New on here with Bi polar disorder

Hi @stairhead

I hope your meds help and you find people to interact with on the forum.

Feel free to start new discussions or tell more of your story.

cheers Apple

Hi @stairhead,

Welcome to the Forums. Glad to see that @Appleblossom is doing a great job at welcoming people on here too.

Getting a diagnosis can feel bewildering. Have you got a treatment plan? Meds can be helpful for some, but from my understanding a combination of meds as well as therapy can be helpful too. Others can manage with appropriate supports, managing stress and living healthy. It can be a be like finding the right pieces of a jigsaw puzzel, eventually pieces will come together until it fits for you.

You're not alone though. There are a couple of people on here who have Bipolar that you might want to connect with such as @Mazarita and @Gypsyrose who have written about their experiences here. Also @Healthymind has written about getting newly diagnosed with bipolar here.

Regardless of diagnosis however, people on here get each other through their lived experiences of mental illness. They're a very supportive and close bunch who are very welcoming and happy to have new people, like yourself on here.

We got a few community events that you're more welcome to join in on. They're a great way to mingle with our regulars on here and get to know more people. Every week we have a Friday Feast. Bring a virtual plate of food and something to chat about, and enjoy the company. Also, check out our Special Events area, in there you'll see our upcoming events - Topic Tuesday, which have once a month (we just had one yesterday on mental illness and intimacy), and Ask Anything Monday, which we have every week.

Hope to see you around!

CherryBomb

Being diagnosed is both confusing and a relief. Well thats what I felt when I was first diagnosed.

The only advice I can give you is that it takes time. Even though you will obviously want to feel better now it can't be rushed. Specifically understand that medication takes time. I really didn't fully appreciate the benefits of one medicine until about 18 months after I first started taking it.

Good luck!

Great advice @mrkotter

May I ask if you had a combination of treatments? I mean what type of support did you have in place, and what other things did you do stay well?

@CherryBomb yeah cool, can do. Might be a bit long so I'll break it up. The more important stuff will be at the top.

What was really really really fundamental and the lynchpin to my recovery was that I stumbled upon a smart therapist that didn't tolerate my bullshit and she made that very clear to me - she was someone I really needed.

Finding this person was random and has kind of lead me to believe that there must be some sort of higher power. When she moved back to Adelaide I got lucky again and I credit them both for a lot of my success (even though they are quick to point out the work I put in). If either N or A is reading this I'm talking about you.

I've been to a few therapists where it hasn't worked and it's been, frankly, a waste of money. If a therapist isn't working for you I suggest moving on. It isn't rude, they understand.

I cannot stress enough the importance of a good therapist.

Support

I really just started to have problems when I moved to Canberra for a grad job from Newcastle. So not a lot of family/social support. I made some great friends and they really helped. Initially it was tough finding someone to trust. Family suffer from the ostrich syndrome and my mum was battling cancer at the time so it was pretty messed up. I hope @stairhead that you are in a better position.

I did find a friend and later found out that she too had bipolar. That helped having someone like me, same age. It made it a lot easier to share. Because we were friends already so it made it a lot easier to talk about our experiences with bipolar when we found out about each other. I suggest that you find some sort of way to meet fellow sufferers in the real world.

What was really important was that I found a good psych. Because I was working professionally I could afford to go private. Which is a luxury not everyone has and that sucks. It has struck me a number of times if it would have worked out otherwise. Canberra was good because there is a lot of options. Find one that explains how the medication works, what it's meant to do and what sort of time frame.

Medication

I'm not going to go into detail about what pills I'm on. Everyone's response to medications is different and I don't want to prejudice that.

I want to emphasize that medications take time. You should notice the effects in a couple of months but I didn't really fully get the benefits of one medication until 18months after I first started it. Persistence. Remember if you're in an episode now it might take longer to get to stable and therefore at the point that future episodes are prevented.

Self-discipline

Finally this. Force yourself to have a routine and stick to it like it will be the end of the world if you don't; you know apocalypse type shit. Fix things like when you go to sleep, when you get up, what you eat, when you take your medication (I use an app called medisafe to remind me), when and how much you exercise (I can give you tips if you need but make it frequent and something that gets your heart rate up to a high level - >75% of max heart rate). Drinking affects my moods so I don't drink and that's hard for me, a guy in his 20's. Cut out things you like but make you ill. I've had to massively cut down on clubbing because the lack of sleep kills me.

Do things like meditation if they help.

When you do fall out of the saddle and you will don't beat yourself up, just pick yourself up and start again.

I hope this helps.

Howdy @stairhead, getting a diagnosis (30 years after onset!) meant for me a better understanding of 'how it had always been" and why. But I was cheucked about emotionally for a week or so - ont he day i came home from the diagnostic Psychiatrist I saw - I was in floods of tears and my partner said "You are still you" this doesn;t change you - just puts a name to some of your exeprience. That was really helpful. I have tried hard to to *not 'become" Ms Bi Polar (as if that was ALL of me) because I am still all sorts of other things - funny, smart, hard worker, erudite, etc.

I still live out my values and do the best I can - the diagnosis for me just gave me a deeper insight into my mental health (and all th emessy bits that went with it) and also has allowed me to get some tools in my toolkit for better managing my ups and downs. (The Silver Dial is one such tool that I find very useful).

I have also found the camraderie and shared experiences in the forums since I joined last November to be a real sense of 'not alone'. Glad you are here and I hope the experience with your work being supportive continues to be a good one.

(Note: edited hours later - the word "NOT" in the first paragraph was missing and changed the context of what I was actually saying hugely!)

So needed to read your messages @mrkotter

Thank you from PP