{"id":7966,"date":"2014-03-15T18:37:10","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T01:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/?p=7966"},"modified":"2018-05-15T09:56:58","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T16:56:58","slug":"bipolar-swivel-head-at-the-ufc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/bipolar-swivel-head-at-the-ufc\/","title":{"rendered":"Bipolar Swivel Head at the UFC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ufc<\/a>I\u2019m watching the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) fights with my brother Ed. We love hanging out once a month to watch the mma skills and have fun chatting and talking smack.\u00a0 We usually go to a bar where there is a TV in each corner. I do ok in this environment. I\u2019ve learned to just pick a spot and stick to one TV.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, our regular bar can no longer afford the $1200 the UFC wants to show the fights. (Astonishing!) So I\u2019m here at a Buffalo Wild Wings. The people are nice- the TV is huge and I can actually hear the commentators. It\u2019s going to be packed.<\/p>\n

The problem?<\/p>\n

My bipolar brain.<\/p>\n

As you can see from the picture below, there isn\u2019t one TV in a corner. There are TVs on every wall showing different channels. This leads to what I call:<\/p>\n

Bipolar Swivel Head<\/p>\n

My brain goes into overdrive and keeps looking at all of the TVs as though it\u2019s going to miss something important. I- the real me- know that I simply need to focus on the large TV in front of me, but my brain doesn\u2019t care what I want.<\/p>\n

This leads to big time ADD symptoms, some anxiety and trouble enjoying the evening. And my brother isn\u2019t even here to join me yet!<\/p>\n

I know that visual overstimulation is the problem- it\u2019s happened watching World Cup soccer friendlies last week. It\u2019s very, very uncomfortable and I have to figure out what to do.<\/p>\n

I know that having the kind of glasses they put on horses who have to walk in the city would help.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the sound that\u2019s bothering me as much as the constant visual change on the screens. I actually rolled up a menu and looked through it to see if it made a difference if I could block out the screens on the side.<\/p>\n

Absolutely!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure my brother would love it if I spent the evening looking through a menu tube.<\/p>\n

What can I do?<\/p>\n

The first step is the most important- I realize that this is a trigger for me. I\u2019m not drinking, so that\u2019s not an issue. I\u2019m not meeting new people and I will be home around 10:15, so my sleep won\u2019t be compromised.<\/p>\n

The next step is to keep my eyes focused on the big screen. It has to be a conscious decision. When the swivel head starts, I must physically get my head back in a straight ahead position.<\/p>\n

This may seem like overkill, but if I don\u2019t take care of this now, the evening will be one of nervousness and anxiety which means even more trouble getting to sleep.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t come back here next time- but I\u2019m here now and I don\u2019t want to tap out of my evening before it has even started. Ha!<\/p>\n

Julie<\/p>\n

PS:\u00a0 AHA!<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\"ufc<\/a>I\u2019m watching the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) fights with my brother Ed. We love hanging out once a month to watch the mma skills and have fun chatting and talking smack. We usually go to a bar where there is a TV in each corner. I do ok in this environment. I\u2019ve learned to just pick a spot and stick to one TV.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, our regular bar can no longer afford the $1200 the UFC wants to show the fights. (Astonishing!) So I\u2019m here at a Buffalo Wild Wings. The people are nice- the TV is huge and I can actually hear the commentators. It\u2019s going to be packed.<\/p>\n

The problem?<\/p>\n

My bipolar brain.<\/p>\n

As you can see from the picture below, there isn\u2019t one TV in a corner. [ 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\/7966"}],"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=7966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11329,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966\/revisions\/11329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}