Keeping Your Head with Bipolar

Hi,

There used to be a saying about keeping your head when everyone about you was losing theirs.

Do you remember it?

It’s very important to keep your head at all times, and in every situation, no matter what other people are doing around you, or how they are reacting.

There’s something going on in my company right now that, I have to say, if I lost my head, the whole company would lose theirs as well! I mean, everyone looks to me to be the leader, and they model their behavior after mine. If I were to lose my cool, they would lose theirs as well.

But as long as I stay cool, like I am, they will stay cool, and the situation will get resolved.

That’s the way it needs to be. You have to have a leader who can keep their cool no matter what is happening. Can you imagine what would happen to this country if Obama were to lose his head for even one time? There would be panic everywhere! Because everyone models their

behavior after their leader.

Now, imagine this concept as it relates to bipolar disorder. This is kind of the same thing. Keeping your head when all around you everyone else is losing theirs…

As a supporter, you sometimes have to be the stronger one. If your loved one goes into a bipolar

episode, for example, that’s kind of losing their head. So you have to keep yours. You have to be strong. You have to be the one to make decisions for the both of you, because you can’t trust the decisions that your loved one makes during an episode.

Your loved one can fly into a manic rage when they’re in an episode. Now, your first reaction might be to fight right back… But the best thing, the most effective thing… is to keep your head and to respond in love and understanding, and to NOT fight back. In this case, eventually your loved one will back down, or run out of steam. No one likes to fight with someone who won’t fight back. What good is fighting with yourself?

So you have to keep your head about you at all times. This will help you to keep your own

stress levels down as well.

When you’re facing a particularly stressful situation and you don’t know what to do, keeping your head about you will help you to see solutions that you might otherwise not have been able to see.

If everyone about you seems to be losing their heads, but you are keeping yours, you might find yourself in a position to help them (especially when it comes to your loved one).

Your loved one can get agitated very easily sometimes. Keeping your head means that you are

in a position to help them. You can reason with them. You can calm them down.

Keeping your head when all about you others are losing theirs puts you in a position to smooth out situations, where other people can’t.

Your Friend,

Dave

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