Challenges

After a long spell of stability, my dearest boy had a crash this weekend. My son is bipolar. A downturn is an inevitability. This is a fact of life when living with mental illness. It's a fact of life that millions of people live with every day - every day waiting for the shoe to drop. He's been stable for nearly 18 months - long enough to forget how bad it could be, I think, for him. He got a little complacent. He missed some medication. He was drinking too much. But he didn't see it coming.

I am always a little fearful that his next phone call will be a bad one (jail, hospital, loss of job,etc.) but now he has a new, sweet wife. How she will deal with this spell, or the next one, or the one after that remains to be seen. Not too long ago I told her how much I admired her courage - after all, I said, I didn't have a choice. He's my son. She told me that she didn't have a choice either, that you never choose the one that you fall in love with. The odds are very much against them. But they are so in love. Maybe love can conquer all. I will hope.

More on marriage and mental illness here.