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Hi,

How’s it going? I hope you are doing well.
Can you believe summer is almost over? Boy
time sure goes fast, huh? It seems like it
was just the new year the other day.

Oddly, my mom has been solidly stable now
with bipolar disorder for several years now.
So all the things that I put in place clearly
are working. If they weren’t she would have
gone into a major bipolar episode again.

Speaking of episodes, that brings up to today’s
topic which I like to call PEA which
stands for Post episode analysis.

What’s that? Well one of the ways I started
to figure out what went wrong with my mom
during various bipolar episodes which was
something that I called the post episode analysis.

Here’s how it works. You take an episode and
then you look bad and analyze every single
thing that you can see and think of as to
why it occurred.

You ask questions like:

Who was the doctor
Was medication taken?
Did your loved one see the doctor regularly?
Did you loved one go to therapy
Were there any external triggers
Were there changes in diet, exercise or routine?

You look for everything big and small. After you
have the list, you start to look at what you think
what the problem was and the moving forward you
work to correct it with your loved one.

Let me give you an example. About a year ago,
my mom started to go into an episode but she and
I caught it. I did do my PEA and discovered the
following:

-She cut way back on her therapy
-She stopped exercising
-She missed church several times
-She started eating sugary foods
-She was going to bed really late
-She was going to bed at around the same time each day

And a few other things that I can’t remember right now.
But after I did this PEA and a lot of thinking, it was
clear why my mom went into the episode.

I have found, that in virtually most cases, there
is a cause to an episode and it’s not like a lottery
like some people would like to believe.

What do I mean? I mean there is a cause and an effect. You
can find that people do things that lead to an episode. It
many be several simple things or one big thing. But
there are things done that trigger most episodes I have
seen. Actually, in all cases that I have heard about

NOTE=I am NOT a doctor, therapist or “professional”
in anyway and this information is not to diagnose,
treat or cure any disease

when I ask questions like I am telling you to
ask, the cause of the episode becomes clear.

BUT I should warn you, many times you have to
dig for the cause or causes. The person with
bipolar disorder may not even be aware of what
was done.

In the case with my mom that I spoke about she
didn’t even realize that she was doing several
things that would potentially trigger an episode.

When you look at small things like “eating sugary
food” you may think, “that’s such a simple thing,
how does that create an episode.”

Well it’s not just that one simple thing, it’s that
combined with other simple things that creates a
bigger effect. Like 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 should equal
4 but it really turns out to equal 10 because
the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

I hope that makes sense? But on the topic of making
sense, I have found that many things with bipolar
disorder don’t make sense but they become rules
that you have to follow once you figure out
it’s important.

What do I mean? Well let’s say my mom discovers
she can’t eat sugary foods, stay up past 10:00pm,
and has to go to church each weak to stay stable.

Now to some, that might not make sense. You probably
can’t find medical studies that say these concepts
are important. BUT, for my mom, she has done her
own experiments and found it is important so she
has to stick to it even though it doesn’t make
100% sense as to why it is what it is. Meaning
we might not be able to exactly know why a combination
of certain things leads to stability but we do
know it does so we have to just go along with it.

Also, NOTE- with what whatever my mom is doing,
medication is 100% the foundation of her stability.
In all my cases, my mom is always taking her medication.
BUT, she can run into problems even if she is taking
medication but not doing the other things.

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It’s kind of strange to me that when I
asked my dad in like 2005 if he ever had
thought about why all my mom’s episodes
occurred, he had said, “Not really…
they just do.”

I guess the economist in me strives
to figure out patterns and formulas
for why something occurs. Or to make
what economists call a “model.”

That’s what I have done with much of my
material is make a model of what’s going
on. It’s odd to me that many doctors don’t
even do this.

I will say one more thing about doctors.
You may be surprised that many times doctors
are quick to dismiss many of the “little
things” you may find that cause episodes.

I have personally found that most have not
really sat and thought long and hard about
this subject and really just focus on
medication–which is 100% important.

I have found more therapists who are in
tune with all the things that go together
to create stability.

I just thought I would add that just in
case you are talking with your loved one’s
doctor and he/she is not “getting it.”

Well I have to run. Have a great day.

Your Friend,

Dave

P.S. 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

P.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.P.S Check out my F.ree podcast. Hear me give
mini seminars designed to teach you information
you can’t learn anywhere else.
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