=>PLEASE FORWARD TO FRIENDS, FAMILY AND LOVED ONES <=
Hi,
How’s it going?
I hope you are doing really well.
I must say, I am DEAD TIRED. Why?
Because number #1, I was working until
about 1:30am last night.
#2, someone called me and was like,
“hey did you know it’s daylight saving time?”
I was like, “oh no, say it isn’t so.”
The person like, “yep, dude. that sucks.”
So then I am so mad about the fact that
the clock is going forward. Since I was
mad, I couldn’t even go to sleep because
well I was mad that I was losing an hour
so then I rushed to go to bed but couldn’t
fall asleep because I was thinking about
the fact how it was unfair that I was losing
an hour. Isn’t that dumb???
Anyway, then I was like, “I have to send
a daily email on this and bipolar disorder
to warn people.”
First, daylight saving time CAN affect a person
with bipolar disorder? How well it’s a change
and a change can affect someone with bipolar
disorder possibility. For my mom, it does NOT
affect her. But for another person who works
for me it does affect them but they have a counter.
This person always goes to bed 1.5 hours earlier
and stays in bed 1 hour later. She says this
solves the problem. She learned if she doesn’t
do this, it can push her into a manic episode.
First you might be wondering why and what daylight
saving time is. It’s when in the fall, the clock moves
back and in the spring it move forward 1 hour. I have
no idea why it does. It’s been explained to me 1000
times. Okay that’s an exaggeration sorry. Maybe it’s
been explained 2 or 3 times. The concept didn’t
make sense to me.
Secondly, you probably want to know why it CAN (operative
word) affect a person with bipolar disorder.
Well I am NOT a doctor, lawyer, insurance agent, therapist
or offering any medical or legal advice BUT, here’s what
I think.
The bottom line is with bipolar disorder, little things
can make a big difference. If there is a time change, a
little thing, and a person gets less sleep and never gets
right back to the right pattern of sleep, this little thing
can act as like a butterfly effect, causing a manic
episode. What the heck do I mean?
Well here’s what I mean. If the time springs forward or moves
up a hour, that means there is more light in the day. It gets
darker later. This could, and I repeat affect someone’s
entire pattern until the get use to it. If they don’t it’s
possible it could affect a person with bipolar disorder. Not
everyone but some people. I have seen and heard it.
But the most important lesson here is, little things can
make a huge difference with bipolar disorder.
In my courses/systems below:
SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11
SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarparenting.com
HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.survivebipolar.net
I talk about all the little things that can
and probably will affect a person with bipolar
disorder. It’s a huge deal.
If you are a bipolar supporter you need to be
aware of these things. If you have bipolar disorder,
you need to learn these things.
Let me give you some examples with my mom. My mom can’t
watch tv right until she goes to bed. She can’t eat
sugary food. She must avoid reading negative news repeatedly
in the newspaper. These might sound odd but we have
learned about these “little things” over a period of time.
My mom never knew that little things could made a big
difference with bipolar disorder. No one really told
her. I was the one who explained it to her. NOTE-again
I am not a doctor.
Now in my courses/systems, I have taken a whole bunch of people
little things and consolidated it so the person going through
my courses/systems can find out what possibly could be
a problem.
But the big lesson here is to know that it’s possible.
There are many people on my list that have had the
smallest things have a big impact with bipolar disorder.
If you have a story, please share.
Hey, I have to run. I have to head to the gym. I
wonder if my friends will show on time? There is a
99% chance they will NOT.
I have to run. Oh wait, I forgot to tell you some
things.
Before I go…
I almost have the video problem that I am having
figured out. That’s the video that I am putting
out on bipolar disorder that doesn’t work sometimes.
Anyway, I almost have it solved. I will let you know
I am also going to be sending out other f.ree stuff
over the coming weeks.
Anyway, have to run. Let me know about either you
or your loved one’s experience with “little things”
and bipolar disorder. Thanks.
Your Friend,
Dave
===>> Great Resources For You <===
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emails sent to you for F.ree? If so, visit:
http://www.bipolarcentral.com/register3
Get More Help On Bipolar Disorder
Don’t forget to take a look through the
different programs I’ve put together… each
one is designed to help you with a different
area of bipolar disorder whether you have it or
you are supporting someone with it.
You can see them all and get the details by visiting:
http://www.bipolarcentral.com/catalog.asp
View Past Daily Bipolar Emails For F.REE
Check out my F.ree blog with copies of emails
that I have sent in the past and lots of great
information for you:
http://www.bipolarcentral.com/supporterblog/
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Check out my F.ree podcast. Hear me give
mini seminars designed to teach you information
you can’t learn anywhere else.
http://bipolarcentral.libsyn.com
Hi David:
Here is the skinny on daylight savings time: Somewhere between 40 and 50 years ago (I can’t remember how old I was so I don’t know the exact year) the government decided to mess with our time to help out the farmers. Supposedly this way they could get up at a decent time and go to bed at a decent time because farmers use the sun rise and set as their clock. I was pretty young when this started and I thought it to be the stupidest thing I had ever heard of then and still think the same way today. I have no idea who daylight savings time helps today, but I praise Arizona as being one of a few states with enough sense to know it doesn’t make any difference what time the clock says, farmers still use the same clock they have always used: the sun, and Arizona doesn’t mess with their time. I believe it effects practical everyone, not just those with a mental illness, as you just demonstrated in your email. This question has plagued me sense the start of changing the time: We have time zones we have used next to forever so why do we have to change the time already established for these time zones? This really has a negative effect on those who work graveyard shift!
It appears any and every little thing triggers my 17-year old granddaughter’s drama. She insists on one particular church, hits the altar every service and continues to do all the things she’d been doing (promiscuity, defiance, lying) within hours, if not minutes, of the service. It also appears my having rules and trying to help her learn accountability and good judgment makes me a “lost loved-one”, fair game for public embarrassment when there’s an altar call. Of course, she doesn’t sit still 5 minutes during the service, without bouncing up and heading out the back. I don’t even want to wake her for church, this morning!
Spring forwarded isn’t so bad for my family. But, fall back seems to really get to my husband. I really wish they would do away with it all together..
Thanks,
Kimberly
(Bipolar Supporter)
G’mornin’ Dave
I live in a small town, (no franchises, no specialist, not very amenities), 1.5 to 2 hours away east or west from larger communities. I live in Canada. The province of Saskatchewan (farmer country), does not leap & fall, neither does the town that I currently live in.(not in Sask.) Our tiny, remote town never changes the clock either. It is confusing & frusatrating. This is especially so, as 1/2 the year we have to try & remember which community or time zone we are in, (east or west). For instance, I had an appointment booked a few months ago, in a westerly community. I made note of the day & time, as one would. At the time of the booking, we were in the easterly timezone, which would have been 1 hour behind the place I had the appt. So, now that the time has changed, our town is now in the the same timezone as the place I have to go in a few weeks. Talk about confusing!!! I am not Bipolar, but I am a supporter of someone who is. We don’t just have to remember which community we are the same time as, but it screws things up, totally, like your digital settings on phones, computers, television programming, etc. For instance, if you subscribe to any kind of digital call-display, you have to check the time of call, the area code of the call, check the clock to see if there is still time to call back (say with business hours). Even if I change the digital display to show me the current time at home, now if the call comes from the east, it displays the time of the call from that zone, as default. In other words, we have to subtract an hour from every call that is received from the east, to know exactly what time (hour) the call came in at. (not everyone is aware of this ‘lil’ glitch). Can you try to imagine how this ‘little thing’ can affect a ‘normal-thinking’ person & their life, let alone a BP.
Can the world not get together, and get on the same page?
Please keep up the great work, Dave. And thank you for the Overview of Mental Disorders. You’ve done such an excellent job it. I again commend you for all your hard work!
Hi Dave, and how my kids and I are all sick, trust me just the other day my daughter flipped out because ther was only chunky peanut-butter and no smooth, screaming herself into tears, she is 17. She went bipo when she thought her job was gone. Then she also was attacked 3 years ago, I watch her turn. Little things seems this house anything sets one or all four of us off. Thank you, Karen
ok my 9 year old son was diagnose with bipolar and a month or so ago he started in a special ed class room and he was at the top of the class very good behavior and the 29th day his b-day he had a manic episode in class he threw his chair across the room and flipped his desk over we had a meeting with the teacher and i tol his teacher when he does that u have to put him in the time out room and leave him alone he will come out on his own if you keep approaching him he will go rt back into his episode.he was suspended for the next day we had a meeting that mon. and again i told the school people how to let him b when he gets like that.he was fine till thurs and he had another episode and it was worse he took his chair over his head 3 times and threw it across the classroom and supposedly did the same with his desk. the teacher called me and said i needed to get him that timeout wasnt helping .immediatly i said did u leave him alone ?she said yes but every 15 minutes she was peeking in on him i said did he see u she said yes i had to make sure he was ok.i said well thats why u didnt leave him alone and i told u that just throws him rt back into the episode.dont want him getting in trouble bcause the teachers wont handle him rt.can u help me?.mayb something i can print up and bring to the teacher or something?.
Dave,
My boyfriend/ex went into a manic episode last Spring (usually he’s manic in the Winter and depressed in the Spring). I think daylight savings time has a lot to do with it. I don’t want him to be depressed but…I’m hopeful that this change snaps him out of it. Mania is NO friend of mine!
I am not a supportor but I like to read the imformation quite educational.
I don’t know if my friend is actually bi-polar and won’t admit it, or is in denial about it. He says he has a body temperature regulatory disorder, brought on by a virus, that causes bi-polar-like symptoms. I suspect he is bi-polar, but he is trying to keep his bp under control without medical assistance, through diet and exercise and being alone where he can control every aspect of his life. I want to support him, which is why I have begun reading your emails etc.
Hi there..daylight saving reminds me of jetlag. This has a HUGE effect on my bipolar..very black depression and the desire to commit sucicide even!
I think the best way to support someone with bipolar is remind them to take their meds regularly. Do NOT stop taking it.By the way Dave, thanks so much for your daily emails, this has made a huge difference to my understanding and acceptance of having bipolar.
okay..as a bipolar/manic… ‘slight’ OCD alcoholic… very impressed with the daily emails and support!!!
Daylight savings is stressfull to say the least! much like jet-lag or graveyard shifts…. it takes weeks or months to recover from these!?!
If you’re “normal” these things don’t bother you …however …lack of sleep, change in sleep habits or even a double time change (jet-lag) can really mess someone up!
I, like most OCD’s have a number issue….exact change, exact time’s, miles or minutes to get to …ANYWHERE…depending on the conditions of course!
….hense the name freak….
I received 2 brand new alarm clocks for my b-day recently… both have abbility to change time for me. Automatically for daylight if I push the right button and just a flip of a switch for time zones…
I have to get up at 3:30 am to get ready for work… my dear husband woke me at 11:45 pm to ask if I had “sprung forward”? I had only been asleep for an hour or so…it took 4 x’s of him asking…did you spring forward?!!! …before I was then FULLY awake and agitated! before I understood the question… I replied (with a sarcastic sleepy WHINE!)… my clock changes by itself!!!!!!!!
( HE MAKES FUN OF ME NOW BECAUSE IF I DIDN’T HAVE THE NEW CLOCKS I WOULD HAVE BEEN AN HOUR LATE!.. yes, i agree this would have been more detrimental to me… i am ALWAYS EARLY!
needless to say I only got about 5 hours of sleep…. my fault?!? another bad day at work because I’m almost ALWAYS on the verge of tears! Darkness is definately a HUGE factor…
I was diagnosed years ago but am an unable to funtion with medication( there was one that finally made me feel ‘the most normal’ but like most I couldn’t afford to take it without insurance…WELBUTRIN, good stuff!!!!)
I’m sure that I’m rambling on, however, this may be usefull to someone!?!…
time is always an issue…along with correct change and number of miles driven…without numbers the rest of the world would not exist! at least not properly! One must have at least 8 hours of sleep… time getting ready for work is always the same…( 22 minutes to drink coffee and play on computer, 34 minutes to shower …etc and be in the driveway eading OUT.
We all al our idiosynchrocies…(spelled wrong but too tired to care!)
These are things we do every day…clockwork… one glich and you’re whole day is ruined!
It has taken years to say that out loud and it will take many more years to be able to deal with it…
I beleive everyone has “issues”… some of us actually have to deal with them daily.
For some time now I’ve been working with my therapist on a big problem I have – getting to bed on time and maintaining a consistent schedule. I mainly have a problem with depression, but if I go too long without keeping a consistent bedtime, I can get hypomanic. For me it isn’t terrible, but I want to learn to function at the highest level I can.
My therapist did tell me that she has another client who goes into a FULL-BLOWN MANIC EPISODE every year at Daylight Savings Time! So, everyone is different, but there are some people who are so sensitive to time issues that it can throw them into an episode.
Thanks for bringing up the subject, Dave. And don’t let anything or anyone get you so upset that you have a hard time getting to sleep. This is unhealthy for anyone, whether they have bipolar disorder (or any other mental illness) or not.
Sue
The only time I can remember when a “little thing” affected my bipolar, was when I was working in a 2-secretary, 7-lawyer Legal Aid office. I had a wonderful work space, and did a bang-up job. But then they moved me to the basement, with NO windows and I was in a cubicle.
I improved the decor with posters and pictures on the wall – but it didn’t help. I started feeling isolated and claustrophobic. My mood went from “normal,” to “down” within two weeks!
Then, the other secretary resigned; and I was left with ALL the paralegals and attorneys in the WHOLE place, to type divorce papers and other legal documents, as well as doing intake when there was no lawyer around. This created an awful LOT of STRESS.
By that time, my boss noticed a deterioration in my work – and he suggested I take a week off. My mood went from “down” to hypomanic almost overnight. I allowed myself to be lazy and do whatever I felt like doing. When I went back to work, things went from bad to worse. I was nearly “flying off the walls,” all the while believing I was doing OK.
One day, my boss brought me a legal document – and I had made a typo in EVERY line! He brought me into his office and – fired me! It was humiliating and hurt. He did, however, offer me disability from the State for 4 years!
So – “little things” CAN/WILL turn into massive changes in our lives. Right now, I’m up later than I usually am WITHOUT Daylight Savings Time, so – will close!
BIG HUGS to all bipolar survivors and those who love us. May God bless you real good.
I, and everyone I know, wonders why the government messes about with the clocks twice a year. And everytime there’s a debate about it on radio and tv, like “Why do we do this?” etc. and no-one ever comes up with an answer. It makes no sense at all. I have always resented change for the sake of change. Here in the British Isles they do it in a couple of weeks. I usually look forward to the days getting longer and brighter and warmer. As helenm mentioned the sun is the natural clock and all those things with numbers on them are just manmade.
Although I’m up every night until the early hours and sleep until noon I love the long light summer evenings and don’t enjoy the long dark winter nights as much. There have been days in the winter when I saw very little daylight. That’s probably quite unhealthy.
The clock change doesn’t seem to affect me or my bipolar boyfriend, who is also nocturnal. He takes his medicine every night within 3 or 4 hours, not always exactly the same hour. It seems to work for him though.
My ex-husband was in the navy for many years before I met him. At sea you get used to time changes and have to adapt to all sorts of shifts. I thought that was the reason for his screwed up sleep pattern, though it was probably the bipolar as well. Daylight saving time never worried him either.
The weather affects many people’s moods. I don’t know why anyone bothers to forecast it when 2 in 3 times they get it wrong. In the British Isles the weather is definitely rapid cycling bipolar.
Well, I for one love Daylight Savings Time! Traveling across the country and changing time zones has taken a couple of weeks for me to get over, but the one hour difference in Spring
raises my spirits and gives me more energy. I must have Seasonal Affective Disorder, because I seem to be strengthened by even the one extra hour of daylight. I love to be outside and love to garden and do other yard work, so the extra hour helps me get more done too. When Fall comes and we have to turn our clocks back and hour and it gets dark so early, my body just wants to go to bed and hibernate until Spring!
Hi All:
Just wanted to say that since my daughter got up today around noon PDT, which is normal for her (around 11 AM when we are on regular time) and I told her to set her clock for daylight savings time she has been up and down and all around until she went to sleep a few minutes ago. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for her. But it didn’t seem to have any effect on my husband’s mood swings, just his sleep patterns are off, as are mine. Changing the time creates problems for just about everyone, in one way or the other. I think all the people should come together and make the “idiots” who started this stop it ASAP! How about the rest of ya?
Hi Dave, I read the email too late. I am now dealing with my daughter. Everything was so out of control, my cell phone rang I was not home, all I heard was a hugh fight, no one was on the phone my daughter was screaming and cryen. I hung up the phone and called my daughter in law, I said what is happening, she said I am at the store, I told her to run home and see what was going on. Then I got a call from my daughter she told me she was leaving to stay with a friend. The next day when she came home she was all bruised her arms, really bad. I left my son a message if he ever touched her again i would shoot him in the leg. When I was calm enough to talk to him he said she attacked him and she was hitting him in the face so fast that he turned his head and closed his eyes, he said why am i closing my eyes and when he opened them she was still hitting him in the face, he grabbed her arms to make her stop. I told him she is sick, I have hit him like that and he just stands there, I said she is a twig she will break. He feels horrible. My model child 3.87 gpa no longer wants to go to a university. I am so angry. She was attacked 3 years ago by that man, then she thought she was loseing her job, and that is when she snapped. After her friends stepfather attacked her in her sleep I hired a personal firearms trainer, bought a glock 9 and learned how to put two to the cheast and one to the eye. It helped with my anger. We were doing ok before this, my son and I both lost our jobs shortly after, the trial started, whoever i was was gone. I told the judge if he let him out I would try very hard to not take his life. I am losing everything, my credit is shot, my daughter is sick, I am sick, I do not want to try anymore, the guilt I have for putting that child molester to rest is cunsuming me. My moms dad got away with it. I can make this right, I am not a suiside bipo, I am a homasidal bipo. There is not a pill to change the urge I have to take this man out of the game. I have been tryin to get a job so I can stay focused instead of festering and watching the change in my daughter, it just hasnt happened, there is so much anger now. I should get to a dojo and get my fighting therapy on. I do not believe in anger management, it has to be released. I wrote a paper on it. To manage it is to keep it, who wants to keep it. It has to be released and will one way or another. I had to to this presantation for retail management, first it was going to be a gun store kps hand cannons in the middle of the assignment I changed it my mission statement was ” Here at KP’S Hand Cannons we do not believe in manageing anger, it must be released. Where conventional methods have failed come see us at KP’s Hand Cannons” I was going to have an on site dojo with blackbelts for fighting therapy, firearms trainers, and doctors, coucilors. I received an A in that class, it was a group assign. I had severed from the group because they were doing a store that had something to do with god, my daughter was just attacked by a bible toter, so I went on my own which made it very hard, no one to split the work up with. I feel better, thanks for letting me vent. Take care Dave, Karen
Daylight does affect bi-polar, at least in my case. I get manic and very shakey. I tremble and that affects everything I do. My doc has me on Wellbutrin, lamictal and geodon. BTW, geodon made me lose 45 pounds. The geodon makes me sleep. You have to take it with something hot, like 1/2 can of soup along with the geodon. I lost too much weight too fast and now my arms make me look like a flying squirrel, but I feel much better. In fact, when I’m manic it must not be very bad because I actually arm in a better mood. Strange isn’t it. Just don’t go to the grocery store when you are in the manic stage. With daylight savings time, I do need more sleep. So I would suggest getting an extra hour’s sleep.
Well my ex. girlefriend i was with for the past 3 years around this time of the year you could set your clock to her mood swings and the way she would sleep. she also would be very stand offish to me like no emotions at all over night. i first figured it was me but this happend year after year. i relly loved her and still do but she wont take her medication, she did at one time and it was like night and day. She also has a mile case of m.s. it was really hard on me she will say and do crezy things when she is in her manic state. i am learning so much about this bd,and ms now that we are no longer a couple.