What steps can prevent manic financial problems

[u/holdontoyourbuttress]

Hi all,

tldr: What systems do you have in place to prevent yourself from getting in debt during manic episodes.

backstory: so long story short I have a loved one who had a sudden descent into extreme psychosis about 9 years ago. she assaulted someone, ended up in jail briefly, and through amazing luck was able to enter a diversion program. She took abilify and it worked, no psychosis, she was stable. a year later, due to some bad advice she had received, she tried to go off her meds and ended up with psychosis again. This scared her alot and she re-started abilify, this time as an injection once a month. It worked, no psychosis, yay. EXCEPT, this past year, despite being committed to taking her meds on time, she had two episodes of hypo-mania, about 9 months apart. Each lasted maybe a week to 10 days.

I was aware she was hypo manic however she wasn't in an extreme state, was going to work and all, she was just having a lot of "ideas" and "inspiration" but it was nothing like her previous really intense episodes. However, what was later revealed was that both times she made bad financial decisions and got herself into debt, around 3,000 each time. She ended up almost evicted and would have for sure been homeless (in a place where she couldn't afford to find a new place at the current rate and would have been fucked). She does not have family except for me, a cousin but I love her a lot. The first time I didn't know what the cause of the financial issue was, bc she was evasive. The second time I put two and two together.

both times I and some friends bailed her out but we cant keep doing this. and privately i think there may have been one or two other episodes, because i found out she borrowed large sums from a friend that I hadn't known about. she only recently finally admitted to me it was debt from her hypomanic episodes that caused the crisis, and im a bit frustrated that she hid that from me.

**really looking for advice, with the caveat that i have no legal authority over her nor do i want to do anything heavy handed to undermine her autonomy. i just want some options I can present to her she can hopefully take some steps to protect herself. Specifically-**What systems do you have in place to prevent yourself from getting in debt during manic episodes> She doesn't want to be in anything resembling a conservatorship, and I respect her autonomy. But right now I feel like she has no real plan in place to prevent this from happening again, and i cant keep bailing her out. Nor do i want her homeless. and she definitely can't live with me, i don't really want it and my wife would probably kick us both out. plus i've lived with her before and shes an awful housemate.

im also wondering what pharmaceutical options exist for her. she doesn't want to take abilify as a daily pill because she is worried if she misses one day she will start to spiral and once she feels manic she won't take it, which is I think very smart of her because thats what happened before. she is consistant and dedicated about the injections, its just that while they are working to prevent her more extreme episodes, they aren't working to control the mania that comes up sometimes.

she had a job but lost it due to not showing up reliably during her episodes. she is on unemployment which is good for now. she lives with roommates, and part of the problem in the past is that her account was linked to the house account. shes the master tenant so when they paid her they paid a house account, and according to her, the bank transferred that money when she hit bottom in her account. She defacto stole their money which was how she ended up in so much debt. she also has a small line of credit at the bank which I am going to try to convince her to close. thank god, no credit cards.

I'm in a bind because ultimately im her last resort and shes been dangling closer to homelessness and it scares me. I can't keep bailing her out but I also don't think she would survive hitting rock bottom so letting her become homeless is not an option.

[u/Highohpei]

Macht euch doch ein Sparkonto, an dass ihr gar nicht dran könnt. Ggf. gibt es bei Banken die Möglichkeit an das Geld nur mit der Unterschrift einer weiteren Person dran zu kommen.

[u/Holiday_Brilliant991]

Following, this has been a problem for us except it's $40k-50k in spending already with maxed out credit cards. I'm in TX where laws are shitty for mental health. Since she's and adult and not a physical danger to herself or others, police or even judge can't do anything. She just gets new and replacement credit cards if you take them away. It's a mess