Hi, how’s it going? Hope you are doing well.

I met a girl once who had a serious medical condition. It was called hypoglycemia. Now, I guess many people have hypoglycemia, but don’t have a severe form of it. See, a person’s blood sugar is supposed to be in the range of 90-120. If a person’s blood sugar goes too high regularly, it’s called diabetes. If a person’s blood sugar never goes high but has a tendency to go low, it’s called hypoglycemia.

Most people who have hypoglycemia end up with blood sugars ranging between 55-70. Generally speaking, if a person’s blood sugar level gets below 50, you are supposed to call an ambulance for them.

This girl had blood sugar that frequently dropped to the 30’s and even 20’s. She even died one time from it, and got brought back to life. She was supposed to be on a special diet to keep this from happening.

According to this diet plan, she was supposed to avoid sugar, including fruits, and eat a balanced diet between protein, whole-grain carbs, and vegetables. The only problem was, she loved sugar. So most of the time she didn’t follow that plan. So her blood sugar kept crashing. Now, this was serious. She could accidently kill herself this way. But she does it anyway, just because she likes the taste of sugar. It really makes me wish she had more self-control.

But then I have to stop and think. How many times do people who have bipolar disorder not follow their recovery plans because they lack self-control? How many times do they go off of their medications just because they don’t feel like taking them anymore? How many times do they spend recklessly just because they felt like it at the time? How many times do they miss their therapy appointments because they don’t feel like talking that day?

Self-control is a hard thing for anyone to learn, and even moreso for a person who has bipolar disorder. But it’s a funny thing, because you can’t just learn it by learning about it or by thinking about it or even by wanting to do it. You have to learn it by doing it. You have to tell yourself, “Okay, I don’t want to do this today, but I have to, so I’m going to do it anyway.” And then you have to actually do it.

There are some things you can use while you are learning self-control that will help the process along some. Take alarm clocks, for example. They tend to help motivate people to start something, be it get out of bed, start a task, or even stop a task that they could otherwise do endlessly.

Another thing you can use is preventative measures. For example, if your lack of self-control is in the area of spending, then prevent yourself from spending by not even taking your money with you to the store.

If your lack of self-control is in the area of taking your medications, then this needs to be taken very seriously. I would suggest combining the two techniques listed above: Use an alarm clock to remind you it is time to take them, and take preventative measures to eliminate any excuse for not taking them (such as making sure that there is a drink nearby so you don’t have to look for one then.)

Just like with this girl I knew, it can sometimes make the difference between life and death. So it needs to be a priority. What can you do to help along your level of self-control that you need to follow your treatment plan?

Well, I have to go!

Your Friend,

Dave