I just received the following comment on the blog:
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I am unable to stop focusing on the economic situation. I can’t seem to stop worrying about the future and this is just feeding into my triggers. If anyone has a good suggestion about this, I would appreciate it.
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Wow, most of us can commiserate with this! I suggest that we all focus on and take care of the bipolar disorder side of the worrying – which will help with the obsessive thoughts. This can help us view the economic crisis realistically.
If you read my past entries, I’ve had some terrific OCD problems this past month. Many of them were financial. That’s normal. OCD symptoms simply mean that an obsession gets in your head and won’t stop talking and talking. This leads to fear that something bad will happen in the future.
Most people have a worry and then it calms down so that they can realistically think about the worry. Those of us with bipolar disorder don’t have that luxury when something triggers our symptoms.
Here are my tips:
1. Talk back to your worried obsessions:
We have a new president coming up and no matter what, things are not going to stay the same. There is a good chance they will get better. I will wait and see.
Worrying about this right now is making me sick. I’d rather take an action to make myself feel better.
People make it through economic crises all of the time. I can do the same.
This helps me a lot.
2. Separate your real thoughts from the obsessive economic obsessions.
When you’re lying in bed and they start, try this:
Rationally examine the thoughts and feelings that are rushing through your head. Pull out the thoughts that are real- such as, I’m worried I can’t pay my rent next month– vs. what is going to happen to the world if our housing marketing really collapses and I can’t buy a house in the future and then I lose my job and my bipolar gets worse and I can’t afford my meds and now I can’t sleep and I have to work tomorrow… etc.
You can see the difference. Remind yourself that the second set of worries is mostly about bipolar disorder as they are a rather nebulous fear for the future. The thought that you might not be able to pay rent is real. Now you have something to work with. Say to yourself: I can take care of one economic crisis worry at a time. Is it realistic that I can’t pay my rent? Has it been that way in the past? Ok, I can see that I need to do something about this. What is the first thing I can do tomorrow to help with the situation? I can get started with that.
This completely rewires your brain and gets you from obsessive fears to rational concerns that you can tackle with your own actions.
Last night, I was lying in bed extremely anxious about the new book that I’m writing – so I said, Julie, what are the realities? You have to get it done. You will and if you can’t, you will get an extension. What are they going to do- cancel the book? Picture what needs to be done and then make a plan for tomorrow. How do you want to work time wise tomorrow? What can you get done. Isn’t it great you can finally work a lot. You will get your project done tomorrow and then you can go to the next step. Just make a realistic plan.
This is calming. I woke up with a plan.
3. Manage your sleep as best you can. OCD type worries really affect sleep which triggers bipolar disorder. I took Ativan last night as I knew it was going to be hard for me to at least get seven hours! There are a lot of sleep tips on this blog.
4. Finally, create an economic crisis/OCD Health Card. I use my Health Cards to take care of all new problems that come up. If you look at my OCD card, you can see we all have the same fears and obsessions!
These tips should help! This is a crisis, not a permanent situation. We make it through crises by taking actions to calm ourselves bipolar wise so that we can focus on what really matters.
There are many OCD entries in this blog- you can click on the right menu to see a list of entries.
Julie
PS: I know a lot of you read this blog from amazon.com. You can read about my Health Cards Treatment System for Bipolar Disorder Treatment System at www.bipolarhappens.com. This system is the basis for all of my books! The actual blog address is www.bipolarhappens.com/bhblog
