longer.blue

Recognizing symptoms, discovering lifetime patterns When I was first diagnosed (back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth) my first counselor (dinosaur speak for therapist) worked with me to develop a safety plan. While I can find a webpage with info about that if you wish, the basic plan included personal warning signs of my episodes and defined my steps needed to take to manage (call doctor, call therapist, practice breathing, eat every day, use coping skills) This disease is not new to you (unless you had a drug-induced onset) you probably had it for the better part of your (at least adult) life. You can get a journal and look back over your lifetime. Write down times when you changed jobs, addresses, states quickly. Times with rapid start of short term relationships and/or rapid end of long-term ones. When you went into debt from shopping, gambling, or investing in making new businesses that failed quickly (mostly because you got disinterested.) when you used excessive alcohol and street drugs (excluding years of long-term addictions.) When others accused you of being on drugs and you weren’t. One night stands, When you didn’t sleep for days. That’s your starting place to identify your personal cycle of mania. Once you know that, try to find the first signs of what you did when those times started. and you will recognize manic behaviors that start in the future. Leave some space between each separate time period you remember doing that stuff. In between those times (if you had mild depressions) write down times where you routinely overslept, when you were ill (usually with a reoccurring decease - mine was chronic bronchitis) When you were turned off to sex (especially if you couldn’t bear to be touched), times when you thought almost everything was blah, times when you seemed to cry at the drop of a hat. Times when you just didn’t feel like doing anything. Now see if you can pinpoint what you first did every time those kind of things happened in a bunch. Those time were mild depressions and how you’ll recognize it in the future. Most people easily (painfully) know when they are in deep depressions. Bipolar Disorder l: Relapse Warning Signs (webpage) https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-guide/bipolar-early-warning-signs ———————- Decent personalized med control does not lock us down. It allows for the same simple changes that other people feel. What the meds are supposed to do is prevent extremes. A lot of our disease management is in addition to meds. Meds are just one tool for coping. We should work to become self-aware of our own particular cycles, self-monitor for our personal warning signs that something is starting up. Making contingency/safety plans for when it’s time to call the doctor and what else we and our family can do about managing every different episode that might start. When I was originally diagnosed, I signed up for a University of Denver research project to test if education on coping skills help lessen episodes. The classes were 2 hours, one night a week for 2 months or so. (Before the turn of the century was a long time ago.) Finding coping strategies for dealing with particular issues or behaviors is a huge help. (For example a big trigger for many of us is lack of sleep - I have a decent list of non-med sleep tips to help carry over until one can work through it with the doctor) Working with loved ones for help monitoring, helping strategizing, managing and communicating is awesome for closeness and security (and more comforting and fulfilling for them). An extra word about loved ones. A lot of times, they can spot a mania before we can. For example, seeing bipolar eyes (Google it 😁 ) AND it’s also a good idea for them to be in therapy taking care of themselves as well as helping us. I have a good list of YouTube videos links for friends and family. Just let me know if you (any of you) want to see the list. Tag me in any post. ————————— I recognize that I’m starting hypomania when I’ve gone a full night without sleep and am energized the next morning. I nip it in the butt (my favorite pun!) by taking my Ativan prn for sleep 3 nights in a row. I know it can be addicting and I refuse to be a junkie so I only take it in that circumstance 4-6 times a year. I get a fresh prescription of 30 pills every December and discard the old ones. My manias were when I was hypomanic and it just kept going up. So for me, controlling the hypomania forestalls the mania. I haven’t been manic in 20 years. But on my original safety plan, I recognized the start of mania because I started wearing big, junkie earrings (you know, the long beaded ones with feathers) and purple clothes