The US presidential debates started last Friday night. When all of this fighting between parties, and unfortunately fighting between friends started, I wrote a blog on how important it is to be careful not to let all of this upset you too much.
This comes from my own experience! Even this morning- after telling myself I wouldn’t get involved, I did.
There are a few reasons this is trouble bipolar wise.
#1. Arguments affect the brain negatively when someone is already in a down swing. I have actually had semi arguments with friends I’ve known for many, many years. We agreed to disagree and the tension eased. Actually, I was the one upset, so I agreed with myself to stop.
#2. Extreme emotion before bed affects sleep which affects bipolar disorder symptoms.
#3. Fear and worry can definitely exacerbate depression.
#4. Mania can absolutely make you do things politically that may affect your future in a very negative way!
So, if you’re political, be careful and think of how your current feelings could lead to mood swings. If someone without the illness read this they would probably think – gosh, just chill! But it’s not always that easy for us is it! Things are going to get more heated in the next month, so this is just a heads up to myself as well!
Julie
I don’t know how you have control over how angry you get or how long it goes for. I know things i can do from therapy but it is just so damn hard to not get in a rage when i get into arguments. especially my now exboyfriend/best friend. (we broke up temporarily for personal issues and unstability in both our lives). The last or almost biggest argument i had with him was over politics. I don’t even really remember too much about it. I was 19 and it was the day after the NIU shooting (i went there for 2 years and was there at the time) and we had a nice valentine’s day the night before. Then we woke up and started arguing in bed before we even got up…ABOUT POLITICS! I purposely got dressed and wore my Obama shirt (know that i was on lexapro which made me worse and was before the right diagnoses of bipolar II). Keep in mind he is for Obama too. He was testing me i think…bastard. I was stupid enough to provoke him but he has anger problems so it was just turning into a complete nightmare. He started talking about breaking up not ebcause he didn’t love me but because we have too many problems and we were long distance. and i got so upset i went to my lorazepam pills (that were supposedly for my rage outs) and took all 25 pills at once w/o thinking what i was doing. I ended up with no boyfriend, staying in the psych ward for a week, and almost killing myself over POLITICS. The whole argument was stupid anyways. That was when i was diagnosed CORRECTLY THANK GOD. But i agree totally that arguments are bad. They are my triggers for sure. But why do they always have to be about politics in some way? Why can’t people discuss them w/o arguing?