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How to Shield Your Children from the Effects of Your Bipolar Disorder

By: Cassandra Stout


But there is good news. You can learn how to shield your children from the effects of your psychiatric condition. How? Let's dig in.

Treat Your Disorder Properly

One of the most effective ways to shield your children from your bipolar disorder is to treat the disease properly. Try to eat a healthy diet and work exercise into your life. Adequate sleep is another requirement to keep you healthy. Taking medication regularly and working through emotional problems through therapy will help you manage your disorder and aid you in positively impacting your kids.

If your disorder is treatment-resistant, don't give up hope. Dyane Harwood, author of Birth of a New Brain: Healing From Postpartum Bipolar Disorder, thought she'd exhausted all of her options to treat her bipolar depression, including electroconvulsive therapy. Then her doctor prescribed a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). The drug worked, and Harwood is now engaged with her children and husband, living life the way she wants to. 

Get Help

Bipolar in the family needs a whole family solution. The entire household needs to learn coping skills to handle a parent's disorder. Ask your therapist for ways to teach your partner and children to deal with the ups and downs of your bipolar disorder. If your children start showing symptoms of emotional problems, such as anxiety, phobias, or intolerance to frustration, find a child behavioral psychologist. Make a list of the symptoms you've seen in your kids and be sure to include your family history as well.

Cultivate a Support Network

One aspect of getting help is relying on a support system of healthy adults. Your kids need adults they can consistently rely on, even if you can't provide that reliability sometimes. When you are well, cultivate reciprocal friendships with other adults you can trust with your children. Easier said than done, of course, but try to be a reliable source of childcare for your parent friends, so they will pitch in when you need them.

Prepare Your Kids

Shielding your kids from bipolar disorder doesn't mean hiding the illness from them. Preparing your children to accept what's happening around them can be difficult, but it is worthwhile. There's an instinct to hide uncomfortable situations from your children, but kids are intuitive. They will know if someone in the family is suffering, even if they can't put their finger on why. If the problem isn't explained to them, they may assume the worst. Letting your children know up front what to expect if you're suffering from a mood episode will help your kids roll with the punches. Keep the explanation simple and be ready to revisit the conversation anytime your children have questions.

When explaining your bipolar disorder to your children, stress that this disease is not your kids' fault. Also stress that taking care of a parent suffering from mental illness is not their job. They will probably appreciate your candor and feel more secure in their relationship with you and their place in the world. If things don't go well, talk to your therapist for ways to help your children understand bipolar disorder and their relationship with you as a parent with a mental illness.

If your older children are concerned about developing bipolar disorder themselves, tell your preteens honestly that they are not destined to have the disease. Studies put the inheritance rate at about 30% with a single parent affected by bipolar disorder, and around 60% for both parents. You don't need to quote the statistics to a younger child, but a teen might be interested. Knowing even uncomfortable statistics is better than the unknown.

Final Thoughts

When you suffer from mental illness, taking care of yourself is a tall order. Taking care of a child as a parent with bipolar disorder adds additional complications, but it's worth it. You can shield your children from bipolar disorder in several ways. Make sure that you treat your disease with professional help. Cultivate a support system. And it's paramount that you communicate with your children about your disorder, so they know what to expect.

You can do this.


I worry about this a fair amount. I am well managed now, but I wasn't for the formative years of two of my children and I see some of their behaviors and wonder what long term effects my past instability had on them. It's... I'm not sure. A resolve to be better is about all I can come up with now.

I completely understand that, Justin. My own bipolar disorder ran rampant up until my son was two and a half, at which point I weaned him from breastfeeding and was able to take lithium. I still see the effects of my severe depressive episodes on him. I'm sorry to hear that you have these worries, and I agree that all you can do now is be better for them. Best of luck, and thanks for reading.

My parents are 65 years old, and 15 years ago I told them I was diagnosed as bi-polar. I know and feel that they don't even want to understand what does it mean. I visit them weekly and feel as a stranger. they don't really see me or know who I am. My daughter on the other hand, as a young girl with no words understand so many aspect of the situation.

I am so sorry to hear that, wnn. Sometimes all we can hope for is that others will treat us with grace, especially our children. I hope that your parents will eventually see you for who you are, and if not, that you can help your daughter to understand your condition so you can break the generational cycle of people being unwilling or unable to understand.

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