{"id":10730,"date":"2017-10-12T14:40:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T21:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/?p=10730"},"modified":"2018-05-15T09:55:57","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T16:55:57","slug":"depression-doesnt-care-how-i-manage-my-bipolar-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/depression-doesnt-care-how-i-manage-my-bipolar-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"Depression Doesn’t Care: How I Manage My Bipolar Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nWhen I’m depressed, I use the strategies in my books as though someone else wrote the books. It\u2019s not as though I\u2019ve become super human in managing this\u00a0illness. (I wish.) Instead, my bipolar depression is around on a regular \u00a0basis and I have to find a way to live with it if I want to find happiness in this life.<\/p>\n

Depression couldn’t care\u00a0less about the reality of your life. You may have loving friends, a loving\u00a0family, a great partner, kids you adore, a job you find fascinating and all of\u00a0the money in the world \u2013 and yet depression will still make you feel that you\u00a0have nothing.<\/p>\n

Depression will tell you that your life is worth nothing and then it will make you\u00a0act as if you have nothing. Nothing tastes good, feels good or will ever be good\u00a0again. When someone tries to point out what\u2019s going well, you really do want to listen, but your brain won\u2019t let you. You can hear people list the good things, but depression will take you in another direction.<\/p>\n

When this happens to me, here\u2019s what I say to myself:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an illness Julie. You know these thoughts are not real. Focus on what is real. You have people who love you. Call them and see them. You do enjoy writing, so get out your computer and write. You have two legs, go walk. Stop listening to what your brain is saying. Do what you need to do. You will be okay Julie.\u00a0Depression is an illness. It’s a symptom of\u00a0bipolar\u00a0disorder. It always ends. It will be okay.<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I often talk to myself like a military sergeant when I get depressed. \u00a0This is called Be Your Own Drill Sergeant in Get it Done When You’re Depressed.\u00a0Sometimes I talk to myself like a loving mother. I do what is needed. If I\u2019m\u00a0depressed in the morning, I always have the goal of being better at night. It\u00a0takes work, but it\u2019s better than sitting and watching videos all day. The Health\u00a0Cards Treatment System for Bipolar Disorder<\/a> reminds me what to do and this helps as well. My mother often gets them out and does what the third column tells her will work. (If you have the Health Cards, this will make sense. If you don’t, the Health Cards are the treatment plan I created that everyone in my life uses to help me stay stable.)<\/p>\n

When I get sick, I tell people that I\u2019m sick. They know how to help me because when I\u2019m well I teach them what works. This has saved my relationships.<\/p>\n

I just sat down and wrote this (because writing makes me feel better and the act\u00a0of getting things done helps me feel better) and now I\u2019m going to do sometime kind for myself\u2013\u00a0depression doesn\u2019t want me to take care of myself. Depression doesn’t care. But I care! I know what it takes to get better.<\/p>\n

Are you depressed today? What do you need to do to end the depression?<\/p>\n

Julie\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> When I’m depressed, I use the strategies in my books as though someone else wrote the books. It\u2019s not as though I\u2019ve become super human in managing this illness. (I wish.) Instead, my bipolar depression is around on a regular basis and I have to find a way to live with it if I want to find happiness in this life.<\/p>\n

Depression couldn’t care less about the reality of your life. You may have loving friends, a loving family, a great partner, kids you adore, a job you find fascinating and all of the money in the world \u2013 and yet depression will still make you feel that you have nothing.<\/p>\n

Depression will tell you that your life is worth nothing and then it will make you act as if you have [ Read More ]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10730"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10762,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10730\/revisions\/10762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}