Manic depressive disorder | Bipolar Affective Disorder

Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Advice

Coping with bipolar disorder

September 16th, 2009 by Vender Draughtsen

Although a bipolar disorder is a very serious condition, coping with bipolar disorder is something you can achieve as long as you have a proper treatment plan. Dealing with symptoms like mania, hypomania and depression seems like a very hard task but with the right support you are very well able to live a ‘normal life’.

Probably the most important thing to do when you have to cope with bipolar disorder is making a good treatment plan.  A treatment plan consists of good contact with a doctor and good contact with a therapist. You should be able to regular visit your doctor to talk about how you feel and if the medication is till doing it’s job. Talking to a psychotherapist is also a very important thing to do. He will guide you how to cope with the symptoms of bipolar disorder and how to recover from episodes of mania, hypomania or depression.

If you don’t have a treatment plan there is a very good chance that coping with bipolar disorder | manic depressive disorder will be a lot harder. You really need to know if the medicines you are taking are still working, and what triggered the depression or the mania. Although you are probably quite well to notice when you feel depressed, it is almost impossible to notice if you are in an episode of mania. When you have an episode of mania you will feel so good that you think medicine is not needed anymore and this will trigger the mania. When you don’t talk to a psychotherapist, you will not get the insight on how you can deal with the symptoms and how to recover. The sooner you notice a new episode coming, the bigger the chance you might prevent it.

A very good idea in dealing with bipolar disorder | manic depressive disorder is keeping a journal. If your regularly write down how you feel and keep track of your progress, you might notice possible triggers sooner. It could also help you sustaining your treatment plan and help you remember when to take your medicine or go to appointments.

Probably the most important thing in coping with bipolar disorder is keeping some kind of daily schedule for your self. You need to keep a tight schedule from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to bed. A disruption of your daily rhythm might be a trigger for a new episode of mania or depression. keeping a schedule will help you maintaining a healthy lifestyle and decrease the chance of a new episode.

There are some common triggers out there that might cause a new onset of an episode. One of them is stop taking your medicine because you feel better. Another one is when you notice you don’t need as much sleep as normal and you don’t want to go to bed. Other triggers might be drugs and alcohol abuse or abnormal flirting with the opposite sex.

Bipolar disorder is a disease you have to life with for the rest of your life. Coping with bipolar disorder will be very hard but the advice mentioned here might get you on track in organizing your life and live a ‘normal life’.

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