Hi,<\/p>\n
Do you remember that little foil gold star that you used to get in kindergarten or first grade for doing something right or good? Or maybe your parents even had a chore chart for you at home for which you got gold stars if you completed your chores? Do you remember how good you felt getting those little gold stars? It felt great, didn\u2019t it? You\u2019d do anything to get those little stars.<\/p>\n
Well\u2026Those stars are called: INCENTIVE. An incentive is sort of a reward for doing something. It\u2019s like motivation that makes you want to do that thing. So\u2026The motivation or incentive your loved one has for doing the right things with their bipolar disorder would be to get<\/p>\n
stable. Your incentive now wouldn\u2019t be gold stars any more, but it would be to see your loved one get better with their bipolar disorder. So you do the things you think would help them best.<\/p>\n
And if what you\u2019re doing isn\u2019t working, you try something else. And you keep trying things, until something works. Because you want to \u201cget that gold star\u201d \u2013 You want to see your loved one get better. That\u2019s your incentive to do the things you do.<\/p>\n
Well\u2026Your loved one should have their incentive as well. They should want to get stable. The key here is \u201cshould,\u201d however. And that doesn\u2019t always work. Sometimes their bipolar disorder gets the better of them, unfortunately. And they don\u2019t always do what they should do for their stability. Like they should take their medication religiously in order to stay stable. That\u2019s like a \u201crule\u201d in the bipolar business. But some people with the disorder do go off their medications sometimes for various reasons\u2026And then they get unstable\u2026And get out of control\u2026And their symptoms manifest themselves again\u2026And their bipolar behaviors come back\u2026And before you know it\u2026They\u2019re in an episode again. Then there\u2019s nothing to do but get them back on their medications and start all over again. And hope that this time they\u2019ll stay on them.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a saying that: \u201cYou can lead a horse to water\u2026But you can\u2019t make him drink.\u201d And that\u2019s true, but, I\u2019ve also heard that: \u201cYou can\u2019t make him drink\u2026But you CAN make the water salty.\u201d That way\u2026He\u2019ll WANT to drink the water! In other words, you can provide incentives for your loved one to want to stay stable. Like tell them if they stay stable for a month, you can<\/p>\n
go out to their favorite restaurant or something. Or they can go shopping and pick out something they want. Or if they stay stable for six months, maybe you can travel somewhere. Whatever would be a good incentive for them.<\/p>\n
Well, I have to go!<\/p>\n
Your Friend,<\/p>\n
Dave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi,<\/p>\n
Do you remember that little foil gold star that you used to get in kindergarten or first grade for doing something right or good? Or maybe your parents even had a chore chart for you at home for which you got gold stars if you completed your chores? Do you remember how good you felt getting those little gold stars? It felt great, didn\u2019t it? You\u2019d do anything to get those little stars.<\/p>\n