Hi,

How’s it going?

I hope you are doing well.

I wanted to tell you about my friend who does strongman competitions and the GREAT bipolar lesson you can take away.

What are strongman competitions*?

A typical strongman competition consists of six events. The first three events are used to qualify eight finalists for the last three events. There are about fifteen different events established so far.

The promoter of a particular competition chooses from among these. Many of these events are adopted from traditional, centuries old contests like Scottish Highland Games and the Basque contests in Spain. Variations of regular power lifts are used to test pure strength.

Some of the most common events are:

Farmer’s Walk, Car Walk, Loading, McGlashen Stones Truck Pulling, Log-Press / Stone-Press, Hercules Hold, Stone Lift, Log Throw / Caber toss, Weight throw, Tug of War, Pole Pushing, Crucifix and Car Rolling

About 2.5 years ago my friend decided he wanted to compete in these.

I was kind of strange to me. The events are really odd. Something I would not be into. I used to power lift years ago but not any longer. I only body build non-competitively.

Anyway, so my friend signed up for his first contest.

His entire family went, including me.

So we went there and my friend who is SUPER strong, I mean really strong, went through the entire competition.

Guess what happened?

Take a wild guess! Then scroll down for the rest of the story….

He got destroyed. He didn’t do well at all. Despite being really strong and a good athlete he got destroyed!

It was amazing. I couldn’t believe it myself.

He was really bummed out. I immediately saw the problem because of my consulting background and my background with mental health, especially bipolar disorder.

Guess what he didn’t have that you need for bipolar disorder in order to manage it?

Take a guess and then scroll..

He didn’t have a system. That was the problem. I noticed the people who won had systems. What kind of systems?

How to get there and what time (most go there the day before, my friend got there the day of the event…hmmm) What to eat before the competition What to drink and eat during the competition Ways to keep cool How to conserve your energy for all the events

People had special coolers, food, special seats, tents, cooling devices, supplements, special food and drinks.

You could tell that the people who won had a plan and a system. It was kind of amazing.  My friend didn’t pick up on this.

NOTE-They also had great technique. To be a successful person in these competitions requires some amount of strength but way more technique.

Usually the smaller guys beat the bigger guys because they had better technique. Some smaller guys made winning look effortless.

Anyway, so I told my friend to ask everyone lots of questions about what they did.

He did.

Fast forward 2.5 years.

Over this past weekend, my friend did EXTREMELY well. He is on track to be a major champion.

He has come a long way. He did very well. He took 3^rd, which is incredible, and just missed 2nd. I asked him, “What was the key?”

He said, “I remember 2 years ago you told me about systems and that’s what made the difference. I now have a system to win. I know how to eat, what to do and when to do it.”

When he told me that, I immediately thought of bipolar disorder.

In my courses/systems below:

SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11

SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.bipolarparenting.com

HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.survivebipolar.net

I talk over and over again about the importance of systems.

They are super important. Something that you Can’t just fly by the seat of your pants and do well helping a loved one with bipolar disorder or managing the disorder yourself. I don’t believe this is the case at all.

YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED A SYSTEM AND A PLAN

It’s important to note that you will have like a master plan and sub-plans that go along to helping you with your master plan. For example if you are a super, your master plan is to help your loved one become stable, productive and be able to work.

Your sub-plan may be, getting your loved one into the “5 percenter club,” finding a job your loved one can do from home and also making sure your loved one takes his/her medication.  You will have 3 plans that lead to your 3 objectives that make up your master plan.

Make sense? I hope so.

Hey I have to take off now, catch you tomorrow.

FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT ME

Visit: http://www.bipolarcentral.com/testimonials

David Oliver is the author of the shocking guide “Bipolar Disorder—The REAL Silent Killer.” Click Here to get FREE Information sent via email on how and why bipolar disorder kills.

Hi,

What’s going on?

Hey, today I want to tell you about a funny story that happened to me the other day. It will bring to your attention a really humorous way of looking at a bipolar disorder success strategy.

The other day, I was working on a whole lot of things. I mean working really hard. Nothing to do with anything about mental health, just with my consulting business.

I have a friend of mine that I work with in one of my businesses. Normally we talk every day first thing in the morning.

That morning I wasn’t around and talking to him because I had to leave early and my cell phone was down.

As the day fast forwarded, it became like 4:00pm then 4:30. I was still working at like 5:00pm or so, so I headed to the good old gym.

I was there for a while because I wound up working out for 45 minutes doing 30 minutes of cardio and then 1 hour of talking afterwards.

When I got home, here is what I saw:

text message after text message that said:

NOTE each line is a DIFFERENT message.

“Are U there?”

“Are U there?”

“Are U there?”

“There?”

“There?”

“Why U ducking me today?”

voice messages that said:

NOTE each line is a DIFFERENT voice message.

“Hey, call me back.”

“Hey, you there?”

“Call me back?”

“Why you ducking me?”

“Hey, why you ducking me?”

emails that said:

NOTE each line is a DIFFERENT email.

“There?”

“There?”

“There?”

“Why you ducking me today?”

I know you think this is crazy. It really, really, is. But it’s funny.

As soon as I saw 25 different messages, guess what I did?

Take a guess then scroll down…..

NO CHEATING! Guess then scroll….

I called him back immediately so I didn’t have any more messages.

It went like this, “Hey, what’s up? I got all your messages?”

He said, “Why you ducking me today?”

Then he talked about what he had to. It was important. Not life or death but important.

I told another friend of mine about this, and she said that he is out of his mind. He actually isn’t and is super smart. But he is determined. When he needs something he will call, email, IM, visit, and do whatever it takes. Period.

He won’t leave one message, it will be TONS of them. He is not even phased if he fills up your voicemails!

What’s this have to do with bipolar disorder?

A TON. I call this the “Filler up” or “Are you There?” strategy.

With bipolar disorder, many times you need to get stuff done fast. Or you need answers quick. You don’t need them in a couple of years. You don’tneed it in 2028. You don’t need it at the other person’s leisure. You need it now.

What is it? Let me give you some examples:

-Medication

-Information on medication

-New medication

-A refill of medication

-Doctor to see yourself or your loved one

-Therapist to see yourself or your loved one

-Information from social security if you are on disability

-etc.

If you are support a child or teen, the list of things you need is long and deep and nowhere are people slower than when you are dealing with a child or teen with bipolar disorder.

Why? Because you are dealing with school systems who 98% of the time are super slow, don’t really care and like giving you a hard time.  There are so many examples it’s hard to list them all here.

There is this interesting phenomenon when it comes to mental health.

Even though it’s life or death many times (your loved one could die or you could die when people are slow to get you information), people take their time. They are not motivated.

In my courses/systems below:

SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11

SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.bipolarparenting.com

HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.survivebipolar.net

I talk about this at length. I give you lists of things you have to watch out for. Information you need to know.

If you are reading this and thinking, “Oh Dave, what’s the big deal, what could be so urgent, you are probably in trouble.”

In the success interviews in my courses/systems above I go through a whole lot of things you have to watch out for.

The biggest thing you can learn from me, especially from the “are you there strategy” is you have to push. You can’t wait around. One phone call will not do it all. People will not move fast in mental health especially when you are dealing with bipolar disorder.

You may think they will because they are supposed To or it’s the “right” thing to do. But let me warn you, it doesn’t work this way. Be warned today.

Remember my friend and how he operates. He will call/text/email/visit and repeat over and over and over again. YES he is annoying but he isn’t running for office so to speak. He gets results. He gets things done when 99% of others fail.

In the last month, he was able to make a huge Accomplishment in one of my businesses because he pushed, and pushed and pushed and pushed.

Many times in mental health, with bipolar disorder you wonder, “should I push harder?” In most cases, I always say yes.

To help my mom, I had to push hard. Demand action. Demand better treatment. Demand responses. Demand that people focus on my mom. I had to call and fill up people’s voicemails.

NOTE-

“Filler up” is when you leave so many voicemails that you are the focus when the person check’s the voicemail. Also, when you leave lots of voicemails, you can Potentially eliminate anyone else’s ability to leave voicemails. Some think this is wrong but many people have done this and endorse it. When you need action,you have to get extreme sometimes.

I was just thinking. People reading this probably think I am out of my mind for even posting this message.

Seriously, this is an important concept to grasp. If you understand what I am saying and get it, great. If not reread this and be warned the “system” doesn’t respond fast and if you don’t use a strategy like this, you’re going to have a hard time probably.

Hey I just looked at the clock and have to run.

FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT ME

Visit: http://www.bipolarcentral.com/testimonials

David Oliver is the author of the shocking guide “Bipolar Disorder—The REAL Silent Killer.” Click Here to get FREE Information sent via email on how and why bipolar disorder kills.

Hi,

How’s it going?

Hope you have a great day.

Well the blog is working out really well. Some people are having a few problems finding where to post.

You have to click the link below for the blog and then SCROLL down. Make sure you do that if you are interested.

Okay, there was a huge earthquake in China.

I wanted to say I’m sorry to anyone and everyone affected with this terrible natural disaster.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, let me post something from CNN:

“BEIJING, China (CNN) — China warned Sunday that dozens of dams were in danger of collapse in Sichuan province following the 7.9-maginitude earthquake that devastated the region earlier this month.

A woman and child walk among collapsed houses in Zundao township Saturday in Sichuan province.

more photos > The warning came as authorities revised up the death toll from the May 12 disaster to 62,664 with another 23,775 missing and a powerful magnitude 5.8 aftershock hit the area killing at least one person and injuring 400 others.

The aftershock — the strongest since another of equal magnitude a day after the quake — was felt in the provincial capital Chengdu, 240 kilometers from the aftershock’s epicenter.”

This is obviously a really terrible natural disaster. I have been following this story because it was a documentary on earthquakes that I saw years ago that prepared me for something related to bipolar disorder – the episodes after a major bipolar episode and how destructive they are.

Okay, here’s the deal.

If you are dealing with bipolar disorder, you may or may not have seen a major bipolar episode. That’s when a person becomes totally unstable and is really out of their mind for an extended period of time. The person normally does a whole lot of bad things including but not limited to: spending tons of money, making things up, saying and doing things they would never say or do and many other destructive things.

Once a bipolar supporter figures out this is a bipolar episode and how severe it is, he/she works hard to try to get the person stable. It could take a year or longer. It could be shorter. But generally not a few weeks.

Then the bipolar supporter thinks, “Wow, that was terrible. Thank God this is over. I hope this never happens again. Now that the worst has passed, I can rest because we just had a major episode.”

It’s this kind of thinking, the kind that I did myself that leads to even a bigger disaster.

When my mom went through her first major, gigantic bipolar episode, after 1 year, I helped her become stable.

NOTE-I am NOT a doctor or therapist and NOT offering medical advice. When I say “helped her” I mean find a doctor, create a system, etc.

Anyway, after she was stable, I swear I thought this in my head, “Wow, that was the worst, I never want this to happen again. I am glad the worst is behind us. Hopefully she won’t have another major episode like this for like 7 to 10 years.”

I seriously said that “7 to 10 years.” I thought that would be about right in my head. I thought “you would never have two major episodes back to back.”

THIS WAS TOTALLY WRONG.

Well, I let my guard down. I didn’t pay attention to the systems. Guess what? Within a year, my mom went into another major episode REALLY quickly and the next one was almost worse than the first one.

Why? Well we were already weak and tired from the first episode and still recovering (my dad and myself). So it wasn’t that hard for a few things to really impact us.

It’s the same as the Chinese Massive Earthquake. If you reread what’s above you see how the aftershock which is like another earthquake also did major damage and killed people as well.

Scientists and experts expect aftershocks and prepare for them so less people get killed than in the old days. Why? Because people know. They know aftershocks will occur. Emergency people prepare for them. But they are still destructive.

With bipolar disorder, NO ONE that I know of talks about the episodes after major bipolar episodes.

I actually go over this extensively in my bipolar doomsday scenario course you can read about here:

http://www.bipolarcentral.com/bipolardoomsday/

You can actually get it f.ree to review and plus get $50. It’s kind of crazy that I am offering this. Check it out if you are interested.

Anyway, back to my lesson today. The deal is, there are episodes after big episodes.

In my courses/systems below,

SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11

SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.bipolarparenting.com

HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.survivebipolar.net

I talk about how several people had one major episode that almost destroyed the family. And then with a year or so another big episode that really just knocked the family down for years.

The last episode was so hard to deal with because it came after a major bipolar episode and the families were not prepared.

Just remember this. I hate to bring up something super negative like the earthquake but I wanted to remind everyone about this.

The more I think about it, people have to talk about the hard truth about bipolar disorder. It’s a SERIOUS disorder that many people die from. Many. Studies aren’t exact but I have read and seen stats that say:

20% of people will attempt suicide NOTE-Of the people who work for me, 50% have tried suicide several times.

They say that 25% of all homeless people have a disorder like bipolar disorder.

I have seen 15 to 20% of people in jail have a mental illness (many having bipolar disorder).

Unfortunately, when you see really bad, random killings that don’t make sense, many times it’s someone with bipolar disorder who was OFF medication.

In every case that I listed above, note, the people are almost always off medication.

If you have bipolar disorder, don’t get worried and think you are going to end up having massive problems just because you have this disorder. When you look at virtually all the cases like I talked about (homelessness, suicide, homicide, etc), you find the person was not following a proper treatment plan and was OFF medication.

I know I will get tons and tons and tons of hate mail about this. People will say that is not true, and that I overly promote mediation.

I promote the importance of medication because I have seen it work in so many cases.

And seen (or have gotten letters about) too many people die because they didn’t take their medication!

Well I have to go. One last thing, if you had someone affected by the Chinese earthquake my condolences to you.

FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT ME

Visit: http://www.bipolarcentral.com/testimonials

David Oliver is the author of the shocking guide “Bipolar Disorder—The REAL Silent Killer.” Click Here to get FREE Information sent via email on how and why bipolar disorder kills.

Hey,

What’s going on?

Great news! The new blog is working out great except one thing. And that one thing has nothing to do with you it has to do with me. I have an extra step of posting that shouldn’t have to be.

My friend George who writes a blog is going to help me. But it’s working great.

So remember, click on the link below to read other people’s comments AND to post your own comments.

You know what is funny? Someone sent me an email asking if I was real well let me retype, “Hello, are you David a real person? Or are you a computer software program. Does anyone read these emails? I can’t imagine how a computer could produce so many different messages.”

I am a real person J

Okay…

Mother’s Day was the other week. I wanted to tell you something really important about this.

Normally I have had problems with my mom on Mother’s Day. I have no idea why.

We just know it’s a pattern. Mother’s Day usually equals problems with bipolar disorder.

Also, November is the worst month for my mom. That’s a pattern that goes back for like 40 years according to my dad.

Anyway, in reference to Mother’s Day.

My mom’s doctor speculates that it’s because it occurs during a kind of change in seasons almost where there is more sunlight.

So, let’s say 4 Mother’s Days ago (4 years), we had problems. 3 years ago we had problems. 2 years ago we had problems. 1 year ago we had problems.

After last year, I was determined not to have any problems.

Actually let me back up, and define what I mean by problems.

My mom would start going manic and say and do things that created problems.

I don’t want to write 100 pages to describe what happened, that’s not important. You get the idea right?

Okay, so this year I was all prepared. I spoke with my mom and she was all prepared, too. She had gone to the doctor before Mother’s Day. She was seeing her therapist.

She was getting plenty of rest as well. She was following her Bipolar Stability Equation perfectly.

Guess what happened?

Nothing.

We had no problems at all.

The important thing to take away from today’s email is the concept of patterns.

Many times, bipolar disorder comes in patterns.

But the difficult thing is, the better the systems you set up, the more that you eliminate and change the patterns.

Know what I mean?

I am not sure why this last Mother’s Day wasn’t a problem. But I do know that to help prevent the problem, my mom went to her doctor and therapist, made sure her diet was perfect, got enough sleep and followed her Stability Equation to a tee.

So the question becomes now is, did her pattern change? Or did the system that we followed disrupt the pattern?

In my courses/systems below:

SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11

SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.bipolarparenting.com

HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

http://www.survivebipolar.net

I talk about patterns and many of the ones you will see. I talk about what to do when you see certain patterns and how to make sure you don’t keep repeating the same thing over and over.

One good thing to do is to listen to the success stories that I have in my systems and you will learn from the people and things that you didn’t think were patterns you will find actually are. This will help you better prepare for them.

Hey, I just looked at the clock and I have to run.

FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT ME

Visit: http://www.bipolarcentral.com/testimonials

David Oliver is the author of the shocking guide “Bipolar Disorder—The REAL Silent Killer.” Click Here to get FREE Information sent via email on how and why bipolar disorder kills.

Hi,

What’s new?

I am dead tired today because I couldn’t sleep.

I figured I would send this out to you kind of early today.

I have a ton of things to do today but before I took off, I wanted to tell you about the exciting news about my bipolar blog.

My new blog has been setup. Actually Andrea who works for me who is super smart set it all up.

I wanted to say a few things.

Okay…

1. The old blog will work. Meaning you can read older messages AND comments. Take a look here:
http://www.bipolarcentral.com/supporterblog/

2. There are some really good comments in the beginning of May and months back. You can click on the dates on the side to see messages that are older.

3. The new blog location will be:
http://www.bipolarcentral.com/bipolarsupporterblog/

4. There will be new rules. The blog will be moderated. What’s that mean? Very little. As long as you do NOT post death threats, hate speech and things that are totally insane your message will be posted. You can even make fun of or attack me verbally I don’t care. BUT, no death threats or violence.

NOTE-I was actually volunteering in a place with someone who was super manic and this person wound up walking around and scaring people in the room. There is nothing worse than a person that has bipolar who is manic and threatening in nature. I will NOT stand for it. Period. The people that run the place were I volunteer
stand for it. They allow it. I TOTALLY disagree with allowing this type of nonsense.

5. I have an audio recording that you can listen to that talks about what happen to cause me to stop allowing posts unmoderated.
http://bipolarcentral.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=339971

6. Actually a good first message to take a look at comment on would be this one.
http://www.bipolarcentral.com/bipolarsupporterblog/?p=4

I would appreciate if people do. It will allow me to test the system out.

6.5. Take a look at all these comments. This was a hot topic.
http://www.bipolarcentral.com/supporterblog/2008/04/bipolar-disorder-are-you-this-kind-of.html

NOTE-I put 6.5, because I don’t have time to renumber and I had to add that in 🙂

7. What’s a blog anyway? Why did I start it?

Here’s what I wrote like 2 years ago:

“I’ve just started my blog here at Bipolar Central, and right away I received lots of questions from readers who wanted to know just what a blog really was and why I had decided to add one to my website. My intent is to provide frequent updates to all of my site visitors on bipolar disorder in general and on what is going on in my own life specifically.

Blogs began in the late 1990’s as “web logs,” essentially lists of links to sites an individual had visited that he or she thought would be of interest to others. They quickly became more complex as the creators of the web logs began to add their observations on each link, commenting on their value, reviewing them a and adding observations and updates when they found that something new and interesting had been added.

Soon millions of people were searching the web and reading the content of these sites, now known as Blogs, and the journal entries and commentaries had become much more interesting than the links themselves. Some bloggers became so well known for their commentary and interpretation of certain stories that they made news headlines around the world. Bloggers who were interested in particular topics, such as health care, entertainment, or politics, posted links to minor stories that would otherwise have gone largely unnoticed by most people, and readers responded by posting their own comments to the Blogs, starting dialogues that blossomed into amazing exchanges of information.

With this kind of dialogue and exchange of information, I felt that a blog was a great way to get my website visitors talking to each other and to me! So please keep checking in regularly. There are several great advantages to a blog that you’ll love once you get used to how a blog works:

You read a blog page from the bottom up. In other words, the top of the page is my most recent entry, so if you want to read it in chronological order, start at the bottom!

If you hesitate to sign up for my emails because of fear of spamming or you miss some of my emails because of spam filters or firewalls, my blog is the place to go to catch up at your convenience You can read other people’s comments and you’ll realize that you are not alone – the observations, questions and stories of others dealing with bipolar disorder who link to my blog will be an important feature.

You can ask questions and expect to get answers – a blog is interactive! You’ll get important notices of upcoming events and releases at Bipolar Central You’ll find links to other sites I’ve found with useful information on bipolar disorder, ways to save money and other helpful advice to make your life easier as a bipolar supporter.” That’s what I wrote 2 years ago. It still holds true today. I would just add that I am surprised how much readership my blog has. When I look at the stats it’s kind of amazing.

But one of the best things is seeing what other people are thinking.

In my courses/systems below:

SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11

SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarparenting.com

HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.survivebipolar.net

One of the things that I stress is that normally the struggles that you have are the struggles that lots of people who are dealing with bipolar disorder have.

Many people think when they talk to me that I am a mind reader. I am not. It’s just that I know bipolar disorder well and I know what the problems that most people have.

When you are talking to others that are dealing with bipolar disorder or reading what they write, your goal should be to learn something. To learn what mistakes they made. What things they do that are working.

It’s shocking to me, how many people don’t know the basics. It’s the strangest thing. For example, to jump back to when I said I was at a meeting and someone was acting super manic. A person who was suppose to know what they are doing said, “Well, what can we do?” I was thinking in my head well, “there’s probably 15 strategies I can think of just off the top of my head.” I didn’t even bother saying anything because there are people that just don’t get it. You can’t let someone just walk around being super manic. Some think you can. I don’t think so.

Hey, I just look at the clock, I have to take off and head to the gym. Catch you tomorrow.

What do you think about what I am saying now?

FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT ME
Visit: http://www.bipolarcentral.com/testimonials

David Oliver is the author of the shocking guide “Bipolar Disorder—The REAL Silent Killer.” Click Here to get FREE Information sent via email on how and why bipolar disorder kills.