1. Be willing to admit that you have bipolar disorder. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I certainly don’t need to take meds”— meanwhile, your condition deteriorates. Or, you go undiagnosed for years, potentially winding up in a fairly critical circumstance. Either way, someone often has to intervene. Sometimes it’s the law. Indeed, your life has fallen apart, and it’s all because of your pride. If you are experiencing the telltale signs, be willing to admit that you have a serious illness. Denial only delays the ultimate recovery you’re capable of achieving. 2. Don’t define yourself by your illness. Focusing so much on your symptoms at the expense of ignoring all that makes you unique makes no sense. You need to keep things in perspective and be realistic. Granted, having a mental illness is not easy, but the solution is not to reduce your worth as a person to the illness itself and let bipolar disorder become the sole focus of your life. You can maintain your self-esteem by putting your illness in its proper context. Having a diagnosis doesn’t mean that you have to discount all your dreams. You are more than your moods. Neither triumphs nor tribulations change the fact that you are a valuable, worthwhile person simply because you exist. 3. Quick fixes are not the answer. You say, “I just haven’t found the right medication yet.” Initially, I too thought that I could find a magic pill that would make all the pain just go away. But, looking for miracle cures leads to disappointment more often than not. Addressing an illness like bipolar disorder requires a comprehensive treatment approach. A pie-in-the-sky panacea is not the answer. With bipolar disorder, you are looking at a situation that requires management over time. You cannot confront the illness in a half-hearted manner. The best approach is to work steadily and rationally with your doctor and therapist, follow your game plan, and work toward realistic, measurable goals to bring you closer to ultimate recovery. 4. Dealing with bipolar disorder requires a lifestyle change. No football team goes on the field without a game plan. Winning the battle with bipolar disorder requires a well-developed plan of action too. You—not the doctor, not the therapist, not the managed healthcare plan, and not the government—are ultimately responsible for establishing and following the plan. At a minimum, you need to establish a relationship with the right doctor and therapist, follow their orders, and regularly take your medication if prescribed. In addition, your plan should include a support system. Proper sleep, good nutrition, and daily exercise are also essential. And, your plan should include steps to take if you encounter rough times or become suicidal. 5. You’re not the only person in the world with problems, pain, and stress. Here is the principle: Find someone with a worse problem than yours, and your problem doesn’t seem so bad after all. It’s all a matter of perspective. You can minimize your misery and maximize your mirth by realizing that you do not carry the weight of the world alone. I live down the street from one of the preeminent catastrophic care hospitals in the country, Shepherd Center. If I start to feel sorry for myself or think I am alone in my suffering, a visit to Shepherd, where patients have suffered massive head and spinal injuries, changes my perspective. Realizing that others have their burdens to bear makes yours seem lighter and more manageable. 6. Don’t beat yourself up for not meeting the performance standards that you were once capable of achieving prior to the onset of your illness. You have bipolar disorder: it may not define you, but it is a part of your life. Live one day at a time and set smaller goals at first. Establish realistic expectations based on the set of circumstances with which you are now dealing. In time, as you build more confidence and self-esteem, you will be able to aim even higher. Also, do not fall prey to pressure from others who push for you to get back to your old self. Having an effective strategy for dealing with bipolar disorder includes acknowledging what, at a given time, you can and cannot do. Do not sabotage your treatment progress by meeting inflated expectations, whether you or others set them. 7. Hold on to your old talents and skills. You are the only person in the world who can use your abilities. Having bipolar disorder doesn’t mean that you have to take your pot of talents off the stove. Your pilot light is still on. If you have put things on the back burner for the time being, you can still keep your skills sharpened. The solution is to adapt how you utilize your pot of talents to accommodate your health. For example, if you formerly taught school, perhaps you can do some volunteer tutoring until you can return to the classroom. By keeping your teaching skills up, you’ll be ready when it’s time to put them back to use full time. 8. Stand up for yourself and take a stand when necessary. Recently, a young person attending one of my support groups said, “I just can’t handle the shame that comes with this illness.” If you are ashamed of having bipolar disorder, how can you expect others to be at ease with it? Furthermore, if people sense that you are uncomfortable about your illness, they will mirror that uneasiness. You must consciously decide that you are going to face the illness and work through any discomfort you feel. Stereotypes regarding illnesses like bipolar disorder will not change if the very people who have such conditions are not at peace with their situation. So, take a positive stand, educate others, and help eradicate stigma. If you fall six times, stand up seven. Keep up the fight. 9. Learn to manage stress or it will manage you. Managing stress is key in everyone’s life. And if you have bipolar disorder, you are more vulnerable to its effects. Stress not only aggravates your condition and impedes your treatment progress, it makes life more difficult for both you and your loved ones. Every decision you make should take stress into account. Identify your vulnerabilities and the impact stress could have. If you are contemplating a significant life change, like returning to work, ask yourself if the financial and other benefits outweigh the potential risks associated with the added stress such a move brings. 10. Don’t play the blame game. Addressing the issue of blame is really quite simple: Bipolar disorder has a biological origin, so it is nobody’s fault. There are no culprits, other than genetics and fate, so there’s no room for finding fault with yourself or others. Blaming weighs you down and distracts you from working toward wellness. Don’t beat yourself up or attack others; instead, focus on treating the illness and getting on with life. If you have to point fingers, point them forward in the direction of recovery. If you’ve read this far, you must have decided that you do indeed want to get better. Whether you have just been diagnosed or you have dealt with bipolar disorder for years, success starts with having the right perspective. It is important to keep in mind that you have more than a diagnosis. You have a destiny, and you can still realize all the dreams you ever had. Sure, it takes courage to move on with your life, but courage is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Bipolar disorder is only as limiting as you allow it to be, so do not let it hold you back. Bipolar disorder does not define your life: You do.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 20:31:37 +0000
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