Dealing with Life in General
Sometimes it’s difficult to deal with having bipolar disorder. Now, that’s an understatement, isn’t it? Sometimes it can be downright overwhelming! Actually, it’s not just the dealing with bipolar disorder that can be overwhelming, but the dealing with life in general, with all its ups and downs, that can be overwhelming sometimes. You have to keep the two things separate.
See, I’ve been stable with my bipolar disorder for quite some time (haven’t had a major episode since 2007), but that doesn’t mean that my life has just stopped, or that things haven’t gone wrong in my life that I’ve had to deal with, because there have been things that have happened.
Like recently – you won’t believe this, but I GOT COVID!!! Yep! Me! Yes, I got vaccinated. Back in March, as a matter of fact. And so did my husband. And we both wore masks. But I got it anyway. The Delta variant. The doctor in the ER said that even if you’re vaccinated against Covid, you still stand a 40% chance of getting the Delta variant.
It was horrible! For 3 days I felt like I was gonna die. You probably know all the symptoms by now. Yeah, like the flu only multiplied by like 100. And you can’t taste or smell anything. So needless to say, I had no appetite.
My husband took care of me for those 3 days but then… yep! He got it! And he got it even worse than I did. So I had to take care of him, even as I was still recovering.
Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, his Covid turned into pneumonia with a 103.7 degree fever which, at best, over the next 4 days only went down to 101.
So it was really rough for awhile. I was taking care of him and myself, and our daughter was taking care of us (she’s a nurse). Thank God for her. Luckily, she didn’t get Covid.
Then my aunt died, and I had to console my cousin long-distance through Facebook Messenger, and that was pretty rough, as I was grieving myself.
That same day, a very good friend of ours, a 24-year-old young woman, died after an epileptic seizure (they think she might have had a heart attack). We are very good friends with her parents, and we were unable to comfort them or even go to the funeral because we were still in quarantine.
Well, they say bad things come in 3’s, but what are we up to now, like 5? Yep, number 5 happened. Our car got hit and runned in our driveway the other night! Well, at 1 in the morning. We live on a cul de sac, and they thought our driveway was a road (we think they were drunk), and they ran right up it and hit our car! Not too much damage, it still runs, but it will need to be fixed and we had to file a claim with our insurance company. We have a $500 deductible, so that will come out of our pockets. Not fun.
But here’s the point. Both of us were able to handle all this and avoid going into bipolar episodes in spite of all the physical, emotional, and financial pressure.
How were we able to do this? By keeping our priorities straight. And doing only one thing at a time – by doing only what was in front of us to do – and by not panicking. People waste so much precious energy by panicking! Which leads to stress, which leads to bipolar episodes!
So everything worked out in the end, without a bipolar episode to boot! So when life comes at you, whether it is 3 at a time, or even 5 at a time like it did to me, keep your cool and only deal with one thing at a time and you will be ok.
Wishing you joy and stability,
Remember God loves you and so do I,
Michele
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Sometimes it’s difficult to deal with having bipolar disorder. Now, that’s an understatement, isn’t it? Sometimes it can be downright overwhelming! Actually, it’s not just the dealing with bipolar disorder that can be overwhelming, but the dealing with life in general, with all its ups and downs, that can be overwhelming sometimes. You have to keep the two things separate.
See, I’ve been stable with my bipolar disorder for quite some time (haven’t had a major episode since 2007), but that doesn’t mean that my life has just stopped, or that things haven’t gone wrong in my life that I’ve had to deal with, because there have been things that have happened.
Like recently – you won’t believe this, but I GOT COVID!!! Yep! Me! Yes, I got vaccinated. Back in March, as a matter of fact. And so did my husband. And we both wore masks. But I got it anyway. The Delta variant. The doctor in the ER said that even if you’re vaccinated against Covid, you still stand a 40% chance of getting the Delta variant.
It was horrible! For 3 days I felt like I was gonna die. You probably know all the symptoms by now. Yeah, like the flu only multiplied by like 100. And you can’t taste or smell anything. So needless to say, I had no appetite.
My husband took care of me for those 3 days but then… yep! He got it! And he got it even worse than I did. So I had to take care of him, even as I was still recovering.
Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, his Covid turned into pneumonia with a 103.7 degree fever which, at best, over the next 4 days only went down to 101.
So it was really rough for awhile. I was taking care of him and myself, and our daughter was taking care of us (she’s a nurse). Thank God for her. Luckily, she didn’t get Covid.
Then my aunt died, and I had to console my cousin long-distance through Facebook Messenger, and that was pretty rough, as I was grieving myself.
That same day, a very good friend of ours, a 24-year-old young woman, died after an epileptic seizure (they think she might have had a heart attack). We are very good friends with her parents, and we were unable to comfort them or even go to the funeral because we were still in quarantine.
Well, they say bad things come in 3’s, but what are we up to now, like 5? Yep, number 5 happened. Our car got hit and runned in our driveway the other night! Well, at 1 in the morning. We live on a cul de sac, and they thought our driveway was a road (we think they were drunk), and they ran right up it and hit our car! Not too much damage, it still runs, but it will need to be fixed and we had to file a claim with our insurance company. We have a $500 deductible, so that will come out of our pockets. Not fun.
But here’s the point. Both of us were able to handle all this and avoid going into bipolar episodes in spite of all the physical, emotional, and financial pressure.
How were we able to do this? By keeping our priorities straight. And doing only one thing at a time – by doing only what was in front of us to do – and by not panicking. People waste so much precious energy by panicking! Which leads to stress, which leads to bipolar episodes!
So everything worked out in the end, without a bipolar episode to boot! So when life comes at you, whether it is 3 at a time, or even 5 at a time like it did to me, keep your cool and only deal with one thing at a time and you will be ok.
Wishing you joy and stability,
Remember God loves you and so do I,
Michele
About Author
MICHELE SOLOWAY
Michele Soloway shares regularly on the ups and downs of dealing with bipolar disorder, along with personal insights, lessons learned, and encouragement for others who also have bipolar disorder.