"Living with Bipolar Disorder" was given to me by my therapist and it has proved to be one of the best reads I have ever read on this subject. I would suggest that anyone who has this illness or knows someone with this illness get this book as soon as possible. It is informative in language that all can understand, as well as clear and helpful with out being patronizing.
I have gone with it's adivce about starting a support group for myself. It is made up of people that do what the book says they should already. It is a group of my best friends who know me better then I know myself and will be able to sense if something is wrong and point me to my doctors who will take me from there. I was surprised at the reactions of some of the people I asked to be apart of this support network. Some people who I thought would be right on the band wagon were pensive and tentative about joining. I don't think I discribed it the best that I could have since I did it with text messaging, but once I explained that the people would not be responsible for taking me to the hospital or for being on suicide watch with me, they were more understanding. But I did have two friends who were like "YES! Thank you so much I am so honored." Right away....it was very encouraging. But it goes to show you that people have and come from different backgrounds with mental illness and from different backgrounds with me and we need to be aware of that. People have life and lives that are expanding with children and are full of other responsibilities than to be in a support group with you or your family. That is ok...they can still help from a far. We as people effected with the illness need to be open and aware of other people's responsibilities before we jump people with hopes and ideas of being in our support group and we should never never NEVER assume that people will be able to join us just because we want them to. It takes two to tango and so let us dance!