A Guide To Effectively Manage Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder also is known as manic depression are episodes of mood swings that may last from weeks to months from depressive lows to manic highs. This is chronic, and one of the very common illnesses seen nowadays and more than 10million cases per year are observed. This brain disorder is associated with shifts in mood, energy, and unusual variation in which the day to day activities are carried out by an individual.

About Bipolar Disorder:

Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that causes mood swings which are of high extreme, emotional highs, or loss, either which makes the individual very unstable, causing serious health issues emotionally and physically.

Being in the depressive phase makes the person feel very low, sad, or hopeless, making one lose interest in anything and everything. In the other phase of mania, the person heels so very full of energy or irritable. Both states affect a person’s behavior, energy, activity, judgment, thinking capacity, and hinder decision-making ability.

Dealing with the disease:

Based on the level and the extent of mood swings of mania and depression, the bipolar disorder can be of four different types. All of the types of disorder involve clear swings in mood, activity, and energy levels.

Bipolar disorder is a life long condition, but treatment and proper medication can help to maintain mental illness. Medication and talk therapy is the perfect and effective treatment of plan for a person with bipolar disorder. Many people are free of mood changes in between episodes of illness but have lingering symptoms. Treatment is best for people who have long term issues with mood swings.

The disorder can be dealt with by the following things:

1. Acceptance of illness – Any person knowing that he has an illness that will last for a lifetime can be depressive but accepting the fact it is there, and active participation in the treatment ensures mental and physical health. Provide all the information to your health advisor for effective treatment planning and strategy. Having more information about your state can give a chance to better deal with the symptoms and other conditions. Be patient with your treatment as no overnight change will be seen, but with proper care, health improves gradually.
2. Proper medication – Consuming in a timely fashion the medication as instructed by a health advisor will improve the health. Take it regularly and faithfully without excuses. Any change in dosage or medicines is not advisable without the consultation of the doctor as any sudden or improper changes might affect your current health condition adversely. Antidepressants will also be added along with mood stabilizer in your medication plan as part of treatment. For the individuals with disorder its common not to be accepting the medication due to side effects or the bitterness of medicines, but stopping the medication or any alteration can put you at higher risk of illness than before. Discuss with health advisor openly and honestly about any issues, side effects, alternatives, or other options to feel better during medication.
3. Psychotherapy – Based on the type of bipolar disorder and the patient condition, various types of psychotherapy are used in the treatment. The three types of psychotherapy used in treating bipolar disorder patients are Cognitive behavioral therapy CBT, Interpersonal and social rhythm therapy and family-focused therapy. Psychotherapy tells a patient to understand the negative thoughts and questions them, improves the biological rhythm of the daily schedule, establishes and effective communication and problem-solving skills.
4. Symptom Tracker – Every illness has its symptoms and one when tracks and understand their symptoms properly can reach out for help and take medication before the severity increases. Triggers and symptoms are unique for every patient, and the specific triggers for a person can be found with the help of the doctor when discussed all the things clearly during the treatment. For some, getting negative comments can impact their mood or somebody when praised too much might get affected. Any small thing can be a trigger for one’s mood. Stress, anxiety, arguments, sleeplessness, seasonal changes, and various others come under Triggers. This can be tracked with the symptom tracker. One has to keep a close tab on the triggers and other associated warning signs and take proper medication to have the situation under control. Maintaining a mood chart with all situations and reactions followed will help the health advisor to evaluate the situation better and advise proper medication and changes in treatment if needed.
5. Healthy lifestyle – The way a person lives and maintains a daily routine majorly impacts the mood and health. There are many lifestyle choices, the pattern of sleeping, eating, conversing, walking and others have a major impact on moods and a controlled way will help to control and keep the depressed and mania moods under control. Maintaining a regular pattern of daily activities will keep adverse emotions in control. Physical exercises and recreational hobbies will give your mind and body to be active flexible and develops a positive, healthy lifestyle. Healthy routines create a better mood like sleeping at regular times, eating proper and healthy meals, exercising timely and abstinence from drugs, alcohol, and other substances also improve physical and mental health.

Precautions:

Prevention is always better than cure. Once the triggers are known, try to avoid all those situations and things that might trigger the mood swings to maintain a balanced mental state. As per your mood chart, time table maintained for the activities list out the things to be done to prevent or balance the moods can be easily mapped with the help of health advisor. A couple of other pointers that help prevent the mood swings are

• Have your stress under control. Be it the work at school or office or home, establish your limits, and stick to them.
• Physical exercises and learning something new makes you relax. Learn and practice breathing techniques, yoga, and other methods to calm your mind and body.
• Find your relaxation techniques like a song or thinking positively to calm down.

Track your symptoms, follow the medication, and relax your emotions with proper techniques and medication control the illness.

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