Expert: Ivan Goldberg, M.D. - 3/10/2008

Question
my daughter is 24 and been diagnosed with bipolar and depression. she has been in treatment for about 2 years. no insurance so she has to go to mhmr spindletop beaumont tx. lately she has been using drugs and always drinks. will not admit to any of it. she has been on hi's for the past 2 weeks. we will not let her drive, she is a danger to other peoplt. she will not get the help she needs. i have to give her the medicine or she will not take it. she has been on a few different meds. she does well for a little while and then crashes. she get a job and end up quitting it. all her friends are worried and scared. we don't know what else to do. she lives with us because she won't try to help herself. she stays up all night and keeps us up. she is very hard to talk to. she never makes sense about anything. sometimes she seems ok but most of the time she is off the wall. laws keep us from having her put in a hospital. we don't want to kick her out,afraid she will end up dead or in jail, but will not get help own her own. what can we do? we have no life. help

Answer
Hi, Mia . . .

The situation you describe is a very difficult one and one that causes great pain in all who love your daughter.

The best thing you can do for her is to get her into a hospital where she can be held until she responds to treatment. As you probably know, to involuntarily commit someone to a psychiatric hospital requires that they be dangerous to themselves or others. This could be most easily be demonstrated to the police if she were to hit or punch you with such severity that you were left with a bruise of some sort.

Best regards . . .
Ivan
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