I’ve written about fellow bipolar sufferer Pete Wentz before here. How has he managed to keep his highs and lows in check?
“While I’ll always be bipolar, I find it easier to deal with now. With marriage and fatherhood, I’ve finally found two fixed points in my life. They’ve taught me patience. They’ve also taught me that I don’t need to feel guilty about being happy. My emotional seasons are less extreme.
“In the past my brain would never stop. Now I’m a father, the world no longer revolves around me.”
I’ve always wondered whether having a child would change the way I deal with bipolar disorder. Of course, I’m not going to have a child simply as a test case in the hopes that he or she would “cure” me but I think having someone so completely dependent upon me would cause me to think twice about trying to kill myself.
depression introspection 
I’m sorry about the suicidal thought.
Surely having someone you love that depend on you would make you think twice.
If a dog did it too me I cannot imagine if it was my child.
Sometimes I think that a children is really something that makes your priorities change and you have to think about yourself differently.
I will not have this. It never bothered me not having children. I did plan not to have them since I was nineteen.
Now I have a suspicion that I would like to have someone. Let’s say s/he would be in their twenties now and it would be great seeing someone you raised, took care starting his/her life.
That really is amazing that it’s balancing for him. But I’ve seen some that it didn’t go so well and the children were the ones to suffer. So I guess you just gotta take it on a case by case basis
I wasn’t diagnosed until after my son was four, and things got so much worse for so many years because of the medication.
But, whenever I thought I couldn’t stand it for another moment, I used to hold a picture of my son that they’d mounted in a Gerber’s baby cap in preschool in my hand as a talisman to remind me of how much I loved him.
At my very worst moments, when suicide would have been a reasonable alternative, I knew I’d never abandon my son!
Susan
Hi !
I was relay disappointed with this thought .
There is certain moments in the life in which we had to adjust ourselves.
Max
If a bipolar father can manage that balance, all would be perfect! And I do believe its possible with God’s help and the right choices.
I am desperate to have a child. I guess it’s the thought of being loved and needed unconditionally. But I think it’s scary when you’re not sure how you will deal with parenthood.