What do you say to a bipolar person to calm them down?
Supporting a person with bipolar disorder
“You're not alone in this. I'm here for you.” “I understand that it's your illness that causes these thoughts and feelings.” “You may not believe it now, but the way you're feeling can and will change.”
5 Things You Should NOT Say To Someone With Bipolar Disorder | HealthyPlace
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How do you stabilize someone with bipolar?
A consistent routine allows for better mood management. People with bipolar disorder may benefit from establishing a daily routine for sleep, diet and exercise. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The focus is identifying unhealthy, negative beliefs and behaviors and replacing them with healthy, positive ones.
“Many people think that a person with bipolar disorder doesn't have any control over themselves or that they're unable to take care of themselves or function in society. This simply is not true,” says Ikaika King, who was diagnosed with bipolar II when he was 17.
Oral or parenteral benzodiazepines, alone or in combination with an antipsychotic, are recommended as first-line treatment for the termination of behavioral emergencies in mania.
Lamotrigine. Lamotrigine (Lamictal) may be the most effective mood stabilizer for depression in bipolar disorder, but is not as helpful for mania. The starting dose of lamotrigine should be very low and increased very slowly over four weeks or more.
Mania in particular tends to trigger aggressive emotions and anger. The racing thoughts and high energy levels you experience can leave you feeling angry, irritable, and frustrated. Those angry emotions, in turn, can cause aggressive and inappropriate behaviors.
Bipolar disorder features extreme shifts in mood that are unpredictable and often disruptive to daily functioning. Changes in sleep patterns, eating habits, emotions, and behaviors accompany the mood swings.
These mood episodes cause symptoms that last a week or two, or sometimes longer. During an episode, the symptoms last every day for most of the day. Feelings are intense and happen with changes in behavior, energy levels, or activity levels that are noticeable to others.
Never engage in dialogue with the other person's amygdala
For persons living with bipolar, the amygdala may be overactivated or very easily triggered. Don't engage in an argument or debate with your bipolar partner when he or she is in a fear state. Wait until there is calm again.
A person with bipolar disorder may be unaware they're in the manic phase. After the episode is over, they may be shocked at their behaviour. But at the time, they may believe other people are being negative or unhelpful. Some people with bipolar disorder have more frequent and severe episodes than others.
Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness. People who have it go through unusual mood changes. They go from very happy, "up," and active to very sad and hopeless, "down," and inactive, and then back again. They often have normal moods in between.
Bipolar episodes will swing from extreme highs (manic episodes) to very low depressive states. When either of these episodes are coupled with rage, it can be devastating. “People diagnosed with bipolar disorder can experience anger during a manic or depressive episode. There is no distinction between the two.”
Both bipolar manic and depressed groups used the defense mechanism of denial, borderline level defenses and immature defenses significantly more than the unipolar depression group. The manic group showed greater dependence on narcissistic level defenses as compared to the other two groups.
Experts are careful to distinguish between the odd angry outburst and the long-simmering anger and rage of bipolar anger, sometimes lasting over several days during both manic episodes and irritated states of depression.
