Hi,

There were these kids playing in the park one day. Well, one of the kids messed up. And he yelled: “DO OVER!” And he got to take his turn again, just because he yelled that. In other words…He got a second chance to do it right. That’s what a “do over” is. Don’t you wish that we had do overs as adults these days? We sure could use them sometimes. Like when you mess up at work. Do over! Or when you say something you shouldn’t say. Do over! Or when you do get that speeding ticket that you wish you hadn’t gotten. Do over! Or like with bipolar disorder…

When you get into that inevitable fight with your loved one that you know you shouldn’t have let yourself get into. Do over!

As adults, we don’t usually get do overs. We just have to pay the consequences of our mistakes.

But there is a way to avoid wanting to have do overs when it comes to bipolar disorder. There’s something that I call the Post Episode Analysis. The Post Episode Analysis helps you to keep from making the same mistakes over and over again. So you wouldn’t need a do over. This is how it works: After your loved one’s bipolar episode, you sit down with them, and the two of you together analyze that bipolar episode. You ask yourselves things like: What did we do wrong? What did we do right? What warnings did we miss? What should we have done that we didn’t do? What did we do that we shouldn’t have done? Is there something we could have done earlier than we did? What could we have done differently? What would we do if we had a chance to do it all over again? And things like that.

This way you know how to avoid the mistakes you made for the next episode. And you won’t make them again. You’ll do things differently. Hopefully, you’ll do things better. Hopefully, you’ll even catch the episode before it happens. Because you should know what to look for.

You’ll have discovered what your loved one’s particular signs and triggers are. So this way you can be more vigilant in the future. A Post Episode Analysis can be a good predictor for the future, because it helps you to evaluate the past.

Well, I have to go!

Your Friend,

Dave