Bipolar Disorder Uncovered

Table of Contents:

Introduction...5
Chapter 1: Understanding Bipolar To Get Help...6
Bipolar: The Medical Side...7
Do You Have Bipolar?...8
What’s The Cause?...11
Are You At Risk?...13
Should You Go To The Doctor?...14
Who Should I See?...15
Chapter 2: Why Should I Get Help Anyway?...18
The Stress Goes Farther...20
Chapter 3: Your Doctor’s Bipolar Treatment...22
Medications...23
Psychotherapy...27
Electroconvulsive Therapy...29
What’s Right For You?...31
Chapter 4: Why So Many Struggle With Treatment...32
Noncompliance And Nonadherence...33
You Don’t Understand Your Illness...34
Dependency...35
They Don’t Like The Doctor...36
The Awful Side Effects...36
What Else Can It Be?...38
Chapter 5: Learning To Cope With Bipolar Disorder...39
The Way You Sleep...40
Monitor Your Medications...41
Maintain Your Level Of Activity...42
Don’t Use Drugs Or Alcohol...43
Support...45
Reduction Of Stress...47
Watch For Signs...49
Keep Your Doctor Informed...53
Chapter 6: Why You Should Consider Support Groups...55
Who Is Your Support Group?...56
Outside Support...57
Chapter 7: Coping By Monitoring Symptoms: The Mood Chart...59
What Is It?...60
Conclusion...62


Reduction Of Stress
Just reading the title of this section you are thinking to yourself that you can’t do it. You’ve heard it before. You know that stress is a killer of many people, not just those that suffer from bipolar disorder. Yet, it is essential that you look at your life and identify those times when stress has lead to mood swings or even out of control behaviors that put you at risk.
Consider this. If you push yourself at work to be the person that does the most, what do you accomplish? You probably will cause the onset of numerous symptoms of bipolar disorder specifically that of mood swings. When this happens, you put yourself in a position of not being able to work or even worse putting your position at jeopardy.
Therefore, you end up not actually benefiting from all of your hard work, but instead have fewer benefits and ultimately you drop the productivity level that you could have had.
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On the other hand, if you would have worked a steady schedule and done what you should have done in regards to
stress management, you ultimately would have accomplished more.
Here are some tips for stress management at work.
• Work the same hours as much as possible. By working a predicable and steady schedule allows you to stick to a schedule which helps to lessen mood swings.
• Get the rest that you need. You need to try to sleep at the same time each day. You need to be able to monitor your sleep patterns to reduce mood swings.
• When you are suffering from mood swings, consider whether or not you should be working. For some, it may mean talking with your doctor about how they affect your job. Ultimately, you need to decide if you are benefiting yourself or not by continuing to work and tough out these mood swings.
• Take time off. Those that take time off often improve their overall health and well being. By getting time off each week and even vacation time, (or taking time off when you need to) you improve your level of stress and how the body reacts to it.
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• Don’t work in overly stressful environments. While you may not feel that this is something that you can
control, it needs to be. Those that suffer with bipolar need to consider their health above anything else. Mood swings, depressive and manic symptoms, can be made worse when you put yourself in a position to deal with a lot of stress.
• Work through problems. If there are small things that happen that cause you to worry or cause stress, handle them right away. Small problems turn into large ones that are much less likely to be dealt with. By handling problems quickly, you reduce the stress toll that they take on you ultimately.
Reducing stress should be one of the most important things that you do. By doing so, you lessen the risk of having a mood swing because of stress. Learn to spot stressful situations and learn how to get out of them effectively! It will pay off.
Watch For Signs
Believe it or not, learning to watch for signs of the onset of mood swings can be an excellent tool to aid you in coping with your illness. The early warning signs of an episode can be seen before they become full blown swings.
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Why do you want to actually pay attention to this? There
are a number of benefits that can come from you seeing and taking action when you see them.
Unfortunately, your doctor can only give you an idea of what will happen to you during a mood swing. That’s because each person is unique and that in itself provides for challenges. Each person w