About Bipolar Solutions

The mission of Bipolar Solutions is to improve the lives of people diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, one family at a time.  We’ve chosen to focus on families because of the impact, good and bad, family supporters can have on bipolar patient outcomes.

While it seems obvious that the presence of loving family support will improve a patient’s treatment outcome following a mental health crisis, this is not always the case.  It often depends on the way the family expresses concern for the patient and the communication styles employed. Researchers have categorized one key differentiating factor as High vs. Low Expressed Emotion (EE).

Another factor known to be helpful to patient outcomes is the extent to which family supporters are educated about bipolar disorder, in terms of its functional impact on their loved one, the hereditary and biological causes of its particular traits, and understanding around how and episode is triggers and can sometimes be avoided by noticing and acting upon a patient’s earliest signs of an impending episode.  

Simply put -- families who can learn to communicate without criticism and hostility, and who are able to learn enough about bipolar disorder to accurately attribute troubling behavior to the illness (rather than seeing it as a character flaw or worse) will be in a far better position to do what they truly want to do, which is HELP their loved one get and stay well. 

As our founder Bob Krulish knows all too well, the destructive behavioral patterns that emerge during a bipolar episode can easily separate the ill family member from his or her friends and family at the very time they are needed most. This occurs quite naturally, despite good intentions of family supporters, in part, due to confusion around the underlying cause of the ill person’s wildly inappropriate behavior. Sadly, our current treatment models do not provide the information and skills-based training proven to improve treatment outcomes for bipolar patients.

Initially, Bipolar Solutions worked to solve this problem, one family at a time, by providing this critical information to families in a series of coaching sessions with individual families.  We've been having good results but the need is so great, we wanted to find a way to help more people. Hence the course).

In addition to showcasing what researchers have found to be most helpful to family supporters in guiding their loved one toward improved stability and well-being, our founder shares powerful insight from his own battle with bipolar disorder that likely will improve your understanding of the illness from your loved-one’s perspective. As someone with first-hand experience of what it is like to battle the illness and now manages to live well, despite its ongoing challenges, he is in a unique position to show others the way.

Everything you will find on this website and in our courses is grounded in insight gained through actual “lived experiences” of bipolar disorder. We are not doctors, psychologists, clinical researchers or licensed health care professionals and this website is not intended to be a substitute for clinical care.  Indeed, all the valuable insight and progress identified above depended upon strong working relationships with doctors, psychologists, clinical researchers or licensed health care professionals.

We know the devastation of lives torn apart by this illness – the seemingly endless relationship conflicts and family turmoil.  

I hope you will find something here to ease the burden of this illness on you and/or the loved one for whom you are attempting to provide loving care.

The information and Services we offer also is informed by our lay-understanding of a series of academic research studies beginning in the mid-80’s and continuing to date that reveal connections between certain types of family/caregiver interactions and poor patient outcomes in terms of worsening symptoms and shorter periods of time to relapse into full blown manic or depressive episodes.

You acknowledge that the content provided at this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice. You further acknowledge that neither the information on this website nor the Services are a replacement for professional diagnosis, medication, or therapy. The Services are not intended to be, nor should they be considered medical, legal or financial advice. You agree to seek the advice of a licensed medical professional before making lifestyle changes or determining the best treatment options for you, your child or others for whom you provide care.  

About Bob

Bob shares his hard-fought lessons learned an individual who lived with undiagnosed bipolar disorder until the illness robbed him of all he held dear – a 20-year marriage, the freedom to spend time with his four children, a once-successful career, his home and any semblance of financial security – and nearly cost him his life. After finally being properly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and motivated by a desire to reconnect with each of his four children, he courageously endured years of struggle and painful lessons learned along the way to piecing both his mind, and his very life back together.  His journey includes:

• proactively working through dozens of medication changes with his psychiatrists to determine the best med combination for him, 
• pursuing over 600 hours of therapy to discover and implement a strong combination of coping skills to reduce the impact of continuing challenges and symptoms;
• reading literally everything he could get his hands on about bipolar disorder and how best to live well with bipolar disorder despite the many challenges it continues to present in his life;
• connecting with others through the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and ultimately serving on the board of directors of its local chapter and becoming a highly sought after NAMI speaker and workshop facilitator;
• advocating for others with bipolar disorder and coaching family members on how best to reconnect and support their ill loved ones in dealing with the devastating effect the illness has on his or her life; and
• last, but certainly not least, founding Bipolar Solutions to expand his reach of all he has to offer, including a strong understanding of clinical research devoted to family support of the ill family member, with the hope that the lives of others might somehow be served by his own painful struggle with the illness.

“For all that this illness has ripped from my grasp – a 25-year marriage, an intact family, a successful career, financial security, and many friends – it has given me a potent way to help others.  For this, I am deeply grateful.  It is my hope that the pain I have experienced will become your gain, and that my hard-fought discoveries can become yours through this work.” 

About The Bipolar Survival Course

In the Bipolar Survival Course our founder bravely shares his own trials and tribulations on his personal path to wellness and offers an all too rare glimpse of how the illness feels from the inside out.  With powerful insight from his own battle with the illness, Bob shares all that has helped him live well despite the ongoing challenges of the illness, as well as the types of well-meaning “assistance” that tends to lead to lead toward increasing pain and the obliteration of loving relationships. 

The information we provide in the Bipolar Survival Course includes: 

• How bipolar mania and depression are experienced from the inside-out;
• How best to support someone living with bipolar disorder from the perspective of someone struggling to recover from a severe bipolar episode;
• How to pursue the right combination of medicine and how to tell if the meds are working;
• How to side-step the next bipolar episode by becoming aware of the early warning signs leading up to an episode and creating a plan of action for when the early warning signs begin to emerge;
• How to avoid episodes by becoming aware of your or your loved one’s unique episode triggers;
• How to create a home environment that is clinically proven to improve patient outcomes (in terms of relapse and severity of symptoms); and 
• Other lessons learned along the winding path toward improved stability and personal wellness.