I’ve kept a chart of my mood swings for the past year. It’s amazing to see what triggers most of my downswings. Without question, it’s difficult relationships. I knew that this was a problem, but seeing the reality on a piece of paper forced me to make some serious behavioral changes. I have to limit contact with certain people, no matter how much I care for them. I wish I were the type who could have exciting, but difficult people in my life, but as my chart clearly pointed out. I can’t.
There is a mood swing chart and an example of one of my charts at the back of my book Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder. The Health Cards can provide you a lot of information as well. I faithfully chart my mood every night. It’s depressing to see how this illness controls my life, but I at least know I am doing [ Read More ]
I’ve always known that it has always taken really big changes for me to stay well enough to work. Here are some of the changes I have made in the past few years.
- Celibacy (yes, celibacy!) – Less travel – No contentious relationships – Avoid work situations that will make me sick – Using my Health Cards daily – Visualizing my strategies from Get it Done When You’re Depressed – Watch inspirational reality TV instead of downer TV
I could write a lot more here! By the way, the celibacy thing is just a choice and not something people with bipolar disorder have to do to stay stable! Haha. But my goodness, it has helped. Especially when I get hypomanic and just want to drink beer and meet people.
My problem is that the bipolar has not being doing well. This means that I work every day to stay stable and sometimes the [ Read More ]
It is the 4th of July. I had a great time at my brother’s birthday party yesterday- and I am going to a party with my good friends Marsh and Adam in a few hours. And I just felt my mood sweep down and I had this thought:
I don’t have any friends.
In the past, these thoughts plagued me and I didn’t know what to do about them. Now I do- but they still hurt! They still try to control me! As you probably know either through personal experience or seeing it in a loved one, bipolar causes thoughts that ARE NOT REAL- but they feel real. And if we say them out loud or act on them, they become real- especially to others. So, when I had this ridiculous thought – I said to myself, “Julie, this is a bipolar thought. It’s not true. Get up and do something. It will pass. ” [ Read More ]
Well, as you probably know, an author lives for book reviews! If you have read my books Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder, Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder and Get it Done When You’re Depressed, I’d love it if you would post a review of the books on amazon.com.
When you are there, please feel free to check the section that says Tags Customers Associate with This Product. This helps when people go to amazon.com to search for books on mood disorders in general. It helps me a lot if everyone does this section whether they write a review or not.
Of course, be totally honest when you write. I don’t read the reviews – but they are so important for people deciding what books to buy.
Your support is so appreciated! Here are the links to each book:
Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner
Marie just left a comment on my mania post below. It was very insightful and helpful.
And… she asked this question- it REALLY made me think.
I would like to have one really good healthy day in which I did not question myself! How about you?
At first, my answer was- oh yes! Just one day this week! Then I had another thought- it’s rather esoteric. This illness stinks. It has been terrible for me this week and it may be terrible today- luckily I woke up pretty stable- but overall, I am a different person because of this illness.
I have to manage bipolar disorder 24 hours a day in order to stay stable. I watch what I say, do and really try to counteract what I think when I’m sick. This makes me a better friend, partner, daughter, student, teacher, etc. We have to be more aware when we have bipolar disorder [ Read More ]
I really do need to change my heading on the top of this blog! People ask me this question all of the time.
The Health Cards are the treatment system I created in 2000 to help myself manage the illness. I was very sick- I basically couldn’t function in the real world in terms of friends and work. I certainly had a life, but it wasn’t a quality life. So I created the Health Cards and got my life back. You can read about them on bipolarhappens.com
The Health Cards are used by the person with the illness as well as the people who care about them. They work! I have a blog on teenagers and bipolar disorder below. Teenagers especially respond to the Health Cards as they can be done in private and then discussed with parents. I wish I’d had them when I was a teenager!
They are a system to accompany medications- especially [ Read More ]
The health information contained herein is provided for general education purposes only. This site should not be seen as a substitute for an official diagnosis or for professional health care.
