Thanks to everyone for your reader comments and questions- here is one regarding work and bipolar mania.
Hi Julie,
I have been have episodes where I experience mania, wanting to buy stuff limited need to sleep and the inability to concentrate, focus finish an assigned task. This is a real problem at work as I work at a law firm and my hours are billable. I seem to have the episodes the week before and during my menstrual cycle. Do you know hormonal changes can effect my bi polar cycle/episodes? This is a real problem and I have so much anxiety because my Manager has approached me about my job performance and has sad some threatening thing to me regarding my position. I am so anxious and afraid it has a negative effect on my performance, which does not help the situation at all.
BDA Angel
Hi,
Mood swings affect work performance. That’s a fact of bipolar disorder. It’s one of the reasons I asked the poll question about whether a person with bipolar disorder would hire someone with bipolar disorder! So you are not alone. But… we can also be the greatest at work once we manage the illness because we can be more creative and self aware than most. It’s so essential that we all have a plan to manage mania when it comes to work. I know that I’m extremely creative when I’m hypomanic- but I can also be a bit over the top. I’ve learned to harness the hypomania while making sure I don’t make the mistakes I made in the past. It can be done, but it takes a lot of practice.
Menstrual cycles can be very, very influential on mood swings. I suggest that you get a mood swing chart and start charting your moods daily- then you will know your pattern and can prepare for the mania days in advance. I would also discuss meds with an experienced health care professional- bipolar disoder medications can be used at certain times of the month and then stopped when they are not needed. This takes monitoring by a HCP though. I would also be very careful if you’re taking birth control pills- they can affect your moods as well- sometimes in a good way and sometimes adversely! I know my signs of mania to the most miniscule change in mood- but it can still sneak up on me and I’ve used my treatment plan for nine years solid! It gets a lot better once you have a system.
If the mania is affecting your work- it’s essential that you start something now- I sound like a school marm here- but I can’t say enough about the importance of a plan we use every day! We need our work- but we also need to make sure the bipolar doesn’t affect our work adversely.
Why does it have to be so hard for us! The facts are that it is harder. We have to be more vigilant. But…. once we learn to manage the illness better, we can be stable in relationships and work. I’m working full time now- and that is a dream come true. You can keep your job and even work more effectively once you chart those moods and start a plan! Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder has a mood swing chart in the back- and example of how I use mine.
And one final comment- what is the first sign you have that the mania is showing up when your cycle changes? Write that down and put it in your desk- and on your fridge- you can also tell the people in your life- when you recongnize the sign- you can say to yourself,”It’s time to put my plan into effect so that I don’t let this mood swing adversely affect my work!” I was not able to work at all in the mid ninties. I now have my own business and work daily. It’s great that you are working as well!
julie
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Hey Julie!
I can sympathize about the mania at work. My mania doesn’t ebb and flow with my cycle it just flows most of the time. I feel so fortunate to work in a situation where I have my own office because I can more easily do my calming routines and I don’t have to have my “face on” full-time. Working with mania I have found particularly challenging as I work with many men and I tend to become hypersexual. That private office has been a godsend for being able to talk candidly to my therapist and keep me out of trouble. Good luck to all that are dealing with this issue.
P.S. I don’t deal with the ebb and flow of menstrual cycles because I have an IUD that makes it so I don’t have one. This is a great side effect of a necessary choice since I had a “surprise baby” from not taking my meds.
Hi Julie,
As to your question about working while experiencing mania I have had a lot of experience with this situation. I work at a Crisis Stabilization Unit and I am a group facilitator which means I am “on stage” so to speak a lot of the time as I do mainly educational groups about psychological topics pertinent to the Consumer/client/peers’ recovery.
When I am manic and expansive I fly through the presentations with a great deal of energy and excitement and am usually appaluded by the peers and the techs and other staff listening. Of course I get a rush from this and my day is set as I breeze through my evaluations and other paperwork. I share a very tiny office with one of the insurance specialists and she is very understanding of my moods and my energy as she was once a counselor with the agency and is also a very astute and kind person.
At the other end of the spectrum and we all know that we get there no matter what we do, I have to drag myself through the groups and there is rarely any applause or positive comments from anyone. I feel like I am out there all by myself like a comic on a bad night with a hard crowd.
When I slink into the office my coworker is usually too busy with her work to take much time to talk and I just plunge into the paperwork. I sometimes find myself actually falling asleep for a while out of boredom and frustration and extreme tiredness. I trudge through the rest of the day and usually get out of work late on these days.
I am lucky that now I have an excellent therapist and am getting on track with my life and I have decided that it is time for a career change.
I have been dabling with writing for quite some time now and I am going to use my SSDI check and my partial retirement check from the state to help support myself while I go back to school, especially if I am awarded the Reintegration Scholarship and concentrate on my writing and my storytelling.
I went through a recent med change and I am much more in control at the moment and I hope to kick the constant rapid cycling and be a more ‘normal’ stable and fufilled person.
Life with Bipolar Disorder is challenging and it can be very rewarding and fulfilling. I have a great social network and two grown children who are both married, my beautiful daughter, Dana, just this past month (August) and I have a great deal to live for.
Just today a friend came by after church and we talked about common interest and our illnesses and reminised a bit about the past when we were NAMI IN OUR OWN VOICE Presenters togeter and did a lot of other things together in the mental health advocacy field.
I stand stronger every day looking to the future with hope, excitement and anticipation.
TheBipolarOne
dsh
Hi David,
Thanks for this great comment. I like to read about the lives of others with bipolar disorder. It reminds me that we are all similar… because it’s an illness.
Also, it’s great that even when you’re depressed at work- you plow through the paperwork- that means you go home with a feeling of accomplishment!
Julie