bipolar disorder?

Question

i've been diagnosed with bipolar now for 5 years does anyone have any advice on this that truly know what it's like to have this.

Answer 1

I was officially diagnosed with BP in 1998. I am 35 years old and currently on SSDI because of this mental illness. I take Lithium Carbonate and am lucky that I am not one of those who have to take multiple drugs to conquer this illness. I have not had a manic episode in over one year. But do have as I like to call them "mini manics" because I have severe mood swings. I have been hospitalized over 15 times since 1998 and over 20 times before that due to mood swings and manic episodes. I am a very creative person and know that people with Bipolar are as well. I use my creativity instead of blowing up and over the top. I do alot of crafts, online stuff and am a member of an organization that helps people with a mental illness to get back into society, whether it be work, social etc. Check it out in your area.

Yahara House

Good Luck, and be strong.

Answer 2

bipolar is an extremely difficult disorder to live with because when you are bipolar you get used to and enjoy the "ups" and "downs" or manic and depressive symptoms. Therefore when you take medications that level your emotions out (like zyprexa and seroquel) you don't feel like "yourself".
People with bipolar disorder tend to have periods where they are hyper-sexual, and spend money erratically. They tend to feel like they are really depressed but have a lot of energy...this energy is what is so dangerous about this disorder, because people in this state are more likely to commit suicide. People who don't get treated for this disease tend to lose their jobs more frequently, they usually have more than two marriages, they have a difficult time in their social lives... etc.
There are really good medications for people with bipolar but unfortunately a lot of them can cause some weight gain...so many people stop using them for that reason.
Just so you know, bipolar disorder is often overlooked (or thought to be depression) for 10 or more years. Many people use anti-depressants (because doctors think they are "depressed") and anti-depressants actually trigger mania!
If you truly have this disorder then I hope that you are taking medication for it, it effects not only you but everyone around you. I have seen amazing success stories from people who stay on their medication and go to therapy to deal with this disorder.

Answer 3

Bipolar disorder is call manic -depress disorder.Patent's mood can swing from manic status to depressive status.During manic status you are hyper and some time will out of touch of reality,when in depressive status you will be depress and even suicidal.The etiology of this disorder is not know some may said due to change of chemical in the brain.Take mood stable medicines is the treatment;such as lithium.

Answer 4

My son has bipolar disorder with psychosis. He has crying spells that last for days at a time. He also laughs uncontrollaby. He is sometimes very violent. The best medication for him is Depakote ER 500mg; however, he is only 10 years old.

Answer 5

I know a lot of people that know what it is to be labeled with this and feel the fear of that threat! There is no scientifically reliable and valid evidence for it, this is a way of calling names and doing drugs legally and also a threat to have those that some don't think are being good to be so called good. A lot of people are being mind controlled or mind raped by these very labels.

Answer 6

PLEASE SEE http://nami.org YOU WILL SEE ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESSES ..BIPOLAR SYMPTOMS:
MOOD SWINGS
HIGH MOOD
LOW MOOD
IRRATICAL THINKING
OBESSIONAL THINKING
OBESSED WITH ALOT OF SEXUAL MATTERS( TAKING SEXUAL RISK)
SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY

Answer 7

Mediation techniques can greatly help to cure depression, Bipolar & other unwanted mental/emotional states, and also generates within a person a very positive optimistic viewpoint of oneself, and of life. Buddhist Philosophy and Buddhist psychology offers more than a method of investigation. Its core techniques of meditation, mindfulness and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners, whose material comforts have not wiped out rampant emotional distress. To most people Buddhism is an ancient Asian religion, although a very special one. It has no god, it has no central creed or dogma and its primary goal is the expansion of consciousness, or awareness. But to the 14th Dalai Lama, it's a highly refined tradition, perfected over the course of 2,500 years, of analyzing and investigating the inner world of the mind in order to transform mental states and promote happiness. "Whether you are a believer or not in the faith," the 14th Dalai Lama recently told a conference of Buddhists and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you can use its time-honored techniques to voluntarily control your emotional state. Yes, the 14th Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of over 580 million buddhists worldwide. Yes, he is also the head of the Tibetan government in exile. But in the spirit of Buddhism the Dalai Lama has an inquiring mind and wishes to expand human knowledge to improve lives. At its core, Buddhism is a system of inquiry into the nature of what is. He believes that psychology and neuroscience have gone as far as they can go in understanding the mind and brain by measuring external reality. Now that inner reality--the nature of consciousness--is the pressing subject du jour, the sciences need to borrow from the knowledge base that Buddhism has long cultivated. A comprehensive science of the mind requires a science of consciousness. Buddhism offers what MIT geneticist Eric Lander, Ph.D., called a "highly refined technology" of introspective practices that provide systematic access to subjective experience. Yet Buddhist psychology offers more than a method of investigation. Its core techniques of meditation and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners, whose material comforts have not wiped out rampant emotional distress. Over the past 25 years, starting with his own personal interest, the 14th Dalai Lama has set up discussions with Western scientists in an effort to further knowledge about the emotions. The recent meeting, held at MIT, was actually the eleventh in a series of annual conversations sponsored by the Colorado-based Mind & Life Institute. But it was the first one that was open to other participants. The Buddhist view of how the mind works is somewhat different from the traditional Western view. Western psychology holds to the belief that things like attention and emotion are fixed and immutable. Buddhism sees the components of the mind more as skills that can be trained. This view has increasing support from modern neuroscience, which is daily providing new evidence of the brain's capacity for change and growth! “Buddhism uses intelligence to control the emotions. Through meditative practices, such as mindfulness of breathing, loving-kindness meditation, and insight meditation, awareness can be trained and focused on the contents of the mind to observe ongoing experience. Such techniques are of a fast growing interest to Western psychiatrists, psychologists, and cognitive behavioral therapists, who increasingly see depression as a disorder of emotional mismanagement. In this view, attention is hijacked by negative events and then sets off a kind of chain reaction of negative feeling, thinking and behavior that has its own rapidity and inevitability. Techniques of awareness permit the cultivation of self-control. They allow people to break the negative emotional chain reaction and head off the hopelessness and despair it leads to. By focusing attention, it is possible to monitor your environment, recognize a negative stimulus and act on it the instant it registers on awareness. While attention as traditional psychologists know it can be an exhausting mental activity, as Buddhists practice it it actually becomes a relaxing and effortless enterprise. One way of meditation is to use breathing techniques in which you focus on the breathing and let any negative stimulus just go by--instead of bringing it into your working memory, where you are likely to sit and ruminate about it and thus amplify its negativity. It's a way of unlearning the self-defeating ways you somehow acquired of responding catastrophically to negative experiences. Evidence increasingly suggests that meditation techniques are highly effective at helping people recover from of depression and especially very useful in preventing recurrences. Medication may be needed during the depths of an acute episode to jump-start brain systems, but at best "antidepressants are a halfway house," says Dr. Alan Wallace PhD. When you have identified your major problem through meditation, whatever the problem is that is bothering you terribly, you should then sit there, relax, and call up this emotion in your meditation. Whether it is anger, jealousy, pride, envy, greed, loneliness, depression, anxiety, summon it here. Look at the essence of this emotion that makes you suffer so much. The mind is the root of all our experiences, for others and for us. If we perceive the world in an unclear way, confusion and suffering will surely arise! It is like someone with defective vision seeing the world as being upside down, or a fearful person finding everything frightening. We may be largely unaware of our ignorance and wrong views, yet present the mind it can be compared to a wild tiger, rampaging through our daily lives. Motivated by desire, hatred and bewilderment this untamed mind blindly pursues what it wants and lashes out at all that stands in its way, with little or no understanding of the way things really are. Mindfulness meditation helps us see things, people, situations, clearly – as they really are. The wildness we have to deal with is not simply that of anger and rage; it is much more fundamental than that. The tendency to be driven by ignorance, anger, hatred, and greed enslaves us, allowing confusion and negative emotions to predominate. Thus the mind becomes wild and uncontrollable and our freedom is effectively destroyed. Normally we are so blind that we are unaware of how wild our minds really are. When things go wrong we tend to blame other people and circumstances, rather than look inside ourselves for the causes of the suffering. But if we are ever to find true peace or happiness it is that wildness within which must be faced and dealt with. Only then can we learn to use our energy in a more positive and balanced way, so that we stop causing harm to ourselves and to others. The meditative techniques of Mindfulness of Breathing, Insight Meditation and Loving-kindness Meditation greatly aids us in curing depression, anxieties, anger, rage, hatred, greed, and creates Optimism within.
Excellent Beginner’s Books to read and practice are: (1) “The Beginner’s Guide To Insight Meditation” {This is a most Excellent book to get started with, providing a very Positive, Optimistic View) By: Arinna Weisman & Jean Smith. (2) “Open Heart, Clear Mind” By: Thubten Chodron (Her teacher was the 14th Dalai Lama). (3) “Working With Anger” {& other difficult emotions). By: Thubten Chodron. (4) “The Heart of Forgiveness” {A practical path to healing ourselves) By: Madeline Ko-I Bastis. And also (5) “Transforming The Mind” By: The 14th Dalai Lama.

From: A Psychologist with a Master's Degree
who cares about you.