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cj227
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Everyone has it. I am very sensitive to it. I know that stress is a change in life, good and bad. An argument, buying a house, even something 'small' like visiting a far away friend is stressful. I dont know how to control my perception of stress. Even when I think things are not stressing me out, my bipolar symptoms are back even when I am on two medicines. What does everyone else do to control their stress with the bipolar disorder? Before you can conquer a beast you must make it beautiful. |
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GeminiMom
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I face a lot of stress and tend to make things even more stressful in my mind, so I know what you mean. Lately, I've been focusing on my health -- dieting and especially exercising. Nothing hardcore, just walking 30-40 minutes a day, but I do it during my lunch break while listening to my iPod and I find that it really helps to just get away and be able to lose myself in the music. I also do a lot to distract myself from the source of stress -- if it's a person, I back off on phone calls/e-mails/whatever. If it's something else, I read or surf the 'Net or watch re-runs of tv shows. Unless, of course, the source of the stress is something that I can just get over with -- packing, paying bills, whatever -- and then I force myself to do it just so it's GONE. Finally, when it just gets to be too much, I'll take a klonopin, which really mellows me out. But I do try other avenues first because I don't want to rely on meds. (Speaking of which, I'm on Seroquel and Lamictal. Which are your two?) Sherry |
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cj227
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Thanks for the reply. I am on Depakote and Lexparo. I agree with you, that I try other avenues first, then I take a Xanax. I try to talk myself out of stress but sometimes I dont even know when things stress me out. Im negatively physically affected by an event or person and I think I guess I mudt be stressed out. I guess I dont know my body signals to when my stress hits a bad level. Before you can conquer a beast you must make it beautiful.
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GeminiMom
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BELIEVE me, I understand. My husband tends to be a negative person and any time he got into a bad mood or was upset or something, I totally absorbed it and got stressed out. I just sort of trained myself to completely ignore him when he gets like that and to realize that it has NOTHING to do with me and that there's not a thing in the world that I can do to change it. I guess maybe that's something you can work on--focusing on the fact that events or people's behavior has nothing to do with you and that you can divorce yourself from it. And when you're feeling suddenly stressed or anxious, take a minute to examine it in your mind and see what the source may be. If it's just a knee-jerk reaction or instinctive behavior, just concentrate on breathing deeply for several minutes. That sounds stupid, I know, but what you're trying to do is break the cycle of your response. Also, are you seeing a therapist? That might help. I know that for BP2, one of the "get better" recs is to see someone who specializes in cognitive behavior therapy, which is specifically designed to break us of such patterns and get us thinking and responding in a healthier manner. (Plus, they know a heck of a lot more about this than I do, obviously!  ) Sherry |
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cj227
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Youre right about the quick reacting part. I need to adopt breathing exercises and slow down and realize: Whatever is stressing me out is not worth it! Especially because I am bipolar. I am seeing a therapist, she is the person who actually first brought up the diagnoses. I have been seeing her for a while and Ive been seeing my psychiatrist for a few months. My perception of what is stressful is just something I have always had trouble controlling. Im working on it. But your advice helps, Thanks! Before you can conquer a beast you must make it beautiful. |
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GeminiMom
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I'm a total control freak who's also working on that, so I get it. You want to hear something funny/stupid? It's the thing that actually finally made me quit reacting to my husband's moods. His birth sign is Cancer and I ended up reading that Cancers can be really moody and flip from happy to depressed to annoyed within minutes, which is TOTALLY how he is. Not that I'm consulting Nancy Reagan's astrologer or anything, but it was like a light bulb flipped on in the "huh, his moods really don't have anything to do with me!" category and from then, I was like, whatever, crabby one. (That's why my username is what it is -- reminds me that the world doesn't revolve around me!) Good luck to you! Sherry |
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cj227
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Haha good story! I always need to remember that just because I feel this way now doesnt mean I will feel this way in 3 weeks or months. I have to get in the habit of stepping outside of my stressful situation and see how I can handle it better. Easier said than done! Before you can conquer a beast you must make it beautiful.
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carmen33
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Stress in this day and age isn't something that we can avoid most of the time as there are pressures from everything around us, I try to use the 20 rule, ie: what is this going to matter in 20 mins, 20 days or 20 years, if it isn't going to matter in any of those, I let it roll off my back for the most part, but sometimes I just can't hang on and it sends me off, like yesterday, I've been under a tremendous amount of stress for the past three months, financial, health, work, relationship, and then stress of my Mom being sick, I've always been the strong one in the family, relationship, been strong through challenges at work, and can manage finances very well, yesterday, I got word from the hubby that some money we were counting on to come in yesterday didn't... that was the last straw. I was at work, I work as a cashier for Walgreen's, front register, busy almost all the time, I started crying over the stress and could not stop, I tried deep breathing, took a little more mood med, without the doctors blessing, use to have Xanax for those moments, but after using them as a pill overdose in July to kill myself, I will not have them anywhere around me again. Sometimes I can feel the stress, get away from the source of the stress, I tell hubby and have always practiced, if I can't get the source of the stress away from me, I get me away from the source of the stress, Sometimes I don't feel the stress, yesterday though I could not get away from it, could not get it away from me, I knew that the stress had been building, had been able to keep it at bay for the past three months, but yesterday was the straw that broke the camels back.. I fell apart and had to leave work right in the middle of the shift, I had been on break when the stress showed up, started crying and could not stop no matter what I tried, can't work when I am crying so hard I could not breathe, so I had to leave, went to see my doctor and got a medication adjustment. Came home, had a few more tears after seeing the doctor and my therapist, and talking on here with others, was feeling much better by 4pm.. feeling well this AM, although I am totally wiped out as far as energy. Thankfully have today off and hopefully the weekend, give the body a little time to get use to the med increase, from 400mg of lamictal to 600mg |
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GeminiMom
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Hey, Carmen. SO sorry to hear about your rough day. Did crying help relieve some of the stress? I hope you're able to just chill and do absolutely nothing (or do whatever relaxes you) for the next couple of days. Hang in there and report in! Sherry |
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carmen33
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Thanks Sherry, the crying jag did help, by the time I hit my therapist, I had managed to get it somewhat under control, was semi sane when she came out to get me, lol, it was funny she wasn't her generally smiling self, although she did smile, it was out the intake door and a finger motioning me to come with her.. needless to say I followed, really didn't want her bothered, as I know she is always wall to wall with clients. when the lady asked me who my therapist was, I hadn't thought about her calling her, just that she needed to know that so she could get my file for the doctor, but it did make a great difference being able to talk with her.. She was able to access the doctor where I would not have been able too, she just marched in his office..lol.. Christie is one of those women who don't take any crap off anyone, one of the reasons I love her so much, besides the fact that I am very comfortable in talking with her, seen her off and on for the past 5 years, and don't feel like anything I say would embarrass her.. I just hate crying to the point that I hyperventilate, hard to get that under control, left alone for hour or so, I can but at work you don't have a quiet private space to do that, short of locking yourself in the janitor closet, and then someone has the key to that...I get mad at myself for getting so upset that I cry and that makes me cry even more..lol.. so far so good, it's been a quiet day, hubby is at work, got the house to myself, went and had a good lunch with the brother, but that is a subject for another day..lol.. So how is Sherry doing? haven't been seeing you on here much recently, what have you been up too? |
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