Bipolar Support Group

Way cool!! Neuroplasticity is actually pushing areas of your brain back into another area of the brain simply by the amount and kinds of experiences a person can have. For instance, if your bipolar disease is in your artistic area of your brain, it may be a "cure" to overload on life experiences to continually do OTHER artistic things to build up a brain capacity of those neurological priorities, then pushing the bipolar effects into a less-of-priority part of your brain. Thus, physically growing your brain to health! Not only do you get smarter, crack old habits, and exercise your body, but you and others around you can experience a healthy and happy mutual life together each growing a common new experience together. It may not be something you like, but if it must be done to over-grow/come the disease, so be it.

Makes sense, doesn't it? ...neuroplasticity? ...kind of a take off on that "left brain/right brain concept."

Neuroplasty - another fascinating concept concerning the human mind.

Making sense of the old addage: "You are what you think". Could it in fact be possible? For example: meditating or contemplating or focusing or concentrating on a positive concept (compassion and love) for hours at a time extending to days at a time and then for weeks at a time (living life normally in between of course) can in fact change the brain (increase in gamma waves)for the positive. It seems this was played out in monks and proven to be true.

So, I am wondering what I have always believed is true: there is true power in positive thinking and each and every one of us is more in control of our own lives than we realize - that in fact, we can change our lives by changing our thoughts - fascinating stuff and I do believe it to be true. The power of the human mind is amazing and should not be underestimated.

What you dream you can do - what you think you can become - all good things if put to good and proper use don't you think?

Seemingly, that is why people who choose to be happy are in fact happier people - and after a while they don't have to try to be happy - they just are!

At the other end are people who are negative thinkers, glass half-empty types who look at life and the world through a cynical and suspicious lens - these people seem not to ever find their way clear to true happiness in life.

It all makes sense to me - think positive thoughts and after a while your world will turn around to be just that - positive.

If we can exercise every other muscle in our body to make it stronger, better, more attractive, then why would that not apply to the brain as well.

It is amazingly true as far as I can tell. Thinking a certain way can really change a person's life.

When children decide certain choices at a very young age, to obey their parents for instance, that pattern in the brain is uninterrupted for the rest of their lives. When someone decides to follow a strict and high standard religion, it forms anyone who will decide it. Maybe that is why someone who feels troubled all the time is ACTUALLY in trouble all the time; because the thoughts and patterns of the brain are in constant motion and formation of troubled thoughts.

I voted that I would not swear or use profanity when I was in kindergarten after I said every bad word that came into my head one day when I was mad at someone. I felt so burdened and guilty and awful for having done so at the young age of 5, that I vowed that-> never would this behavior ever affect my life again. Not only did I turn from bad language, but I had an ever increasingly interest in vocabulary and language from then on. I promised to use proper words and even experiment with new words to explain myself properly and respectively.

Neuroplasticity is a very interesting word to me. I may not have found it at this stage in my life if not for my experience of my youth of age 5.

I think what you say is true - just more reinforcement for us to think positively and therefore live more positively. That is not too overwhelming for me,and I am going to focus on the positive more intentionally now. To live my life with the intention of being happy. Just making up my mind to do that already has a positive effect on my outlook - I already feel better.

Feeling better myself will therefore result in my desire to help other people to feel better and to surround myself with more positive thinking types - so it's a cycle - a good one - thinking = behavior. I'm glad I ran acoss this, it's what I have believed all along, but this validates it.

There are ancient philosophies that believe thoughts create reality that go back thousands of years. Something I have also always found fascinating, when I was a kid I remember reading somewhere we only utilize about 10% of our brains. Wonder what the planet would be like if everyone used a larger percentage (especially for good deeds, the environment, medicine, etc.)

Yes, I have heard that too that we only use about 10% of our brains - imagine what we could do if we learned how to tap into more of our grey matter for the betterment of mankind - it is an intriguing thought - something that may be in the future for us. In the meantime if we can learn to redirect negative thinking to positive thinking it will only mean an improvement in our overall lives - mental illness or not - what we think - we are. The lives we are living today are the direct result of our past thoughts - therefore our future is going to be the direct result of our thoughts today - we do hold our lives and our future in our own hands - that is empowering for all of us.

All -

Even though my husband has filed for divorce, I continue to learn all that I can about bipolar disorder. I have two sons and its scares me to death to think that one or both of them have the potential to be bipolar also.

My husband has been gone since the beginning of December and even with popping in and out of our lives and trying to reconcile, he says that he doesn't want to be married and is happy with the woman he has been having an affair with.

I tried to hand on but it truly was eating me up inside. I could barely get through the day and I needed to because of my boys. We got counseling and have been there for each other. This forum, my counselor and my family and friends have helped me to see that I need to take care of me first so that I could properly care for my kids. My husband needs to hit rock bottom and I believe he is headed there. It makes me sad to think that is what he needs, but I can't help someone that won't help themselves.

We miss the man that he used to be but can't have the man that he has become in our lives. We deserve to be happy. We deserve better than this. Thanks for being here for me. It helped me more than you can ever know.

God Bless you.

I just found this group and it could not have come at a better time. My husband is Bipolar II, diagnosed about a year ago after I finally convinced him to seek help. He's been put on meds, taken off those, put on others. He was doing fairly well on Depakote for several months except gaining 20 lbs and feeling unmotivated and tired. So his psych took him off and gave him Adderall. Holy wrong decision! Now he's hypomanic, the worst I've ever seen him and I'm about to lose my flippin mind. I'm still waiting for the doc to call back and explain the reasoning on that one, from everything I've read Adderall is almost always bad bad bad for BP.

Anyway, I could probably just copy and paste sooo many other entries from this group to explain exactly how I feel and what I'm going through. It's very comforting. My hubby refuses to tell anyone what he has, I've confided in his mother for back up support should it be needed (with the kids and all) but her first reaction was to say" I never smoked or drank when I was pregnant with him I don't know how he could have caught this" aaahhhh!

One thing I haven't read yet....anyone else feel ripped off? I never signed up for this, and my hubby didn't show symptoms until several years after we were together. I feel like I got the short end of the stick and this is what I have to deal with for the remainder of my life now. I have to be his personal doormat, be emotionally and verbally abused all the while trying to figure out how to keep him from screwing up our kids and sending me into hysterics. Because I chose to agree to "through sickness and health" this is what I bought into. It SUCKS!

A question...sorry I am rambling a little, just excited to find people who understand. My father died 3 months ago, and my husband was not capable of being supportive for me, or helping me or carrying me through my extremely difficult time. Instead he got mad at me because he felt I didn't need him enough, said I don't appreciate him or pay enough attention to him and then refused to speak to me- even when I traveled to another state to attend the funeral and wrap up family stuff. I called him crying saying how hard it was for me and that I really needed him. He didn't give a hoot. Am I ever going to be able to count on him, trust him or just be able to let my guard down for once, even when going through the greatest tragedy of my life?

well mehere ill tell ya this the meds are one thing but it sounds like you are wanting the meds to fix him.the medicine is only the floor and the ceiling to his outbreaks it is supposed to keep him in between somewhere that is what the therapist told me on monday.its what happens in between that matters are you two in therapy faithfully because trust me im not even the bi polar one and i cant wait till the next session.trust me i feel your pain i have a good friend whos husband is bi polar and she said straight up to me i might not be one who can handle it.im learning i enable his fits and abuse but im also learning im not a door matt and dont have to be abused i choose to be...be blessed