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A Basic Coping Strategy for Survivors of Bipolar Disorder

By Michele Soloway Sexton

There are many ways that I’ve tried to cope with having bipolar disorder, as I’m sure you have as well.

One of the most basic ways I’ve discovered as a basic coping strategy to deal with bipolar disorder is the Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.

It doesn’t matter whether you are "religious" or not, the prayer still works.

I was so tired of the ups and downs of the mood swings, that I would’ve given anything just for one day without them – just one day of "serenity." So I could relate to the first line of the prayer.

In addition to medication, therapy, and support group meetings, I still needed something more to help me feel "balanced" from the excessive mood swings I was still experiencing in the beginning.

In any 12-Step Program, they call it a Higher Power, and that works for some people, but for me it was just simpler to call him God.

So I asked God "to accept the things I cannot change." That was really hard for me, because I was asking Him to help me accept the fact that I had bipolar disorder, and I didn’t want to do that. I just did not want to have bipolar disorder, if you want to know the truth.

The fact that I was told that I had a disorder for which there was no cure, and for which I would have to take medication the rest of my life…that I would have to live with these mood swings for the rest of my life…that I would never be "normal"…well, this was definitely one of those things I could not change, no matter how much I wanted to. I had NO power over bipolar disorder and the fact that I had it and always would.

"The courage to change the things I can." There is only one thing I do have power over, and that is myself. My decisions. My choices. I needed courage, all right, to face up to the disorder, and do the things I had to do to get to stability. I had to take my medications, see the doctor, therapist, and psychiatrist regularly, go to a support group, take care of myself, learn as much as I could about bipolar disorder, etc. It was like taking on a second job! But it was my choice.

I became proactive in my own recovery. That was my choice. It was the only thing I could change.

"And the wisdom to know the difference." That was the tough part. Because sometimes I still try to play God in my own life. Sometimes I still don’t get this line of the prayer right. But if I just do the little bit that I can do, one day at a time, and let God do the rest, I find that my stress level is much lower, my stability is much higher, and overall, my life is much better, in spite of the fact that I have bipolar disorder.

I have used a lot of different coping strategies in my strive for stability with bipolar disorder; however, this very simple prayer has kept me stable for a long time.

About the Author

Michele Soloway Sexton has dealt with bipolar disorder from a very young age. Her grandmother, mother, herself, and her teenage son all have the disorder. She also lost her sister to suicide because of bipolar disorder. Michele has a blog for bipolar survivors at http://bipolarsurvivor.blogspot.com, and is also a contributing writer to www.bipolarcentral.com.

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