Where can i look up information concerning the ability of my wife raising our child alone. Concerning the issues of being raised with bipolar and not being raised with bipolar.

Is seeing apparitions a normal side affect of bipolar, if so how many. Currently she is seeing three. one she calls frank which the medications have helped "put duck tape around his mouth" the other two are " little green guys". Are the apparitions a physic issue.


 Dear Mr. B' --
You are concerned about your wife's ability to raise your child, especially doing so by herself. Unavoidably, this leads to the question as to why she is raising that child by herself. But I'll try to stick with your question.

Here is a brief shot at an answer. I am not aware of resources on the Internet that would directly expand on this.

A woman whose bipolar disorder symptoms are well controlled can raise a child as well as she would if she did not have bipolar disorder at all. That sentence is so important and might be worth repeating: A woman whose bipolar disorder symptoms are well controlled can raise a child as well as she would if she did not have bipolar disorder at all. 

A woman whose bipolar symptoms are not so well controlled might still be able to raise a child well, depending on what symptoms she had. Growing up as a child when your mother has severe changes in mood and energy, which is the primary characteristic of bipolar disorder, is surely not a good thing. But if the only symptoms which remained uncontrolled were "seeing apparitions", and if she managed to be able to recognize these as apparitions, not as part of reality, then I can imagine that it could be possible that she could still function very well as a mother.

While we're on the subject: "seeing apparitions" is not a very common symptom of bipolar disorder. Visual hallucinations, as a prominent symptom, suggest that a search for another explanation might be warranted. Other neurologic abnormalities can produce such symptoms, such as epilepsy.

Dr. Phelps



Published April, 2008