Hi, how’s it going? Hope you are doing well.
Do you know what really makes me mad? This happened to me today: I was driving, and someone cut me off in order to get where they were going faster. It is a dangerous move. Not to mention it’s inconsiderate.
Where could they be going that they’d be in that much of a hurry? I can understand if they were going to the emergency room. But as many people that do this on a regular basis, I seriously doubt that most of them are going to the emergency room. Which just goes to show that many people are impatient.
That got me thinking. Why are they so impatient? You know, the only ideas I could come up with are that they either didn’t plan as well as they should have, or that they procrastinated too long. And most likely, it is the second of those.
Many people in this day and age will wait until the last minute to get things done. We seem to like to speed through things, either that or we are just lazy and don’t\ want to work on something until we have to.
If we could just begin to work on something as soon as it is drawn to our attention, then we could get things done in a timely manner. Then we wouldn’t need to be impatient.
As a bipolar supporter, we tend to have the same problem. We get impatient about our loved one’s recovery, all the while waiting until the last minute to work on it with them. Does this make sense to you? It doesn’t to me.
Have you been working on your loved one’s recovery plan? This can mean making it to begin with, or changing it as it needs changing.
Have you been working with your loved one about their spending habits? This one is better done before they ruin their chances of meeting their budget.
Have you been working with your loved one about making realistic plans and sticking to them? This will take a lot of practice, so it is better to start working on it as soon as possible.
Have you worked on an emergency plan? You never know when an emergency will happen. (That’s why it’s called an emergency, after all.) So it is better to have the plan made as soon as possible.
Have you been working with your loved one about keeping a mood chart? This is important to help predict when an episode is starting. When you know ahead of time that an episode is likely to happen, you can do things to try to prevent it.
Have you been helping your loved one remember to take their medications? This can be vital to the recovery process.
If you have been doing all these things, then I commend you. But if not, then you need to start working on them. And the time to start working on them is now instead of later. If all of your task lists are set for tomorrow, then you will be overwhelmed when tomorrow comes. Then you will become impatient, and you might even do things that inconvenience others just to make sure that you get done what you need to.
It may take some time for recovery to happen, even if you take the necessary precautions. But rest assured, no matter how long recovery takes, it is worth the time and effort you have put into it.
What do you think of that?
Well, I have to go!
Your Friend,
Dave
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TODAY, WE ARE IN AGREEMENT!!!!! A MOM AND A BROTHER NEVER MAKES YOU MISERABLE ONLY SOMEONE GIVING YOU A LITTLE TOO MUCH SECRET SERVICE
ENJOY A GLORIOUS CHRISTMAS
olga is off robert, don lemon etc.
I am very sad today. My 48 year old daughter who has been going to an out patient hospital project as a follow up on her long stay in a mental illness unit, is becoming difficult to deal with. Her 16 yr old daughter has lived alone with her mother for the bulk of her life. It is not until this last year that the two of them left their home of 10 years and came here to take up living with me. I was doing fine on my own. At age 74 I am active and mentally alert. I had my bills paid and I managed to keep my cats and myself in a warm apt with enough food.
We moved to a very difficult situation I will not explain here. In her attempt to improve her difficult medication problem and her increasing relapse into high temper and resentful violence, she decided to take on the hospital route. We, her daughter and I, were hopeful.
Now we are experiencing very revealing behaviors that she was concealing before. The day long sessions she has attended for 3 weeks now have presented her with new information. Unfortunatly, both her daughter and I find ourselves being ‘punished’ for not being able to deal with her increasingly agressive and bossy interactions with us.
I am sad because I am seriously considering finding a way to move. I do not want to do that but I am going to have to I think. My first responsibility is to my grand daughter who is getting enormous back lash from her mothers inabiity to deal with her attempts to be somewhat independent.
Your missive today triggered my sadness. These last couple of days have been difficult. I find myself tired. I no longer want this responsibility. I am a tough old bird. I will hang in here until I have secured what I need to secure but unfortunatly, I really need some time off.
I keep putting your emails in a folder named ” My Sweet sexy Sirai” named after my wife ,who is at this time living w/ anopther man because she blames me for all the heart ache SHE has caused in our lives. I keep your emails JUST in case she may eventually see the errer of her ways.
I used to be the “champion” of “procrastination,” but the previously-homeless woman I took in as a roommate (though she had a TBI and epilepsy, and was an “ugly drunk,”) taught me how to be less of a hoarder, and also, how to pick up after myself and clean the dishes as soon as I had finished. Now, you might think that for a 62-yr-old woman, this would be “old hat,” but I’m a slow learner. I have lived alone most of my life, and pretty much left things be. BUT with a new way of looking at things, I have improved my lifestyle 10-fold. With a move from my condo into an apartment looming, my roommate motivated me in an almost-extreme way, to START PACKING immediately. This was more than advantageous, as the first people that looked at my condo bought it – and there was NO evidence of the usual packing-to-move around the house. I commend my roommate for my new lifetyle, and only hope I can continue on this path.
BIG HUGS to all bipolar survivors and those who love us. May God bless you real good. I continue to pray for my country.
I’m really-really tired…I have a 25 year old daughter with bipolar 1 & 2 who has a 9 year old son with ADHD, a 17 year old son with bipolar and ADHD and a 21 year old daughter who doesn’t have either, but she and her 2 year old son who just recently had to move back in with us. In my processess of getting her moved and settled in the two with bipolar are thinking that I’m not giving them enough attention or that I’m treating her better than them. They have been very argumentative and now I can’t get the 25 year old to take her medicine. She’s in an episode and yells at me telling me that it’s not because she quit taking her medicine it’s because of me and the 21 year old. They yell at me and tell me I don’t love them because I try to keep them on track and won’t let them do things that would cause problems. I’m at a loss these days I’m to the point that I feel like it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t. My son is not so bad if his oldest sister isn’t at home, is her episode making his moods worse? I could really use some help here. I thought about signing her into a hospital but they told me I couldn’t make her stay there is this true? I also thought about setting up a hidden camera and microphone just so I could show their doctors how they act because everytime we go to the doctor they just tell them that everything is fine. What should I do?