Hi,
Yesterday I wrote an email about therapy and
bipolar disorder. I wanted to follow it
up with a few quick things.
I think the reason why therapy does so
well with bipolar disorder is because
it helps a person think properly about
the disorder.
A good therapist can help someone
with bipolar disorder:
Accept his/her illness
Not feel ashamed of it
Understand what thoughts are “bipolar” thoughts
versus real thoughts
Help a person realize they need to stay on medication
forever
Help a person realize how hurtful the illness is to
people around
and many other things but that’s a “short” list.
Before 2004, my mom never really went to therapy.
After she went into the big episode, I decided
that therapy was super important for her. I figured
this out because as I was trying to make a plan
to help her, I went to lots of meetings, found many
people with bipolar disorder, read tons of books, guide,
manuals, spoke with many doctors and experts in the field
and they all brought up therapy.
Once I saw that it was important, I strongly encouraged
my mom to go. My dad on the other hand was more difficult.
He had to pay for some of the costs and he felt that
therapy was an “expense” and that it was just sitting
around and paying someone to talk to you. Which isn’t
what it is but that’s what he thought.
So my mom started going and it helped for sure. It
changed the way she thought and it appeared to me,
that my mom had less ups and downs randmoly
throughout the week because of therapy.
Now at one point in the last couple of years, for
some reason, my mom decided to stop going to therapy
for about 6 months. She didn’t tell anyone. It was
when she was undoing all the things that I did to
help her with her bipolar disorder.
As a result my mom ALMOST went into another
huge episode but I caught it. If you got
my Course Avoiding The Bipolar Doomsday
Scenario, at:
http://www.bipolarcentral.com/bipolardoomsday/
That’s what the course is all about.
Anyway, after this event my dad changed his
mind about therapy and thought of it as an
investment not an expense. You can save money
on stuff with bipolar disorder but you wind
up paying 10 times more later. For example,
obviously therapy has a cost associated to
it even if you have insurance. BUT, this cost
actually is an investment that saves you money.
Many people simply don’t get this concept.
Through out my courses/systems at:
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
Success story after success story talks
about the important of therapy. I HIGHLY
recommend that you consider it with bipolar
disorder. AND, even if you are a supporter,
many people advocate going to therapy as
a supporter so it’s not just for the person
with bipolar disorder.
Well I have to take off for the day. Have a
great day and I will catch you tomorrow.
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
Thanks for explaining the importance of therapy.
I want to add not to be upset if you don’t find the right therapist immediately. Sometimes you must try a couple before you make a good match.
ALWAYS ACCEPT THE PERSON IN THERE HEART AND NOT WHAT THEY SAY!!! FROM NUNZIO BAGLIERE E MAIL nunzio7@verizon.net
Remember too that all people naturally suffer from some highs and lows to a certain extent. It’s part of human make up.
David, I read todays news letter and I have figured out that you and your letter are my therapy. I lost everything including family and friends due to my bipolar, before it was dignosed. But your daily newsletter has helped to keep me balanced.
Yes, therapy has so many advantages. Looking at it like an investment is smart. I can think of at LEAST 1,000 things big and small that I have invested time and money into knowing ahead of time that it probably wasn’t a good idea. I have learned through experience that therapy is a great idea! I wrote yestarday how my individual therapy helps to keep me on the right track. My 19 yr old daughter and I also went through therapy together for nearly a year to help us “re-connect”. Having undiagnosed BPD for 20 years did a lot of “disconnecting” to our relationship. Today, we both understand the nature of the “bad” and work together to get through it. I also have learned how to be careful how I lean on her. I am the parent, but with BPD, it doesn’t always appear that way. Have a great Monday.
K
Quit diagnosing the world-find a new line of work & don’t quit your day job. You have NO idea what it’s like to be Bipolar & the sorrow inside because of this disease. You KNOW nothing, unless you live it…LOSER
733801Wow loopy, strong opinion. It sounds like you are having trouble getting to a place of acceptance and inner peace – Because I HAVE LIVED IT and guess what, I – meaning ME looked long and hard to find a way out of HE_ _ rather than wallow in it any longer. Sorry this forum isn’t for you, but it helps countless others who read because they have CHOSEN to step up and step out. Good Luck w/ your chosen route.
K
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to dave I have a therpies and she real good and when I need her she is there.
I have a daughter in law that is bipolar,border line personality disorder,& post traumatic stress disorder.Her and my son are going through a divorce,have two children,and my son is in the military.And a week ago she tryed to commit suicide for the second time,and almost did.My concern is the children and everyone feels she would never hurt them.Can you give me any concrete information on whether that is a fear or not.
thank you,nancy
Hello. I whole heartedly agree with therapy, however, my problem is staying consistant and…well… in touch with a therapist. I live so far out from the facilities that offer good therapist that I get, darn the only word I can come up with is “lazy”. I am just now coming out of a severe depressed episode, followed by a manic episode that lasted several months. My med’s were changed and the depression is slowly lifting. When I suffer my children suffer…you can imagine the overwhelming guilt.
Does anyone have any comments about christianity and bipolar? God’s word says to seek his will day and night and to be Christ-like and to diligently strive to become Christ-minded. But when the episodes envelop my life it is very hard to have a loving, forgiving,and non-judgemental behavoir. Let alone “Be all you can be” parent, employee, partner, etc. I’m not sure if this is where I am supposed to post this. Where can I post “my story”? It’s a doosey? What say you? :-}
Dear David,
EFT Emotional Freedom Technique (Meridian Tapping) is a very effective therapy used to ease or eliminate depressions. EFT is self administrated and is very easy to learn. Maybe you have already looked into it but as an EFT practitioner I can not highlight enough the positive effects of EFT which will, in the least, help to release stress and anxiety and help to relax. Once learned it will not cost a thing. A good practitioner will help you to learn the tapping sequence and then it is yours to use it at any time and anywhere.
EFT was founded by GARY CRAIG and information and a free manual about EFT, how it works and how to learn the technique or where to find a practitioner can be easily searched with the following keywords: EFT, Gary Graig, and Depression.
I thought it might be of interest to copy and paste this following success story from the EFT website:
Wishing you sunshine in your heart!
Andrea
Success story:
EFT instead of shock treatments?
By Niki LaMont
Dear Gary,
…..I’m so excited by all of this, and wanted to share a success story on depression (in brief).
I taught EFT to R——-, a 57 year old, dear friend, bipolar. With drugs, R——‘s highs were under control, but his lows, the depression, had escalated to the point were he was seriously considering shock treatment as recommended by his doctors. Depression had crippled him and was out to do him in. Three months ago he began tapping for depression twice a day–when he woke up and when he went to bed. He stopped tapping about 11/2 months back, because he no longer felt depressed. Today, I received a note that reads,
“Hi Niki, I’ve been feeling great still. No depression. I think you’ve got something going there. All’s fine here. Getting lots of pots made (he’s a potter). Talk to you soon. Big Hug. Thank you. R——-.”
Niki LaMont
Hi Dave,
I just experienced the consequences of stopping my therapy sessions. I was in a terrible manic, phychotic episode since April. I was so angry about my doctor not managing my meds on an out patient once a month. So I decided that since the meds were not working, I would just stop taking them. FIRST MISTAKE! The episode continued to escalate until after 4 months, I was totally isolating. I would not talk to anyone on the phone. All I did was fight with my husband. I said such awful things to him that I still can’t believe he is still hanging in there with me.
I began to have 4 to 5 severe phychotic episodes a day. I did not remember most of them until my husband told me what I did. It scared the living crap out of me. I started throwing anything I could get my hands on. I loved to throw glass, bad month to say the least. I even pulled a knife on my husband and when I realized I was pointing the knife at him, I turned it around at myself.He grabbed it. Then I went for my meds to take my life. In an attempt to get them out of my hands, he was a little rough , but I accused him of breaking my hand. I spent the entire month of July isolating in my office, staying up all nite, I wasn’t taking my meds, sleeping or eating. I was so filled with rage,one morning I actually threw all of the patio furniture out into the yard. That was minor. I trashed my office, one day the entire house , 3 bedrooms, ripped every piece of paper I could find.It looked like a hurricane hit when my husband got home. I have never experienced anything like this in the past 10 years of having this awful illness.
Well, let me get on the subject, sorry , you know how we can ramble on and on…One day my therapist called my husband at work and said that I had been trying to get in touch with her and I wasn’t answering the phone. I did that for 2 months. Worst thing was I had no memory of trying to reach her. Thank God she cares enough about me to get thru to Danny. Anyway, on August 2nd I had a med check with my phych..What a joke. He immediateley tried to throw me into the hospital. I refused, mostly out of anger and I had already been to the hospital 3 times in 2 years and no results came out of it. So, I told him all I got out of his visits to the Hilton! was a tech , after doing my intake, around 2am, walked me to my room and tried to sexually attack me. I freaked, I felt so afraid to tell someone because I thought they would believe him over a mental patient. So I slept in the day room my entire 4 day stay.
So, I left my doctors office even more angry because he kept me on the same meds and kept saying “What do you want me to do” over and over. I finally said, please recommend me to a good doctor in my area that has time for his patients. I was so livid, I said why do you have a blank piece of paper in your hands, and why do you always ask me if I have been on a certain drug? Shoudn’t he have my records? I can’t remember what I do ten minutes ago, and he accpects me to know what meds I have taken over the past 10 years?
Not a good visit.
Sorry, I am rambling again. After 3 weeks went by my condition worsened and I overdosed on my meds 3 x . The last time, I had decided that maybe he was right and I did need to get stabilized. So on the 21st my husband took me to his mental health facility. Well, they wouldn’t accept me until I got a medical release from the ER because I had overdosed.
6 days later I came home and two days later I went to see my therapist of 3 years.
I can’t even begin to explain how it felt to finally be able to talk to someone who undersands my illness and all the insanity I experienced for 4 months. It felt like a thousand pounds had been lifted off of my shoulders.
She helped me realize what I was experiencing was not reality and not to make any rash decisions right now. I had planned on leaving my husband. I felt like I couldn’t even kill myself right. It was the most awful time of my life.
But, the good news is I felt so wonderful just to be driving to her house where she works. I had stopped isolating after I spoke to her and I made ammends to my husband that is trying so hard , but when I was in my episode, my mind was so twisted I believed the very worst about him. This illness effects everyone that is in my life, and I know if I didn’t have my therapist once a week to keep me in the real world, I would have eventually succeded in my suicide attempt.
SO, MY ADVICE.. FIND A GOOD THERAPIST, ONE THAT DOESN’T SAY MUCH, BUT DOESN’T HAVE TO, JUST TO BE ABLE TO HAVE SOMEONE WHO TRULEY CARES AND LISTENS SURE GIVES ME A REASON TO NOT GIVE UP….
Thanks Dave, you are great.
God Bless you
Good nite,
Laurie
Sleepless in Phx.