Bipolar Support Group

It's Christmas time! This could be great times for people or not so great times for people. With it being a holiday week, many of our wonderful medical professionals are on vacation. What is a bipolar to do? Well lets start by offering a thread of support for those that need it this week. Please help me in keeping this thread bumped to the first page so we can ensure anyone and everyone can have the support MDJunction is known for!

Feel free to post here your plans, your thoughts, your whatevers about Christmas! Merry Christmas!

Christmas is usually my favorite holiday, and this entire season is usually my favorite time of the year. Unfortunately, I realized over Thanksgiving that the town my parents live in is poison to me. I'm doing really well, and I'm not supposed to see my pdoc until February, but it's causing me a lot of anxiety to even think about driving back there tomorrow. Why does my schoolwork have to have a break?

i get alot of anxiety on christmas and supposedly i ruin it for my husband every time. i cant help it

I love christmas with my son and wife. It seems like such a happy day every year.

The rest of the family really spark episodes in me that are hard to shake. I get terrible bouts of anxiety and sometimes get episodes of hallucinations. The traveling sucks, the spending too much money that i dont have sucks and quite frankly both sides of my family suck!!! Sorry to sound so "bah humbug" but if i could just stay home and ignore the rest of the world life would be so much better. I know what you are gonna say ... just stay home then. If i do that i will start a whole year of talking behind my back about how i dont like my family (which IS true) or i think i am better ect. They just dont understand i have problems and sometimes i need to just be alone. I dont even get 5 minutes of quiet time without someone looking for me.

Thanks for starting a thread where i can vent ... i feel better.

I survive by not having expectations of a holiday. I prepare for christmas get in the spirit but when I visit with family I tell myself it is just any other day. It helps me not to be dissapointed in my unrealistic expectations of a christmas magical day if you know what I mean.

Bumped

Christmas this year is very mixed. Last time this year my mother wasn't speaking to me or seeing my daughter. This year we are back together and spending Christmas as a little family

But my brother has turned nasty, influenced very much by his girlfriend and her mother. He has become cruel and very hurtful, his behaviour has been despicable. It has also left me somewhat destitute as he supports me with about half my bills every month; got an email today to say that he won't be sending me any money. Claims he doesn't have it to give ??!! NOT !! So I'm feeling sick to my stomach .

Today I went shopping and spent more than I should've. Not as much as I did last year or as much as I could've, but with substantially less income am now in a panic.

So feeling a mixture of extreme stress and anxiety. But I think more importantly feeling happy that I will be with my daughter and mother. I can't wait to see the look on my daughter's face when she gets her hamster. Or sees the pink guitar that Father Christmas left.

Right now I'm wound as tight as a guitar string, there is so much stress happening. I wish we could lose all the consumerism and just focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

Thanks for the thread, April

I was kind depressed and angry for a couple wks but it has lifted and I am actually happy and excited about christmas this yr. It will be quiet just me and my guy and then my daughter will come home christmas day and be with us. I am happy the three of us can be together-we'll prepare a good meal, light the fireplace and sit around it, play games, relax. I am having a tough time relaxing lately but i am gonna try. I hope everyone enjoys their christmas-i remember a few yrs back being alone for christmas-i would go to AA-alathons. so even if you are alone-it can be ok. If someone finds it tough-just remember it is one day.

i've been baking for 6.5 hours now...and i'm STILL not done! and now that i'm taking a small rest between putting in the next batch of cookies and kneading my bread i see on the news of some terror plot to poison food? thank you katie couric for making my manic mind paranoid!

this is my first xmas away from all my family as i no longer have contact with them, its been nearly a year, the only family member i miss is my grandma. im in hospital and the place is decorated i hate seeing all the sparkly decorations they all look so happy and im far from feeling happy at the moment and its depressing, we had our xmas party the other day, i took a bite of my sandwhich whilst standing next to a large plant which had lots of ballballs all over it, put my food down and just started taking them down one by one, i then realised everyone was watching me though no one said anything.

everyday is another day closer and i hate that, i will be glad when it is all over. sorry to be such a downer on the season, im just not in the mood for it.