I am just winding up the most difficult book I’ve ever written. Believe it or not, it’s not a book on mood disorders. It’s a book on writing ebooks and it is kicking my behind. I’ve written about it on this blog for weeks. I’ve had to work very hard to stay stable. It’s working. I basically stopped my normal life in order to deal with the problems brought up by the stress.
In the past, I guess I didn’t know what to do in order to work on tough projects. I’ve learned a lot in the past 13 years!
– I stopped going out at night completely
– I put my other work on hold even though it made me nervous
– I didn’t clean my house or car! ha ha
– I made myself go to the library to work
– I went easy on myself when I had two solid weeks of rapid cycling with a lot of hypomania
– I asked my friends for help with editing
– I got plenty of sleep
– I really, really tried not to take out my stress and irritation on others
I have talked about this a lot on the blog because I know that most of us with bipolar have trouble working. I want so show that we can work- we just sometimes have to sacrifice the other areas in our lives during stressful projects. I know that I could never maintain this level of stress at work, but at least I know I can survive the shorter projects. Believe me, I am going to celebrate with a lot of karaoke next weekend!
Julie
my brain, my brain, my brain IS ON FIRE!!! at least it feels that way . . . but im hangin in there! bipolar woking girl . . . in the mental health field 2 . . . julie u r helping save my life-bless u-bless everyone
nichol and cats
I sure can I relate to the comments above. I am working 40 hours a week for the first time since I was hospitalized 5 1/2 years ago. I have to work the hours because my husband has been laid off but it is definitely a stretch. I can feel myself getting fragmented, out of focus and easily irritated. I also have 2 hours of driving every day and 3 children to keep up with. Am I really nuts to try this? I feel like I have no option but my providers are concerned that I will land back in the hospital if I try to maintain this schedule.
Congratulations, Julie! I’m just reading this now. I checked my calendar and the next weekend in your post was this past weekend, so I hope you had a GREAT time at karaoke. 🙂
Love, Michelle