Hi,

How’s it going? First, I would like to welcome
4000 new subscribers to my mailing list. That’s
about how many have subscribed over the last
3 days or so.

Welcome.

Secondly, today I wanted to talk about
an VERY IMPORTANT concept about bipolar disorder
that my dad, mom and many other still
struggle with. It was something that I was
reminded this past weekend when I went
to the Strongman Competition to see
my friend compete.

If you are new to my list, let me get
you up to speed. This Saturday my friend
competed in a Strongman Competition. That’s
a competition where you list all kinds of
heavy objects and they time you and/or see
how many things you can lift. This
has nothing to do with bipolar disorder
BUT while I was there, I was reminded
of a VERY important lesson related to
bipolar disorder.

I am going to share it with you today.
Here’s how I was reminded.

So when I went to the competition,
there were many people. It was like
100 degrees and I was super hot. I
did however bring food and lots of
water.

As I walked around and looked for my
friend when I got there, I noticed
there were HUGE people. I mean HUGE.
Some people were at least 350 pounds
or more. There were woman there as well.
Some of them were really big or smaller
but you could obviously tell they were
really strong.

Anyway, I found my friend and spoke with
him. I didn’t want to bother him because
he was “in the zone” preparing for his
first even which was pressing tires attached
to a truck axel.

DON’T WORRY THERE IS A LESSON ON BIPOLAR DISORDER
COMING SOON

I also found my friend’s wife and family and
I spoke to them for a while. Then I decided
to go and talk to people and strike up a competition
and see what people say how they got so strong.

I met one of the world’s strongest men and he
is able to dead lift 900 pounds 3 times. Which
is a huge accomplishment. I met other World
Record Holders for various events.

I started to ask people, “Hey is it technique,
strength, training, that makes you so strong?”

I thought the strongmen wouldn’t want to talk
to me and not reveal their secrets but I was
happy to see they would talk and this
is where I was reminded of a HUGE lesson
that is related to bipolar disorder.

One guy said to me, “You have to train,
practice, I sacrifice a lot and I want
to be number one. There’s a lot of stuff
that I have to do to be good at this.”

Another guy said to me, “I had to stop
power lifting and just focus on strongman
because you can’t do both.”

I another person said, “I had to stop body
building and just focus on strongman. Body
builders try this and get smoked because
it’s much different.”

NOTE-Smoked means, hmm how do I describe
it, let’s say it’s slang for beat really
badly.

Person after person basically was saying
if you want to be good at strongman competitions
you have to focus, train, sacrifice and probably
have to forget other things you may be doing
that interferes with it like other sports
or training you may be doing like body building,
power lifting, and certain kinds of exercise.

For example, you shouldn’t run a lot of long
distances when you are a strongman, it’s not
good for you. You should play basketball
either according to many.

WHAT’S THIS HAVE TO DO WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?

It has a ton to do with bipolar disorder. Nobody
had bipolar disorder there but they did reveal
a strategy and philosophy what is so important
to coping and dealing with bipolar disorder.

That is, you and your loved one will have to make
choices when it comes to bipolar disorder. Some
choices you make will help, others will make
bipolar episodes more frequent and often.

Many times, sacrifices will have to be made.
Let me explain. Okay, when my mom was first
coming out of her episode, I began to look
at what she had been doing in the past that
may have triggered her bipolar episode.

There’s a whole long list of things
but one thing in particular was really problematic
and I saw it would have to go–meaning if she
wanted to maintain stability, she would not be
able to do this.

What is it? It’s work full time, and baby
sit for my brother’s kids almost full time.

When I began to investigate what had happened
prior to my mom getting into an episode I found
she was getting up at 5:30am in the morning
and then going to work and then immediately going
to my brother’s house to baby sit for hours
and then driving home. It was a 50 minute to
his house one way.

Based on common sense and my talks with multiple
doctors, therapists and people with bipolar disorder
my mom was doing too much and the stress she was
putting herself under was acting a trigger
for her bipolar disorder.

NOW, when I told my mom, I highly recommended no
more baby sitting she was saying how in order
to be a good grandmother she had to baby sit
and also my brother was kind of demanding it.

I told her that I would handle my brother no
problem but I said, and I will never forget

“MOM YOU HAVE CHOICES TO MAKE, EITHER YOU
WILL CHOICE THINGS THAT HELP YOU BE STABLE
OR YOU WON’T”

I wasn’t screaming at her but very firm. She
actually thought about it and totally agreed.
I said, if you go in and out of episodes
what good will you be as a grandmother
anyway.

And I suggested that it was almost abusive for
my brother to demand someone drive almost 2 hours
a day 5 and 6 days a week to baby sit. I said,
“What the heck, Stephen is loaded with money
he can go and pay for 3 baby sitters.”

My brother works on Wall Street so he has
the money AND as a side note, he didn’t
contribute one dime of money to any of my mom’s
bills when they were raining down on her and my
myself.

So anyway, my mom stopped the baby sitting,
stopped working full time and started doing things
that me, her, her doctor and therapist all thought
were good ideas. Over time, we saw what should
be added and what should be subtracted.

Meaning over a year, we saw that certain
activities had to go and certain ones had to
stay. For example, my mom has to exercise
regularly, if not she is more likely to
go into a bipolar episode. My mom has to
avoid foods with lots of sugar or it will possibly
trigger a bipolar disorder episode.

RECENTLY, my mom’s doctor says she can’t
watch TV beyond, and I think it’s 8:00pm
any more. This is just recent.

So my mom, like the strongman, has choices
to make based on her goals. She could not
exercise, eat lots of food with sugar,
watch TV all night long but then she will
not hit her goal of being stable. So like
the strongman, my mom has a goal and there’s
sacrifices that will have to be made.

This is such an important point to learn
and understand.

And if you are supporting someone with
bipolar disorder, there are many choices
you will have to make that either work
for or against your loved one with bipolar
disorder.

For example, let’s say that you are married
to someone with bipolar disorder and you
know that person has to be in bed by 10:00pm,
then you should NOT pressure them to go to things
that will mean they can’t go to bed at that time.

You probably should even bring them up. If you can
go out to a party and it’s too late, how about
you simply don’t go and do something else or
simply leave early. It’s things like this
and others that you will have to choice
if you are a supporter.

If you are a supporter and married to someone
you may NOT be able to take that job that moves
you across the country because your loved one
has a great support system in place and you don’t
want to mess it up? Is this fair? I don’t know
but this is what needs to be done.

Well I have to take off for the day. Have
a great day and hang in there.

SUPPORTING AN ADULT?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11

SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarparenting.com

HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.survivebipolar.net

Your Friend,

Dave

P.S. 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/

P.P.S 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