Bipolar Disorder - A Guide to Managing It

Does bipolar disorder control your life? This can best be stopped by learning to manage the disorder. I will tell you a secret or two. Knowledge is power. The second secret is that in order to manage your bipolar disorder you need an excellent knowledge of how the disorder works, particularly in respect of yourself.

We know that the disorder generally cycles in the same pattern for each individual with it. Therefore, if we know how bipolar disorder is likely to affect us next time it strikes we have a big advantage.

There is one more key element to learning how to manage bipolar disorder. You need a very strong desire to do so. This strong desire is necessary to give you the commitment to enable you to take the disorder by the scruff of the neck. The desire will lead to you gaining the necessary knowledge about it. You can then fight the cycle of the disorder with a cycle of your own. You learn about the disorder. You relate this back to how the it normally affects you. You notice, in advance, when the next episode is about to hit you. You are then able to arrange early treatment for yourself.

A thorough knowledge of how bipolar disorder normally affects you give you several big advantages. You know what you can normally expect to happen next. To begin with this means to your fear of what will happen next reduces. Also, your ability to pick up earlier, when things start to happen to you reduces another fear in your mind. You no longer have to fear when the next episode will arrive.

It is very useful to you to get good help as you learn to manage the disorder. This help can include your friends and loved ones. It must include health professionals in whom you have complete trust. It can include people you have met at a support group that you have found and joined. These groups often include members who have learned to manage their own bipolar disorder. They are there to give back to others in thanks for their success.

The real ability to manage your bipolar disorder comes with being aware as to what is going on for you. Knowing this enables you to seek the required professional help at the earliest possible moment. By getting early treatment there is a far greater probability that the prescribed treatment will work for you. Even if it doesn't you can get alternative treatment far earlier than you have in the past. Yes, if you want to manage your disorder the ball really is in your court as the saying goes.