The First Post

So I begin to share with others, wherever they are, about the daily struggles and joys of raising a bipolar daughter.  I decided to blog when I realized that all day long I had these long thoughts traveling around my brain, almost begging to be written down, maybe for my sake more than for my daughter's.  I hope you might find here encouragement if you are on the same journey, one never chosen, but given..  If you are simply interested in knowing what this life might be like, you are welcome here, because so many don't understand how difficult our lives are as we walk through life with these tormented ones.  There is much to be done in educating family members, teachers, coaches, and neighbors, and also to plead for  lawmakers to increase funding for research into this terrible genetic disorder that isolates a child from their peers and many normal childhood experiences.  Few rally around them like so many do for young cancer patients, or children with incurable genetic disorders.  Thus, the parents of these children often feel rejection and isolation alongside their child, who is often very misunderstood.  They are not bad kids, they are sick kids who need much help and compassion.  And their siblings suffer too, from the daily unpredictability  of their lives as their sick sibling rages or exudes an energy that mimicks that of consuming large amounts of Red Bull, or who sobs heartbreakingly over their lack of friends, or the stupid things they did while manic.  Like it or not, they are on this journey too, and I wish they weren't.  Somehow I hope in the grand scheme of things, they will learn compassion and gratefulness.