I ask this question honestly. The truth is that many of us LOVE our mania, at least we love the euphoric kind, but in reality, mania represents illness in the same way that depression represents illness.
The following is a list of videos that will teach you about the tricks of mania. If you’re a parent, partner or health care professional, learning how mania operates is essential. We WILL seem better to you when manic. Don’t be fooled.
If you have bipolar and want to find a way to end the depression, but keep the mania… well, that is the same thing as saying, I’m going to stop taking downers, but I want to keep taking uppers! Sorry.
What #anxiety and #OCD feel like and how we can manage these symptoms. People with #bipolar can have these symptoms when #manic or #deprressed, but if we have them when stable, they are a separate anxiety problem that is not connected to bipolar. Today, I’ll tell the story of how I handle my severe event anxiety- as a person who markets events as part of my job!
I will start with a story. It’s the Super Bowl today. I did the marketing for my side job and we have had a lot of attention at the pub where I work. It’s a soccer bar ⚽️⚽️⚽️ and we still got mention in the media as a great place to watch the Super Bowl. I and the owner, who is a wonderful work partner did a great job of marketing.
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Because of this, I started to get worried that I WOULD NOT HAVE A TABLE FOR MYSELF, MY FAMILY AND MY FRIENDS.
These thoughts started three days ago and would not stop.
“Julie, you are going to get there and every single table will be taken and you will have two stand and there will be no tables and your friends will have to stand and you will not have fun and your back will hurt and you will not have a good time and you need to make sure you have a table and…😲😲😲
..you get the idea. This is called OBSESSING. It is the O in Ocd. I hate it. This obsessing has been in my life since my late teens. I don’t remember it arriving until I was about 18.
My Health Cards (the system I use to chart my symptoms) are filled with lists of what my anxious mind says to me when I have to go to an event and I am worried about a seat. It was so bad for many years that events were ruined and eventually I stopped going. It’s important to note that this is an illness and my thoughts are the symptoms. My thoughts have not changed in 30 years.
It is my goal and my job to work around my anxiety symptoms so that I can get on with life and go to events. I want to share with you how I handle this terrible and often life wrecking anxiety so that I can go out and do things like a regular person.
1. I ASK FOR SPECIFIC HELP: I have allies. I simply have to tell people about these symptoms and ask for help. The kind and amazing owner of the pub where I market is understanding. I can tell her the truth. I say, “This makes no sense, but as always happens, my worries about having a seat are getting in the way of my sleep and my ability to enjoy marketing the Super Bowl. Can I please reserve a table at noon so that I can come early and calm down?”
Of course she said yes.
But my brain, my ridiculous OCD brain doesn’t care. This started…
“She is out of town and no one at the pub will remember what to do. Julie, you are going to get there and all of the tables will be filled and you will not have a table and you will have to fight with someone and say- but it was reserved for me! I am not lying and then everyone will be upset… and”
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Really! This is so freaking ridiculous. But, it is what my brain does, so I texted my patient boss again and said, “I am confirming that I will be there at noon.” She knows me and said, “Julie, the staff knows you are coming and the table will be reserved.”
Please know that none of this was weird. I simply stated what I needed once and then to calm myself a bit more, I asked again and then I let it go. I don’t need more than two assurances. That is not normal and not good for relationships.
My first piece of advice if you go through this as well is to yes, ask for help and ask for reassurance, but not more than twice.
Twice is ENOUGH.
People can’t assure you more than twice and it’s not natural to keep asking someone something they have already told you. With step one out of the way, it is now time for me to take over and deal with the Ocd myself.
2. I USE COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY TECHNIQUES: CBT works very well with anxiety. I use it every minute while dealing with the obsessive thinking. ALL obsessions are answered back in my brain with reasonable FACTS. I love the work of David Burns. His book Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy changed my life. Here is how it works.
My brain in a loop: “Julie, there will be people at the table and you will have to fight them to get your place!”
My CBT response: “Julie, you just looked at the schedule for the pub. There is nothing happening at noon and no one comes to a Super Bowl party three hours in advance. You will simply have to trust that the people who know that you are coming have put up a reserved spot. Even if there are a million people there, it is a pub and people respect Reserved signs. So, say no to these thoughts. They are not based in any reality. And even if they were, have you ever not had a seat? The answer is no. You will always find a place to sit. You always do. Your brain is not being reasonable.”
This goes on all day. I counter act every single unreasonable thought about this seating situation. And by the way- if you are laughing at how dumb all of this is, I agree. From the outside looking in, anxiety is incredibly DUMB. But oh, please believe me, it is feels so real and we have to fight it or it will take over.
3. I FOCUS ON SLEEP: Anxiety is a sleep wrecker. Last night, I truly wanted to sleep without using so many sleep meds, but it was not a good night to try this. I simply could not sleep. So at 2 AM, I finally took my meds. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I know that this kind of anxiety will rob me of sleep and I truly should have just taken my regular sleep meds. I can try tonight to sleep without my meds. This meant I had to sleep in and I missed a soccer match I really wanted to watch. That is the trade off for health.
4. I GO EARLY: There is nothing wrong with getting to a place early if it’s possible. It calms the nerves and lets you be at peace before an event starts. I do NOT ask others to come early with me. This is my battle to fight. (Yes, I use these terms, others might say something like this is my path to follow or my mind to calm! I FIGHT!) I get here early and work if I can and I talk with people and I have my table and all will be well.
Nothing about anxiety is normal in the big picture world we have to live in. Anxiety is a small, tight, ball of obsession that gets in our brain and prevents us from living our lives. Using this system works well for me.
1. Ask for help,
2. Use CBT all day.
3. Focus on sleep.
4. Go early.
It is not always possible, but in most situations it works.
If anxiety is keeping you from living life, please get help. Your family, pets, coworkers and health care professionals want you to get out in the world.
You will know if your anxiety is trigger by an event if the anxiety is completely gone once you are safely at the event and then the anxiety thoughts about the event are gone once the event is done. Anxiety is an illness. It can be managed, treated and prevented.
#Epigenetic and the hope of ending #genetic illness. I hope you will read and comment on my latest article as it might be the most important work I have ever done. I know, that sounds a bit melodramatic, but after reading this, let me know if you feel the same. I believe we can END the devastating effects bipolar has on generations of a family.
The start is learning about #epigenetics.
It is my goal to teach family members, partners and health care professionals the substances such as SSRI antidepressants that are thought to turn on the bipolar gene group- or maybe there is one mania gene!
If we make one simple change- do NOT prescribe SSRI drugs where there is known bipolar in the family tree (unless it is an emergency) and instead use treatment and management skills for #depression that do not lead to mania.
If you are a health care professional, especially a family practitioner, please know that the use of SSRI drugs in children of people with bipolar disorder is directly linked to turning on bipolar disorder mania.
Find other methods to help people with depression. We can do this if we all work together.
Let’s end bipolar disorder in the next generations.
Three ways to change your life for the better if you have #bipolar disorder. 1. Choose a hobby that gives you pleasure. Keep doing this hobby no matter what your mood.
2. Exercise for physical health so that your body will always be able to hold you up when life gets you down.
3. Think of where you want to be in five years and take a small step now to reach the goal. You have five years to reach this goal. We can do a lot in five years.
We focus so much on what not to do, what meds to take, how much sleep we need to get, etc. Yes, this is all important, but it’s equally important to keep going with life even if life gets us down. That is why I wrote Get it Done When You’re Depressed. I need a safety net that is in place and working for when I get too sick to function on my own.
My plan is in place 24 hours a day. I need this as my mood is not very predictable. I know myself. I need stability from the world around me. My brain will not give me stability willingly. I have to extract it daily! I want to make lemonade darn it!
What about you? What is a hobby you NEED to do, but maybe have not done enough due to bipolar mood swings? What exercise can you do to strengthen your abdominal area for healthy aging? What is a goal that you can reach in five years?
Stress, digestion and stomach aches. Mental health is so much more than what we feel and think. There is a physical component to our bipolar disorder as well. The more we learn scientifically about the body, the more we see a connection between the brain and the body.
Anxiety for example is known to cause terrible stomach problems.
What is a scientific answer for this?Serotonin in the stomach. This is also why drugs that affect serotonin are not very safe for people with bipolar and why they can cause so much physical stomach upset.
My work has always involved deduction.When I started on my bipolar journey at age 31, there was very little available science on why we act as we do and what we can do to make changes to create a more stable life. So much has changed in this time. Deduction meant that my 13 years of charting my mood every day as well as charting the mood for ten years of a partner with bipolar allowed me to create a system that I use everyday and write about in all of my books. Deduction tells me that my stomachache today is the result of stress over the way bipolar affects my work ability.
Deduction means that YOU can be a detective into your own aches and pains due to mental health concerns.
How healthy are you? Can you sleep with ease? How is your digestion? Maybe you are like me and you struggle with using sugar to ease the mental and physical anguish caused by bipolar disorder. Maybe you choose weed or whiskey to ease the pain.
Deduce what this is doing to your life. Be a detective and decide if the stomach ache is cured by sugar, weed and whiskey or if there might be better and healthier choice you can make.
In November of 2018, after struggling with my weight for six years after a biking accident, I decided that sugar was no longer my medicine. Yes, I was using sugar as medicine. Why not be honest with myself. I am four months into a journey of finding other ways to ease my psychic and physical pain.
I am deducing what I need. I am a detective. A bipolar Sherlock Holmes.
I can teach you how to manage bipolar. I have a system that works 100% of the time. I have tested it for over 20 years on myself and many thousands of people around the world. This is not the issue. The issue is whether you are ready for a system that asks you to END a dependence on mania- A system that suggests you find other ways to deal with depression other than using substances that actually make you feel better in the moment, but worse over time.
If you have read to the bottom of this post, YOU are ready. Read Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder and get started today. Find your mood swing patterns. List your triggers. Find a way to sleep like a regular person. Say this out loud:
Mania is not a positive. Mania is the opposite side of the bipolar coin. Mania is as destructive as depression.Today, I start my plan to end the hold mania has on my life.
I want you to live. I want the stomach aches from stress to end. I want us to have a plan that works. Today, I have a stomach ache. This is from anxiety messing with my stomach serotonin. I had a chiropractic treatment with the amazing Dr. Simon Agger and am having avocado with my lunch. I am deducing that my stress levels are not healthy and I need to make changes by removing triggers.
Join me.
I am on Instagram at #JulieGetsItDone for my weight loss work! I hope you will join me there if you need inspiration. I certainly need inspiration from you!
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Mom Brain Podcast
Listen to Julie’s latest interview on bipolar disorder and mental health in children, teens and adults on the Mom Brain Podcast with Hilaria Baldwin and Daphne Oz.
The health information contained herein is provided for general education purposes only. This site should not be seen as a substitute for an official diagnosis or for professional health care.
