Nov 24 2008
How well do you want to be with manic depression?
Even though each of us with manic depression aka bipolar disorder has it with a different level of severity, the question of how well we want to be is still important. It’s key to making your life the best it can be with this bipolar illness, key to wellness with bipolar.
When I first was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I went to some bipolar chat rooms to see how others were managing their illness. I was shocked to find that the vast majority weren’t managing it at all! Most of them were taking meds only, and e griping that their meds didn’t work. All the while these same people were doing all sorts of things that made it unlikely that the meds would work, and very unlikely that they’d achieve any significant sense of wellness.
The bottom line is that if we want to be as well as we can, we will need to find our own personal balance of things that help with our bipolar. For most this includes medications, but for some it may not. And for all it includes things like stress reduction, exercise, sleep hygiene, resisting recreational drugs and alcohol, a nutritional diet and the like.
Realistically, we’re not going to be perfect with all that. We are human, after all. But the more we work towards managing our lives as well as taking appropriate medications, the better we will feel and the better our lives are likely to be.
