Hi,

Let me ask you a question: What do you do when the weather changes?

Don’t you:

• Change to winter wardrobe
• Wear a warmer coat
• Put the heat on
• Wear a hat
• Wear a scarf
• Wear gloves
• Wear boots
• Drink hot chocolate or
cocoa
• Warm up the car
• Etc.

In other words, you adapt to your changing environment. What if you didn’t adapt to your changing environment? Say, when the weather started to change? Well, you’d be pretty cold, wouldn’t you? The point is that there are signs for you. They are all around you. And you can see them. Signs that the environment around you is changing. Warnings so that you can begin to change yourself and your habits and behavior to adapt to these changes as well. If you don’t…
Well, you’ll get cold! In other words, you’ll have to pay the consequences.

For example…Let’s look at your medications. I’m talking to the survivor now. Say one day you just decide that you don’t want to take them any more. For whatever reason. After a few days, you’re going to get a warning. Something isn’t going to “feel right.” You will start to feel different. You will notice a pattern – Your moods will start to swing. Other signs and symptoms of an oncoming bipolar episode will start manifesting themselves. These are the warnings that the “weather is changing.”

If you heed these warnings, you’ll go back on your medication and everything will be ok for
you. However, if you don’t heed these warnings…Everything will not be ok for you. You could very well end up in a full-blown bipolar episode. All because you didn’t heed the warnings. Just like if you don’t heed the warnings that the weather is getting colder and turn on your heater, you’re going to get cold!

You also need to watch your triggers. If you are in dangerous territory, i.e., you observe a warning, like a trigger has been set off, be aware that a bipolar episode may follow. Then it’s up to you to do what you have to do to avoid that episode. Just like when the weather changes, you do what you have to do to prepare for that cold weather. You need to be vigilant about watching for triggers, signs and symptoms of an oncoming bipolar episode.

Well, I have to go!

Your Friend,

Dave