A friend was in a car accident at 18 and was soon after diagnosed with some sort of mental disorder. The diagnosis and medicine was changed at some point before I met her at 20. With the supervision of a doctor, she had been tapering off on her medication. She was very cheerful, bubbly and good at talking people's heads off. Around the time she turned 21, she stopped the medications completely and suddenly went wild and ended up in the hospital. Her diagnosis was changed to Bi Polar and for three months she was in and out of mental hospitals as they tried to stabilize her medicines. She went through bouts of extreme depression, had a strong desire for men, and was sometimes verbally abusive. She did strange things such as chasing the livestock around in circles in her pajamas late at night and unhooking the plumbing. She hardly spoke and sometimes acted like she was two. She stood in the yard screaming at "Jonathan" and at one point called herself by a different name and pretended that the real person was her friend. I know that her mother is an alcoholic and was on drugs while pregnant with her. She was physically and verbally abused and beaten by her mother throughout her childhood - most recently just before I met her. She weighs about 120 but eats probably three times as much as the average grown man. Says that she has always eaten a lot. Any ideas what could be going on here and what might be done about it? She is currently on high doses of lithium and something else and has been home and closer to her old self for nearly a month. Our church has adopted her and she is living with her Christian grandmother. She says that she was saved at 17 and I think that before this latest episode she really had a saving faith or was at least very close to it. There is no Christian psychiatrist in the area.
