It’s important to stay positive with your bipolar disorder, whether anything is “happening” at the time or not. Many times you could still be making progress, it just may not be showing on the outside yet.
The important thing is that you keep a good attitude, no matter what. You can so easily sink down into a depression at the slightest provocation, and then where will you be? In a depressive episode before you look around!
Even if you don’t appear to be making progress toward stability, you could still be making small steps, you never know. You need to stay positive.
For example, thinking that every day without an episode is a good day (because it is!).
If you need to, remember back to when life wasn’t so good, when you were battling mood swings and bipolar behavior, episodes, triggers, etc. Then compare it to now. Things have got to be better now. Even if only a little.
If you are not in an episode right now, be grateful. Things could be so much worse. Just think – you could be hospitalized right now and not even have the freedom to be reading this blog post! So be blessed. You are free.
Any progress is better than no progress at all. Think about how long it’s been since your last episode. If it’s been awhile, consider yourself blessed for that, too. It means you’re gaining stability. You’re doing something right!
So keep your attitude positive. You are on the right path, since you are on the path to stability. Keep doing the things you need to do to stay stable, one day at a time, and those days will add up.
Then you will start to notice more time in between your bipolar episodes. You will see that you are having more normal periods. And the more normal periods you have, the more stable you are.
Enjoy that stability! Be positive about it! You are definitely headed in the right direction! You are progressing, and you are doing better than you were before. Pat yourself on the back, you deserve it!
Wishing you peace and stability,
Remember God loves you and so do I,
Michele
Hey Michelle,
I have read through several of your posts and find them very inspirational and relatable.
I was diagnosed with BP2 about 6 months ago. I have been on Lamictal for about 5 months and have just in the last couple of weeks gotten to what I would consider 100% stable.
For me the struggle in being stable is trying to recognize where the Bipolar ends and my Real Personality starts. I haven’t been “normal” for years…I had forgotten what I was like. For example, every time I lose something or forget something I question if it’s the BP “coming back” or if it’s just the fact that I have always been a little bit flakey, even before the BP. I guess the way I know it’s just my normal flakiness is that when it happens I don’t worry about it, I don’t feel freaked out or a failure. I just think, “Huh…I need to look for this…geez…”
I am so happy to have my brain back. My world had become so foggy. Now things are so clear. I can make decisions. I can get angry and be happy when it’s appropriate. It used to be that every single thing made me so tired. Now I have energy and want to spend time with my kids and at work I have the energy and clarity to start projects and work through issues and finish them. It used to be that I would be so much in a fog that if I could even get to the point of starting something, as soon as I hit a bump in the road I was so stressed that I would become completely immobile. I was so messed up that I could not reason through problems. I would sit and stare at paperwork on my desk for 30 or 40 minutes. I would look at it and be stuck on, “I need to pick that paper up and work on it,” but my brain could not move on to actually telling my hand to pick up the paper and get a pen and get going. It was like when you are reading a book and you realize you have read the same paragraph 5 times and still have no idea what you read. That was everything all day everyday for me. It was horrible.
So anyway, I will be back to read your blogs. I love knowing there are others out there who are stable and living life again. That this CAN be treated effectively. So much on the internet is about people who try med after med with little to no success at stabilization. I feel for those people, but I want to talk with those out there who, like me, have gotten their lives back.
Again, thanks for writing!! I will be back!
Thank you! You often write very interesting articles. You improved my mood.
I dont know what to say. That is certainly among the much better blogs Ive go through. Youre so insightful, have a lot true things to bring to the table. I hope that additional men and women understand this and get what I got from it: chills. Good job and great web site. I cant wait to examine a lot more, maintain them comin!
Thanks for your blog. I am at the moment starting to become more stable. Unfortunatly still having thoses days when I can’t to anything but sit in one spot. This gives me great hope for the future and taking one day at a time is all we can do. ‘Here’s to a happy and healthy life to us all.’