Few career options are off limits to people with bipolar disorders. Many also gravitate toward high-excitement occupations, including brokerage work, the top levels of marketing and sales, medicine, and other jobs that feed their need for excitement and variety. Of course, the more exciting the job is, the greater its potential for stress and mood swings. As a parent, your role is simply to point out areas of concern and help your adult child find good coping strategies, from medication to meditation. One door that is barred to most people with bipolar disorder is the US military.
Current regulations prohibit anyone who has ever taken a psychiatric drug from enlisting.
This includes Ritalin, Prozac, and yes, lithium. For a teenager or adult who has never taken medication, the diagnosis may not preclude enlistment if he can pass the preliminary mental health screening. There is ample reason to believe that people who took psychiatric medications as children or teens have entered the military, with varying degrees of success. With Ritalin and Prozac now topping the list of childhood prescriptions, it does seem likely that the military will have to take a second look at this policy to keep its ranks filled. Should the draft be reinstituted, the ban will almost certainly have to be lifted.