Balance and Bipolar Disorder

Hey, y'all --

I just got back from my physical therapist, and I think I'm in more pain now than before I went to see her! She's supposed to be getting my shoulder and arm back into "balance." But some days I'm not sure the pain is worth it, really. I just wish it were fixed.

I saw this episode of "House" the other night, and House's shoulder was hurting, too, and they were saying that it was all in his head, that it was because he was feeling guilty inside about something. Huh? Well, I assure you, I don't feel guilty about anything! This thing is purely physical (and I've been going to therapy for months to prove it to you!).

But it made me think of balance, anyway, something I want to talk about today.

I'm always saying you should take care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually in order to manage your bipolar disorder. In other words, you should be balanced. If anything is out of whack, you could go into an episode.

For example, let's just look at one thing--physically. I was so sick, and stayed sick for about 3 weeks. Usually, I take very good care of myself physically. But this "virus" (that's what they finally said it was, when I went to the ER, which usually translates as "we don't know what it is") just held on and held on and just wouldn't go away.

For a whole week there, I couldn't eat anything but ginger ale and crackers. Which led to my extreme dehydration and low blood pressure. I was just so weak that I couldn't think straight. And because I couldn't think straight, I made a mistake with my medication.

Because of that mistake in my medication, I was "borderline bipolar episode," according to my therapist and my psychiatrist's nurse.

See? My physical side was out of whack, and that affected me physically, mentally, and emotionally, and almost caused me to go into a bipolar episode. Very almost. Had we not caught it in time, I would have ended up back in the hospital.

Now let's take another example. Sleep is such a simple thing to let get out of control. A late night. A good movie to stay up and watch. A good book that you just can't put down. Then a couple nights of lost sleep. You don't even see it happening. But before you know it, your sleep schedule is off. Then it's really off. And you know what that can lead to? Yep. A manic episode. And you didn't see it coming! All because something in your world got out of balance!

We work very hard to learn to control our bipolar disorder. We build systems. We work at maintaining schedules and routines. We learn BALANCE! It's one of the biggest ways to de-stress our lives and manage our disorder. And it works!

But we have to balance so much -- not only ourselves (physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually), but for those who are working, we have to balance home and work as well. For those in relationships or who are married, we have to balance our personal needs with those of our partners as well. For those with children, we have to add that into the balance equation as well.

Trying to keep our lives balanced can be overwhelming sometimes!

I don't mean to be funny (well, maybe just a little), but I kind of look at it like trying to balance a dinner plate at Thanksgiving. I don't know about you, but everything always looks so good that when I go to fill it up, something is always overflowing it! For me, it's usually the mashed potatoes falling over the side of the plate -- just can't get those things to set right! But, really, who can get a Thanksgiving dinner plate balanced just so? I sure can't!

So now try balancing a life filled with life responsibilities, home and personal responsibilities, work obligations and stressors, relationship or marriage, children, parents/siblings, friends, social life, church life, financial obligations (and/or pressures), health, sleep, etc. etc. etc. and it's an endless cycle, so endless that some people just can't handle it and they break.

Because when you add bipolar disorder into the mix above, if you can't find balance, if you don't find peace, all of life's stresses and anxiety will beat you down, and cause you to go into an episode.

Balance is CRUCIAL to managing your bipolar disorder and your emotional, physical, and spiritual health.

Balance is the key to beating this disorder. Balance is the key to stability.

Wishing you peace and stability,

Remember God loves you and so do I,
Michele