Bipolar disorder is often triggered by certain physical, environmental, and emotional stressors in life. Therefore, knowing how to anticipate or identify these stressors is critical to controlling and treating this disorder.
In addition to medications, overcoming this debilitating disorder requires rigorous regiment on the part of the patient.
What is your role as a bipolar disorder patient?
See yourself as an Olympic athlete. As such, you have a goal and you train yourself as an athlete with that goal in mind. As a bipolar patient, your goal is to be mentally healthy and stay stable for as long as possible without any serious episodes of depression and mania. If you are an Olympic athlete striving for peak performance, you will have to train yourself everyday to make significant changes in your performance. These changes may take time and you may even resist them at first; but the sooner you make these changes, the greater chance you will achieve the result you desire. Likewise, if you wish to overcome your bipolar disorder, you will have to come up with a plan and start new behaviors for optimum results.
Sleep plays a pivotal role in stabilizing your moods. It is therefore important to keep a regular sleep pattern to regulate your brain chemistry, which is often the culprit of the disorder. Restful sleep not only gives you adequate physical energy, but also enhances the performance of your hormones and neurotransmitters. Unfortunately, patients with bipolar disorder almost always have problems with sleep: in fact, sleep problem is one of the main symptoms of the disorder.
Research has indicated that bipolar disorder patients must structure their sleep patterns as their first line of defense against the onset of another episode of mood swing.
Your sleep pattern can be disrupted by both external and internal factors. The external factors are environmental and stressful events in your life, such as watching the Olympic Games and staying up late for consecutive nights, or going on a long trip. The internal factor is the bipolar disorder itself. However, if you are on medication, the internal factor is more often than not triggered by an external factor, rather than being the cause of the sleep problem.
Sadly, many bipolar patients tend to attribute the cause of their sleep problems to anything or anyone but themselves. Like an Olympic athlete, you must set your goal to recognize what triggers your sleep problems. No one can do that for you! You must always ask yourself: What have I done to trigger my sleep problems? Once, you are aware of the external factors, you must do everything possible to achieve that goal, which is to eliminate those factors that cause your sleep problems. It is important that you write down all possible triggers. Like an athlete, you must start this training process so that you will find the stability you need in order to get on with your life.
Copyright (c) 2008 Stephen Lau
To treat your bipolar disorder, you need to see yourself as an Olympic athlete, you need training not just for yourself but also for members of your family. Yes, they need to get involved with your bipolar depression. The reason is that they, too, need to see and recognize the triggers of your bipolar disorder, especially the factors that may disrupt your sleep, thereby triggering your depression or mania episodes.
Train yourself to keep a regular sleep schedule, and they need to see to it that you abide by it.
Anxiety is a common experience of a bipolar patient. Anxiety may be another cause of your sleep disorder. Due to anxiety, you may want to use alcohol, drugs or tranquilizers to overcome your anxiety disorder. These substances may seem like a solution, but they only aggravate the problem. For example, if you use alcohol to make yourself become drowsier in order to fall asleep more easily, the alcohol may also deprive you of a deeper and more restful sleep needed for your bipolar disorder. These substances have side effects, and you need to think long into the future when it comes to what you put in your body.
Because you have bipolar disorder, your brain is different from that of others. Naturally, you may also want to treat your disorder mood swings by eating foods that enhance your energy and elevate your mood. All these years, you may have developed a craving for junk food - what is known as "comfort food." Your mood swings are often linked to regular fluctuations in your blood sugar level. "Comfort food" offers you little comfort over the long haul. The reason is that junk food, usually loaded with sugar and empty calories, may temporarily fulfill a craving brought on by sudden tiredness and irritability, but they also cause your energy and mood to fluctuate, creating episodes of depression and mania.
Therefore, one of the key factors in treating bipolar disorder is to use food to balance your mood, rather than using food as a quick fix to get you out of a mood swing.
Your neurotransmitters - dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin - regulate your mood. These neurotransmitters are built from amino acids, which enter your body in small amounts. In addition, your body does not naturally make them, and accordingly they need to be obtained from your diet. Studies have shown that one of the most effective ways to control bipolar disorder is through the diet: eating pure protein without carbohydrates; eating complex carbohydrates with no protein. It is important to increase your energy level without affecting your blood sugar level. If you eat properly - avoiding junk food - you may not only regulate your neurotransmitters but also require lower doses of medications, which can mean fewer unpleasant side effects for you.
However, knowing is one thing, while doing is another. The temptation to use food and drink loaded with caffeine and sugar to boost your mood is irresistible to a bipolar patient. That is why you require the discipline and training of an Olympic athlete to help you stay on course, and members of your family should serve as your coach to ensure that you will not deviate from the training schedule. You need their support as well as their firmness to help you persevere in your combat against bipolar disorder.
Stephen Lau has sinced written about articles on various topics from Chocolate and Health, Fitness and Disease & illness. Stephen Lau is a researcher and writer. He has published several books, including "No Miracle Cures" on natural healing; he has also created many websites on Chinese natural healing, eating disorders, Zen healthy lifestyle, and mental depression. For more. Stephen Lau's top article generates over 9900 views. to your Favourites.