are you in there Ivan?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When my former and much loved partner Ivan got sick, it happened very, very quickly.\u00a0 There were small signs for weeks that we missed- but that’s understandable and no one had ever even heard of bipolar disorder in my family.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

We knew something was wrong on the day of his 21st birthday party.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

He looked different- his eyes were wide and his face was very illuminated. He talked constantly and had very strong opinions on things he had never found interesting in the past. He told me how to parallel park my car and he didn’t drive! <\/span><\/p>\n

We laughed because it was all so crazy. What was he doing? He’s a fun and interesting guy, but all of this talking and disagreeing and telling us his ‘genius’ ideas was\u00a0not like him at all. \u00a0When it became bizarre, we knew something was wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n

That was the first night of an eight month journey of hospital stays, court visits, medication side effects, relationship fears and unbelievable stress.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

When my coaching clients ask me how I understand them so well, I can always say: I have been there!<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

One day I was in the back yard with Ivan. It was so sunny and we were sitting by a little pond my brother had built for fish. Ivan was in between hospitalizations, but it still wasn’t him sitting\u00a0there.\u00a0 I was so naive.\u00a0 He couldn’t really have a conversation he was so manic and psychotic. I remember looking at his face and thinking- <\/span><\/p>\n

Where are you Ivan? Are you in there? Where have you gone? Will you ever come back?<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00a0 makes you wonder about the essence and soul of a person if an illness can so completely take over their mind. <\/span><\/p>\n

This story has a very good ending.\u00a0 Ivan recovered from this episode and never had a psychotic\/manic episode until 13 years later.\u00a0The picture\u00a0above is\u00a0him on the beach in Cannes, France. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you love someone with this illness, it can get better. It usually does. Ivan is proof! <\/span><\/p>\n

Julie <\/span><\/p>\n

PS: Ivan and I are still good friends. He is now living in France working in\u00a0a job he loves. \u00a0He lives with bipolar disorder of course.\u00a0 It’s still there.\u00a0 Reality is reality! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When my former and much loved partner Ivan got sick, it happened very, very quickly. There were small signs for weeks that we missed- but that’s understandable and no one had ever even heard of bipolar disorder in my family. <\/p>\n

We knew something was wrong on the day of his 21st birthday party. <\/p>\n

He looked different- his eyes were wide and his face was very illuminated. He talked constantly and had very strong opinions on things he had never found interesting in the past. He told me how to parallel park my car and he didn’t drive! <\/p>\n

We laughed because it was all so crazy. What was he doing? He’s a fun and interesting guy, but all of this talking and disagreeing and telling us his ‘genius’ ideas was not like him at all. When it became bizarre, we [ Read More ]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11316,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6395\/revisions\/11316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}