Energy drinks and MH issues

[mybigsis]

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My Dsis has long term mental health issues, she's bi polar and borderline schizophrenic. Her last crisis was around 2013 a long term relationship broke down and our father passed away she stopped her medication and ultimately and sadly was sectioned.

Things seem to have taken a downward spiral, she promises that she's taking her medication. The MH team are involved and she has a visit once a day from CIC to ensure she's taken meds and is ok.

Now around six moths ago she suddenly started drinking 8 cans of energy drinks a day, obviously she put on tons of weight and we discussed how dangerous this level of consumption is. She's now cut down to four cans a day obviously still far too much. I've tried without success to suggest alternatives and ways to stop.

She's sleeping tons even with all those energy drinks, is massively overweight now.

Is there a possibility the energy drinks are making the medication less effective? I can see no other reason for this crisis and it's getting progressively worse and her paranoia is increasing. I'm hoping that we can stop this before it reaches hospital treatment.

This is the only thing I can think that could be causing the meds to stop working,

I can't comment on the interaction between the drinks and your sister's medication, but I know that when DH had a particularly bad bout of anxiety, the doctor strongly recommended cutting out all energy drinks. DH noticed a difference straight away. He said he hadn't realised how on edge they had made him feel until he was no longer drinking them. The caffeine content in them is ridiculous, and that's on top of the sugar. Your sister's situation sounds much more serious and severe, and maybe the energy drinks are not the root cause this time around, but perhaps they aren't helping matters either. Good luck, and I hope your sister gets better soon.

@MrStateTrooper thank you, we're all keeping a very close eye on her. It's just so stressful for her if she needs to be hospitalised and I think it took nine months for her to be totally better after the last episode.