Bipolar? Getting Back on the Horse
Published: Fri, 07/24/09
Hi ,
How's it going?
I am going hiking today so I had to
get this off early in the morning.
Okay, so, have you ever heard the expression
"getting back on the horse"?
People use it when talking
about having failed at something
and then trying it again.
Sometimes, if you've messed up,
it's hard to get back to where
you were.
But sometimes it's CRUCIAL
that you "get back on the horse"
when it comes to things that you
mess up with your bipolar disorder.
Take, for example, your medication.
It's easy to forget to take it.
If you do, that's ok. You just take
the next dose when it's time.
But too many people will just stop
taking it altogether, and that is a
HUGE mistake!
Because that is almost a SURE way
to go into a bipolar episode!
And also because when you're ready
to go back on your medication, it's
like starting at square one again.
Bipolar medication takes time to
build up in your bloodstream, so if
you've been off it for awhile, you
have to start at a low dose again
and build back up to the level where
you were before you stopped taking
it.
Some people mess up seeing their
doctor, psychiatrist, and/or therapist.
They miss one appointment, then it
gets easier to miss another, then another...
Then they stop going altogether.
And that is NOT the right thing to do.
If you miss an appointment, you have
to "get back on the horse" and go to
the next one.
There are so many parts that can be
messed up in a treatment plan, but I'm
not going to go into all the parts of a
treatment plan here, because I go into
them extensively in my courses/systems:
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But I do want to talk to you about
what happens when you do start
to mess up parts of your treatment
plan.
Let's say you've started isolating
again.
Isolation is one of the symptoms of
bipolar disorder, and one of the top
triggers to a bipolar episode.
But if you let this slip, and you start
to isolate again, then you are in a
dangerous place, and could be
jeopardizing your stability.
Now you have two choices:
You can either close down, shut out
the world, get all depressed, climb
into bed, pull the covers over your
head, feel sorry for yourself, cry,
and go into a bipolar depressive episode...
OR... you can "get back on the horse"
again.
Another example is if you start to
slip with your sleep patterns.
Lack of sleep (or too much sleep) is
another trigger to a bipolar episode.
But you can fix it if you catch it soon
enough.
In other words, you can accept that
even though you let a PART of your
treatment plan get messed up, your
WHOLE treatment plan is still working,
and you can still fix it.
First you identify what went wrong.
Then you can fix it ("Get back on the
horse.")
It doesn't have to be anything really
dramatic, but even small parts of
your treatment plan, if they get
messed up, can cause you to go
into an episode.
Even if it does cause you to go into
an episode, though, you can still
recover from that episode and...
That's right - "get back on the horse"
again.
Start back doing the things you were
doing before you went into that episode.
What do you think of the idea of "getting
back on the horse"?
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Well, I have to go!
Your Friend,
Dave
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