Please Help

[ChrisGK]

I would appreciate any advice from parents who have had to deal with a child who not only has bipolar disorder but also is a drug abuser. My stepson has these problems and I am seeking advice please on how we could get him treatment. He is a good kid but just needs help at the moment. His mom and I live in Australia so we dont know how things work in the US and especially Florida. My wife travelled back to Florida earlier this year to get a court order to get him treated properly. However no one seems to want to help. We would like to do something before it is too late.

His actions are not only affecting him but the rest of the family also. My mother in law takes the brunt of it and is severly ill herself with heart disease. She doesnt need this stress and its slowly killing her also.

Please any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[james]

I would appreciate any advice from parents who have had to deal with a child who not only has bipolar disorder but also is a drug abuser. My stepson has these problems and I am seeking advice please on how we could get him treatment. He is a good kid but just needs help at the moment. His mom and I live in Australia so we dont know how things work in the US and especially Florida. My wife travelled back to Florida earlier this year to get a court order to get him treated properly. However no one seems to want to help. We would like to do something before it is too late.

His actions are not only affecting him but the rest of the family also. My mother in law takes the brunt of it and is severly ill herself with heart disease. She doesnt need this stress and its slowly killing her also.

Please any advise would be greatly appreciated.

I have suggested this to someone else on the forum, but Al-Anon do an awfully lot of good work in this area. Here is their Australia link:

http://www.al-anon.org/australia/

Good luck.

[laurah]

How old is your son, and what kind of drugs is he taking. I'm assuming coz you live in another country to him that he's over 18? If he is, then maybe you need to let him make his own mistakes. I'm not sure from your post how bad the problem is, but if he's just smoking a bit of weed, then maybe you just need to let him get on with it. Nobody appreciates an over bearing parent.

[Archbob]

He needs more supervision than an ailing lady with heart disease. With that condition, it is almost impossible to take care of someone with that sort of problem. Do you have other relatives over there that could possibly reach him? He really needs to go to a self-help or treatment center.

[websurfpro]

The kid really needs help, drugs are very dangerous for him, having the bipolar disorder, maybe you shoul seek help somewhere else like a legal institution for recovery from drug addictions.