Taking prescribed medications and keeping doctor appointments are crucial to self-managing bipolar disorder and preventing serious episodes. In addition, there are support groups available for patients and their family members to help them talk openly and learn how to support someone with bipolar disorder.
Developing and sticking to a daily schedule can help stabilize the mood swings of bipolar disorder. Include set times for sleeping, eating, socializing, exercising, working, and relaxing. Try to maintain a regular pattern of activity even through emotional ups and downs.
Monitoring how you feel
Recognizing what activates your mood episodes goes hand-in-hand with monitoring your moods. Checking in with yourself daily on how you feel is a great self-help strategy for bipolar disorder. It can help you recognize any red flags or patterns.
A stressful circumstance or situation often triggers the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Examples of stressful triggers include: the breakdown of a relationship. physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
Avoid alcohol and drugs.
They can affect how your medications work. They can also worsen bipolar disorder and trigger a mood episode. And they can make the condition harder to treat. So don't use them at all.
Alcohol Misuse and Drug Intoxication, and the Aftereffects
Intoxication with drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines can cause or worsen manic symptoms, while the aftereffects of cocaine or alcohol use are associated with worsening depressive symptoms.
A body of research shows that exercise, yoga, meditation, and other mindfulness practices ease depressive symptoms and improve mental wellness. Nourishing the brain with a healthful diet and avoiding junk food has a positive effect on mood. The role that good sleep plays in maintaining balance can't be overstated.
Bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depression, is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression). When you become depressed, you may feel sad or hopeless and lose interest or pleasure in most activities.
Working with a doctor on a treatment plan that includes a combination of psychotherapy and medication is often the most effective way to manage bipolar disorder. Once both parties agree on a treatment plan, consistency is key. Sticking to treatments in the long-term may reduce how frequent or severe mood episodes are.
My short answer is: Yes, a person who lives with bipolar disorder can certainly be truly happy. But I think I can understand the concerns behind the question. If you have experienced disruptive or dangerous episodes of mania, you may worry that feeling happy is just a first step toward another damaging episode.
Clinical significance of bipolar depression is underscored by strong association with overall morbidity, other co-occurring psychiatric conditions (notably anxiety and substance-abuse disorders), disability, and excess mortality owing largely to suicide in young patients and intercurrent medical illness in older ...
Whatever its source, generating hope,” he says, “pulls one into the future of possibilities.” People with bipolar disorder say they feel more hopeful when they're doing things that make them feel good about themselves and satisfied with life.
A “bipolar meltdown” is, much like “bipolar anger,” a very stigmatizing phrase, and not something that really exists. The phrase “bipolar meltdown” could refer to a bipolar person having a manic episode or being in a depressed state.
They last at least two weeks but can last much longer, sometimes for months. Like manic or hypomanic episodes, they can severely disrupt your everyday life. Severe depression may require medication or a stay in hospital.
Bipolar episodes can be triggered by lifestyle and environmental factors. Recognizing your triggers and avoiding them, Dr. Anand says, is often a key to managing bipolar disorder and can be an important addition to your treatment by a trained mental health professional.
Helpful Traits
The authors reviewed 81 studies that noted positive characteristics in patients with bipolar and found a strong association with five qualities: spirituality, empathy, creativity, realism, and resilience.
Being in a healthy relationship with someone with bipolar disorder requires not only careful management of their illness, but also setting aside time to take good care of yourself.
Here are some reasons why people with bipolar push others away: They don't want to burden people with their problems. The inside of a bipolar mind can be a dark place sometimes. It's common for people with bipolar to worry that their problems are going to bring people down.
With bipolar rage there does not necessarily need to be a trigger, it can show up without warning and is always absent of reason. It chooses chaos, it's not the individual choosing to lose control. If anything, control is something we're desperate to have and that desperation only makes our anger more chaotic.
If you have bipolar and wish to repair relationships damaged by your behavior (whether while symptomatic or not), it is vital to first recognize the other person's feelings and pain. Admitting to your actions and acknowledging the harm they caused your loved one is a good first step in the process of making amends.
Feeling abandoned and unloved during bipolar depression is not reality; it's a symptom of the illness—and it can be treated.
The most effective treatment for bipolar disorder is a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Most people take more than one drug, like a mood-stabilizing drug and an antipsychotic or antidepressant.