Bipolar Disorder And Realistic Goals
Whether conscious of it or not, just about everyone has certain goals. For a person with bipolar disorder, just getting through the day with a manic episode may be a goal. For a person who is in a loving relationship with a person with bipolar disorder, it may be just getting through the day.
Loving a person with bipolar disorder is not easy. Whether it's your mom, dad, or spouse who is suffering with bipolar disorder, you also suffer with the disease as well. Goals - both intensely personal, career oriented and especially those involving your loved one with bipolar disorder - more often than not just seem to fall apart.
That doesn't mean, however, that you need to throw all of your goals out the window and just give up. When you love a person with bipolar disorder, it's more important than ever that you set goals and strive to reach them.
While this is definitely not easy, it is indeed attainable. The book, "Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder," by Julie A. Fast and John D. Preston, Psy.D. has a marvelous section about the art of goal setting when you're in a relationship with a person suffering from bipolar disorder.
One of the secrets to setting goals when you're involved with a person with bipolar disorder is to set "attainable goals." You need to take into account the bipolar disorder factor. If you make a goal without fully recognizing that your loved one's bipolar disorder will play a large part in the length of time you need to attain, then you're setting yourself up for failure.
A goal involving a person with bipolar disorder will naturally take more time than a goal that doesn't. Keep in mind that some days you may find yourself actually living the old proverb, 'two steps forward, one step back." Some days this can be extremely discouraging. But, even though you had to take the one step backwards, you still have a net gain of one step forward. When you love someone with bipolar disorder even that is a great victory!
Don't expect the path toward your goal to take a straight line inching forever upward. As someone who loves a person with bipolar disorder, you already know that life resembles a walk through a maze than it does a walk in a park. You may find yourself traveling down on road, only to reach a dead end. You then have to trace your steps back to get to your original spot.
Discouraging? You bet! But it's definitely nothing that can't be overcome. Start simply. Take your goal for you and your loved one with bipolar disorder. Now break this goal down into smaller parts. When any portion of this goal feels too difficult to attain, break it into smaller, more manageable steps.
