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For example, to maintain a car, you check the oil, you get regular tune-ups, get the engine checked when necessary, get the tires rotated, etc., don’t you? I mean, you want it to last as long as it can, right?

Well, it’s like with bipolar disorder. You have to have a system, too.

You have to take medication daily, see the psychiatrist and therapist regularly, see the doctor when necessary, have bloodwork checked, stick to a healthy diet, exercise, get the right amount of sleep, etc.

You need a system to keep your bipolar disorder in order, just like you do with your car – if you want to keep your stability.

Your stability is much more important than your car.

So if you have parts in your car that need regular maintenance and you take care of those, you should be willing to take care of the parts in your treatment plan for your bipolar disorder that need regular maintenance as well, because they are even more important.

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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.

Do People with Bipolar Disorder Get Worse with Age?

David Oliver October 29, 2008 | March 17, 2009 Daily Bipolar Disorder Message 34 Comments

Hi,

How’s it going today?

What a day for me yesterday. I barely got one thing accomplished.

It snowed yesterday and nobody knew it was going to. NOBODY was prepared.

The roads were not plowed or salted.

I tried to drive to just a few places and the traffic was massive. There were car crashes, trees that fell down, cars stuck in the road, etc.

It took 2 hours to drive something that should take 20 minutes.

The snow was so heavy it knocked down tons of trees.

Anyway, the power went out as well. I tried to drive to a library so I could get some work done.

Guess what? Every library I could get too either had a tree that blocked the road leading to it or it closed for the day.

I found one library out towards Pennsylvania.

It was in an elementary school.

I wound up doing my work in a library that had desks that were two feet tall.

I sat next to a bunch of kids with little coloring books and lunch boxes.

One kid asked me if my laptop bag was a lunch box.

I said, “no it’s not.” He insisted it was and that his mom get him one : )

If you are wondering why I couldn’t just work off my lap top battery well it only works for like 1 hour and then it goes dead.

Anyway, that was my day.

I saw a post on my blog from Jeannie:

She wrote:

“It seems to me the older a person with bipolar gets, the more it steals. I have dealt with a lot of diseases disorders and illness being in the health care field, but this is the mot mind boggling disorder I have ever come to witness. It is heart wrenching. You wish with all your heart that the person could find complete calm for one day, one hour, one min.”

——————————————————————-

Everyone who works for me has their bipolar disorder getting BETTER with age.

People who were riddled with episodes, suicide attempts, multiple marriages, multiple jobs are finding themselves completely stable and not going to the hospital for years.

WHY?

Well, it’s a system.

I want to dispel this myth about bipolar disorder getting worse, because I think it doesn’t have to as long as you have a system.

That’s what my courses/systems are all about – having systems that help you to manage and control your bipolar disorder so that it doesn’t get worse, it gets better!

SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?
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HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?
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Anything gets worse if you don’t take care of it.

If you didn’t take care of your car, it would get worse, wouldn’t it?

If you didn’t make repairs to your house, it could fall apart around you!

If you caught the flu and didn’t take care of it, it could turn into pneumonia.

If you had an infection and didn’t take care of it, it could turn into something worse.

So I don’t think it’s that bipolar disorder gets worse with age.

I think it’s that if you don’t take care of it, it can get worse. No matter what your age.

You take care of your car.

You take care of your house.

You take care of your belongings.

You take care of your family.

You take care of your physical health.

And you have systems for each of these.

You check the oil in your car to keep it running right.

You have termite inspections on your house.

You take care of the things you own so that they don’t break.

You do the things you need to do to take care of your relationships, because if you didn’t see them or call them, it would damage those relationships.

You see your doctor for regular checkups to keep you healthy.

You go to the dentist for regular cleanings on your teeth so you can keep them.

These are systems.

Why wouldn’t you do the same for your bipolar disorder?

No matter the age, the people who are stable and successful with their bipolar disorder have SYSTEMS.

They have learned how to manage their disorder just like you would manage your car or any of the other things I mentioned.

Only isn’t your mental health more important than the vehicle you drive?

If your car gets old, you can trade it in.

You can’t trade in your mental health if it gets worse.

On the other hand, with a good system in place, your bipolar disorder can only get better, NOT worse, as time goes on!

What do you think? Does bipolar get worse with age?

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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.

Bipolar Disorder? Discover The 7 Secrets to living with it

David Oliver October 28, 2008 | March 17, 2009 Special Offer Leave a Comment

Hi,

If you or your loved one with bipolar disorder want to learn the 7 secrets to living with it, then read on.

This guide was the result of years or hard work involving interviewing more than 100 people with bipolar disorder, watching and monitoring my mom and the people who work for me with bipolar disorder, and reading virtually everything written about how to live with bipolar disorder and boiling it all down into 7 secrets.

If you or your loved one has bipolar disorder and want to find out the 7 secrets to living with the disorder, please visit:
http://www.survivebipolar.net/bipolarsecretsspecialoffer/

It comes with a 30 day f.ree trial as well.

Hope you enjoy!

Dave

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.

One of the Worst Things That Bipolar Can Cause

David Oliver October 28, 2008 | March 17, 2009 Daily Bipolar Disorder Message 48 Comments

Hi,

How’s it going?

One of the worst things that bipolar disorder can cause is a distortion of the truth.

Now is that the same thing as a lie? Not necessarily. There’s a difference.

This is what I mean:

You know that bipolar disorder is a chemical imbalance of the brain, right? Well, when those chemicals misfire, it leads to a thought imbalance as well – a distortion of the truth.

Your loved one’s thoughts are no longer rational, like when they go on spending sprees, or exhibit inappropriate sexual conduct, excessive gambling or other risky behaviors.

This is especially seen in loved ones who are showing psychotic features – meaning that they have delusions (irrational ideas, thoughts, and beliefs) and hallucinations (seeing and/or hearing things that aren’t really there).

When you’re dealing with a loved one in a bipolar episode and they’re not “themselves,” they are most likely in a state where they are experiencing a distortion of the truth.

You may see things one way, while they’re seeing things an entirely different way. No matter how much you argue your point, they won’t agree with you. They’re not trying to give you are hard time — they truly do, at that time, believe what they’re saying is the truth.

See the difference I’m talking about between outright lying and distortion of the truth?

This is one of the things I talk about in my courses/systems

below, because it can be so damaging to your relationship:

SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

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SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

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HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?

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In the worst manic episodes, there’s also a distortion of reality that can even be classified as hallucinatory. The reality that your loved one is experiencing isn’t the same reality you’re experiencing, so if your loved one tells you that her mother slapped her, she may truly believe that.

If you ask your mother-in-law later and she says she brushed something off her daughter’s cheek, they may both be telling the truth, as they understood it at the time.

Even if it is the truth that you are the mom and your daughter did, indeed, slap you, when your loved one is in a state like that, the only thing you can do is either agree with them or leave them alone.

In more cases than not, they won’t even remember the behavior after the episode is over; after they have returned to rational thought.

When your loved one is in an episode, it can also be that they simply can’t control their ability to lie or tell the truth, because they aren’t in touch with reality. This isn’t really their fault – it’s the episode, and their irrational thought, their distorted thinking caused by it.

When the episode is over, your loved one’s distortion of the truth will pass, too.

Don’t give in to the urge to start a fight with them about whether they’re “lying” or not while they’re in an episode. Or, if you do, don’t be surprised if they don’t even know what you’re talking about. It’s a matter of winning the fight just to lose the battle.

It’s about choosing your battles. Since you know that this perception will pass with the episode, why waste time and energy arguing about it now?

Better to save that energy to address the more important lies – the ones that can cause permanent damage (lies to therapists, lies to c.redit card companies, lies to you) – the real lies.

What do you think?

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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.

Funny Political Story and Bipolar? Think of the Grocery Store

David Oliver October 27, 2008 | March 17, 2009 Daily Bipolar Disorder Message 11 Comments

Hi,

How’s it going?

I hope you are doing well.

Hey, I have to get going really quick today because I was at that seminar all weekend and I have done anything for work in like 2 days.

I wanted to tell you a funny story about the seminar that I went to. Yesterday I told you a funny story and today I have another one.

Just for a recap, I went to a business seminar over the weekend not in mental health but I met people who can help me accomplish various things with this mental health organization (like finding software vendors and tools to make things more efficient with the organization).

Anyway, I met a lot of really successful people. Even though it wasn’t a seminar on bipolar disorder, MANY people knew loved one’s with bipolar disorder.

Here’s the funny story. You know how there is an election in the United States (I say this because we have tens of thousands of international readers that might not know).

So the election is a big thing. They are saying it’s going to be the biggest election with turnout in many decades.

So lots of people are talking politics which I do NOT do. I don’t know a lot about politics. It’s hard enough for me to keep up with mental health stuff and all my other businesses and hobbies.

Anyway this guys is like, “who you voting for?”

Now I know for sure, if you answer this question you have a 50% chance of getting someone super mad at you.

I don’t want to argue about politics with people.

I am voting but not talking about who I am voting for because I am not 100% sure. I might be 99.9% sure but I am not 100% sure. So that means when people ask I can say, “I am not 100% sure yet.”

So I said, “I am not 100% sure yet.”

I thought the guy would just let it go and move on to something else.

He pressed me, “Why are you not sure?”

I said, “Because I don’t have all the answers to my questions.”

He said, “Ask me, I know EVERYTHING.”

I said, “really, do you know how to solve an equation with 7 unknown variables and there only being 10 total variables?”

He looked at me like I was crazy. He said “well I know EVERYTHING about both candidates not math equations.”

If you have been on my list for a while you know how I get when people try to back me in a corner lol So the guys says, “why don’t you know. Then he proceeded to bash a certain candidate and say that this person would basically do all these bad things to America”

So I said, “you know what sir (Note-If I call you sir, you’re in trouble probably), I do have a question, and if you could answer it, I would know who I was going to vote for.”

He said, “okay, what is it, then you better vote for and he told me who to vote for.”

I said, “I want to know where each candidate stands on the state of mental health in the US and how are they going to improve it. I want to know how they are going to lower the suicide stats for those with serious mental health issues like bipolar disorder because sir, I am sure a guy as smart as yourself knows that bipolar disorder affects more than 10% of the US population which is more than 30,000,000 people (NOTE that’s supporters AND survivors). What is each candidate going to do?”

He looked at me like I was crazy.

I said, “sir, you don’t think reducing death is important?”

You should have seen his face, I kept asking. I then I said, “Sir, why do you think people don’t care? I can tell you don’t care. Why haven’t you thought of this before I brought it up? You said you knew everything. How could you not know this?”

The guy looked down at the ground almost afraid, He then started to back away and walked away with his head down. I thought it was super funny!!!!!

So if someone asks you about politics and you don’t want to answer do what I did. lol

Okay, so after the seminar I had to go to the grocery store to get food for the week.

Now, this might seem weird, but I want you to think about the grocery store.

I want you to think about how you go up and down each aisle of the grocery store picking out items that you need.

Now, you’re choosy, because you only want the best for you and your loved one (and your family if you still have children living at home).

You’re also choosy about the price because, after all, there are other things to be considered when considering all these items in the grocery store aisles, aren’t there?

Then you go up to the check out and pay for each item that you need.

Then you bring all these grocery store items home, because you need these items to keep your home running well, and to feed you.

Ok, so what does this have to do with bipolar disorder?

I’ll tell you if you scroll down…

Keep scrolling….

I know, you think I’m teasing….

But there really is a connection…

Ok, you got me…

Here it is:

When you’re at the grocery store, you have an agenda. You have an objective. You may even have a list – either written down, or in your head – of what you need to get.

You pick different items according to your needs, right?

Well, we’re not robots, so not everyone picks the same items when they go to the grocery store (which is good, because I can’t stand asparagus!).

It’s the same with bipolar disorder.

Picking different items is like picking different ideas or techniques that work for your loved one.

And what works for one person may not work for another loved one (just like me not liking asparagus, where you might love it!).

In my courses/systems below, I discuss the negative side of support groups being that some people try to tell everyone else what to do – they think that just because some medication worked for their loved one, that it will work for yours as well:

SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

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SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

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HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?

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There are these type of people, who try to tell you how to manage your loved one’s disorder just because something worked for their loved one.

But that’s like telling you what to buy at the grocery store!

You should try different ideas and techniques with your loved one, because (especially at first) you don’t know what method will work. Each person is different.

Sometimes the simplest things will work. Like keeping your loved one’s medications at the side of the sink instead of the side of the bed.

What if you never tried a new food? How else would you know if you liked it or not?

You need to try new things with your loved one to see if they work or not.

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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.

Funny Story and Bipolar Supporter – Feeling Betrayed?

David Oliver October 26, 2008 | March 17, 2009 Daily Bipolar Disorder Message 39 Comments

Hi,

I hope your day is ok.

Hey, my seminar was great yesterday. I actually have to take off right away because I am kind of late. I will tell you more later on this week.

It was really interesting. I met several people with loved one struggling with bipolar disorder. I heard some really sad stories.

Actually I didn’t go to a mental health seminar I went to a business seminar on operational and marketing concepts.

Whenever I am in a seminar people always know that I help people with bipolar disorder and other disorders.

It got out that I had so many people working for me who have bipolar disorder and they are all doing great.

People were amazed.

Here’s a funny story. This guy comes up to me and says, “so you got bipolars working for you?”

I looked at him and total annoyance I was like, “Sir, I don’t refer to people as bipolars. Would you call someone cancers?”

So then he said, “I worked with one of them and they were totally crazy. There was this one woman who” he went on and on and on.

NOTE-How he refers to them as “one of them.”

I cut him off and said, “Hey, I knew this girl that use to eat cottage cheese and had braces. She then would smile and her cottage cheese would be stuck in her braces. It made me really sick and now I hate cottage cheese. That was when I was in 7^th grade. To this day it makes me sick. Now I can’t eat.”

I just paused and looked at him. You could see his mind trying to understand why I just told him this story what in the world it had to do with anything?

He looked at me like I was out of my mind.

Then I said, “since you told me a totally irrelevant stupid story, I told you one.”

He then just walked away lol

Nobody liked him anyway : )

I hate when people say stuff like, “bipolars” and then they tell me some dumb story like he told me.

Actually someone in the room that owned a tremendous business and was SUPER SUCCESSFUL told me quietly that he had bipolar disorder and loved the work that we as an organization are doing.

Do you know what?

After the seminar I went to eat and the girl added up my dinner to $26.00. I was like “no way jose.” She then told me how she used a calculator it was right. I was like “umm, $6.95 + 1 + $2.95 does not equal $26.00.”

Finally she agreed. I felt like she was trying to con me.

I got conned by three people in the last month!

Took me totally by surprise.

These were people in companies that were supposed to be helping this organization, so I trusted them.

I run an organization that helps people with bipolar disorder and their supporters. Why would anyone want to con me?

I don’t even take a salary from this organization, so what money was there to gain?

It’s not like I had an office with a safe in it they could rob.

It’s not like I had fancy technology or billion-dollar microchips they might’ve been after.

These people were supposed to be helping me – and instead, they conned me!

And what gets me is that it wasn’t just ONE person, it wasTHREE!

I just keep asking myself, “How did this happen?”

And you know what the answer is?

I trusted them. I never expected them to con me. Never.

I feel BETRAYED. Yep, that’s exactly how I feel.

So what does this have to do with bipolar disorder?

I’ll tell you.

Think about your own situation for a moment.

Haven’t you ever felt betrayed by your loved one?

When you’ve done everything you could to keep them out of an episode but they went into one anyway, didn’t you feel betrayed?

When you believed that they lied to you during that episode (or said or did something that hurt you) but afterwards denied it or didn’t remember it, didn’t you feel betrayed?

When your loved one is manic and you’re out in public and they do something to embarrass you, don’t you feel betrayed?

When you try your best to get your loved one to take their medication every day and stick to their treatment and yet they don’t, don’t you feel betrayed?

When your friends and family turn their backs on you because of your loved one’s bipolar disorder, don’t you feel betrayed?

When your loved one seems more concerned about themselves and their disorder than about you and your efforts to support them (and your feelings), don’t you feel betrayed?

When you feel unappreciated, taken for granted, overlooked, ignored, unloved, and/or maybe even abused, don’t you feel betrayed? In my courses/systems, I talk about the negative feelings/emotions experienced by supporters of loved ones with bipolar disorder and how to deal with them:

SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

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SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Visit:

HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?

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Whether it’s my situation or yours, the feeling is still the same:

We both feel BETRAYED.

Someone we trust has taken advantage of us.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to say bad things about your loved one. And I’m certainly NOT saying they’re a bad person. All these things are caused by their disorder. The more stable your loved one becomes, the less betrayed you will feel, and the more positive emotions you will experience.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?

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