No, I’m not pregnant. My niece is. The same one that I wrote about in Runaway and Runaway Part II. She has an odd diagnosis, basically everything on the extreme end of the spectrum: bipolar, schizophrenic, schizoeffective. She is probably not all of those things but she is bipolar and does have visual and audio hallucinations. She’s been unmedicated for over 6 months. She started birth control pills a few months ago and then quit them. She is 24, in college, unmarried, and still with the loser she was with before when I wrote the aforementioned posts.
All of that aside, she is an unmedicated, mentally ill, pregnant young woman. Does anyone have any advice they can share on this subject? If I can give her any suggestions to help her through this difficult time, I would greatly appreciate it. One friend has already been kind enough to share her thoughts and suggestions, but I wanted to open up the suggestion box a little more by asking all of my readers for advice.
Naturally, I am very worried about her. I wish she had waited until after she finished college and was settled into a stable relationship before getting pregnant. I fear she won’t ever finish college. I fear he will leave her again and she will become a single mother. She already lives on medicaid, disability, and food stamps and barely gets by. I fear post-postpartum depression the most.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!