It's a mood stabilizer. Medication is a part of daily life for many people with mental illness. Their need for medicine is often compared to a diabetic's need for insulin. Jim McCarthy is at the point where he's responsible for his own medication. He also knows signs that tell him the medication might need to be changed.
First thing is lack of sleep and maybe a loss of appetite.
Those are some of my relapse symptoms. I know right away when I have these symptoms to talk to somebody on the staff. When we visited Cole Creek House, Jim was about to move out after two years there. Before he could get to that point, he had to prove that he can handle his medication. And Jim has had that issue before in the past, and one of the reasons that he stayed so long is that we wanted to make sure that he understood that medications do help.