I think one of my friends may be bipolar or schizophrenic. And I’m not jumping to conclusions or anything. Year after year I’ve watched her slip deeper and deeper into her mental state and I’m honestly worried about her.
She’s been diagnosed with anxiety problems, but I think it’s more than that. I have anxiety, and whenever I get really bad I shut down and want to cry. I don’t want anyone to talk to me, touch me, or even look at me. She gets argumentative. She can go from loving a person and thinking that they’re awesome to loathing them because they merely expressed worry about her. She thinks that people are constantly out to get her and she can’t handle everyday situations like stress, deadlines, minor confrontations, or multitasking. She’s not empathetic towards others, which makes them feel frustrated towards her.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t want her to hate me, but I also want her to get help. Maybe I should suggest she talk to a therapist/psychiatrist so she could vent to someone other than her friends? Would that be pushing it?
Because when she’s happy she’s great, but once she gets upset she gets violent and has uncontrollable anger. I’m worried about her.
I hope everything will be okay with your friend..
ReplyDeleteYikes! Believe it or not, I've encountered this same sort of situation before with one of my own friends.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to freak you out more, but when it comes down to it, if you really care for your friend, you'll say something.
There's no way to predict how she'll take it, but if you say something, the idea will be there in her mind and you'll know that you at least tried to help.
With my friend, she got incredibly at me and still won't talk to me, but I know she's in therapy now. Knowing that is enough to keep me happy.
You may lose a friend, but you could save a life.
Could be you friend has borderline personality disorder.
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree with Julia's comment. I especially like how she sums it up in the end. That should go on a poster.
ReplyDeleteBut really. Unless you're exaggerating the symptoms in this post, you definitely need to suggest that she get help or, perhaps the better option, ensure that she gets help by talking to someone (other than her)
What you really need to do is analyze how serious the issue is here. Could she be a danger to herself? Could she be a danger to other people? If not, then that's good. But then you need to think about this: could the rest of her life be affected if she doesn't get help now? From your descriptions, it sounds like the answer to the second question at least is definitely a yes. So I do suggest that you tell her she needs help--or to find help for her.
It does sound like she has some personality disorder. From your descriptions, it doesn't sound like she has schizophrenia, unless the thing you said about thinking people are "out to get her" was a serious thing. If she is honestly paranoid, it actually could be schizophrenia.
"You may lose a friend, but you could save a life" (Julia 5).
All my friends are crazy...
ReplyDeleteThank you Julia and Christopher. So much. I've been struggling with how I've been wanting to approach this and your input has really made me think a lot about what I'm going to do. :)
ReplyDelete