Bipolars Only Online Support Group

As someone who in the past week has been diagnosed w/ bp I,m struggling with this diagnosis even though others around me say in lucky that it was caught sooner than others. I,m curious as to how people who have been living with this for a while survive and what my rate of success will be.

Post edited by: AboveWater, at: 04/12/2011 05:46 AM

Welcome to the group. Diagnosis with BP starts a grieiving porcess for what you thought was normal, as you work towards a new normal.I was not diagnosed until I was 47, and lost so much of my life esspecially when I was capable of looking back at my "excentric behvior"

I learned in tiem to embrace BP as part of me being. I welcomed the demon and all its baggage.Acceptance is the first step, education and empowerment is the second and the third if to have a pdoc and support system.

You will find your normal and the pdoc will find your medication cocktail. Have faith, in time you will feel ebtter about everything that is currently overwelmeing.Keep us posted, please post and ask questions or just share we all here for one another and its an amazing group who accepts one another other and really understands one another.

Hi, and Welcome:

Well, where to start... I've been ill since childhood. For various reasons I was left to flounder and 'manage' the best I could. I was finally diagnosed properly at age thirty, just over thirteen years ago. Since then life has been much more stable although, at times, frustrating and hurtful. I'll list some tips based upon my experience... Please remember that we are all different, especially when dealing with meds and side effects.

* Learn as much as you can about meds and lifestyle choices. These will be the defining factors; you can have a blah life, or you can have a good/great life.

* Get good sleep. Sleep is considered a huge factor in maintaining stability.

* Be proactive with your knowledge; you are paying the psychiatrist, not the other way around. Take charge or your health in a positive and thoughtful way and use your Pdoc as a guide (don't be afraid to say no regarding meds you are wary of, etc.)

* Consider therapy, specifically, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It will help you learn coping skills.

* As you gain knowledge, develop a support system. People that will alert you to mood changes you may not be recognizing and who will help when 'the chips are down'. This can be hard to do because not everyone is 'capable' of understanding those of us with a mental illness... Just a warning I guess. Early on I lost a few 'good' friends when I told them of my illness and it hurt. Now I keep my illness to family and one good friend (and my friends here).

There is so much more. Dig around this site and you will find much information that will help. Below is a linc to the 'regular' Bipolar forums 'general' page. Near the top of the page are threads with lincs to tons of information about our shared illness. That is also the forum that generates the most traffic...

http://www.mdjunction.com/forums/bipolar-support-forums/ general-support

I wish you well. If you ever have a question or need to vent, we are all here for you.

Take care.

Eric

I've been looking at the boards related to what I've done and stuff. There's a lot of information here. I mainly need to get control, but from what I hear that's pretty far off. Thank you for the help. I'll keep looking around.

I wish you the very best. If you have questions or need to vent, please feel free to pm me. I know that's true for the rest of the bunch here as well. This really is a great group of individuals...

Eric

Booze doesn't mix with psyc meds. Keeping busy does. Isolating can be a real doozie to deal with. DBSA.org has a fantastic behaviour chart. I use it. You can get one from dbas.org, a national orginization. (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. ) /there is a phone # on their site and you can call and request some @ abour 50 cents a piece; or a dollar I think.It is very thorough and keeps all your info about yourself right there!!

I think the biggest tip I can give anyone. Take your meds regularly and see your therapist. If you do this you can figure out the rest.

I was diagnosed 8 years ago, it was hard to understand it all at first. I went through a phase of non-acceptance, thinking that there was some kind of mistake. What really helped me was doing my research and learning as much as I could about Bipolar, I read articles and talked to people that have been dealing with it for a while just like you are doing now. My next step was to find a good psychiatrist and have confidence that the meds were going to help me. For me, it was very important to find a good therapist as well. If you need anything, feel free to pm me. Welcome to the group!