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Similar to the list for Self-Carefor Hypomanic Episodes , this is the one I use for depression. Some entries are exactly the same, but they work differently here. Self-Care Strategies for Bipolar Depression Tell someone what’s going on. Verbalizing it makes it real and lets you know you’re not alone. Stick to the routine . The routine will get you out of bed. The routine will get you fed and showered. Let the routine take care of you. Try caffeine. If you aren’t addicted to caffeine and it still has the effect of giving you a little jolt, sometimes it can help. Be sure you aren’t in a mixed episode first though. Avoid stressors. Fuck em. Distract, distract, distract.  My go-to is streaming. I save a few favorite shows for the shittiest of times. Some people find more comfort in rewatching. Maybe your go-to is music, drawing, reading, video games. Whatever you can hand your brain over to for safe keeping, do that.  Limit social media. Funny memes? Sure. Doom scrolli...

For years I have been honing this list of strategies that work for me when I have episodes. Is it perfect? No. Does it help? Absolutely. Will your mileage vary? Heck yeah. Will the suggestions only work if you actually implement them? Um, yes. Also, none of these are easy. Self-Care Strategies for Hypomania Tell somebody what’s going on.  Verbalizing it makes it real. Stick to the routine.  The routine will keep you in touch with your baseline, even if you’re flailing far above it. It can also keep you from doing spontaneous nonsense that leads to bad decisions. Avoid caffeine and alcohol.  Easier said than done, but so important if you don’t want to exacerbate an already explosive situation. Avoid stressors.  Put shit off. Don’t answer the aggravating calls. Let it go, for now. Stay offline.  See #4. Don’t make any big decisions.  Hypomania is all about making BIG TERRIBLE decisions. Sleep on it, write it down, ask someone you trust about i...

(This entry blows my  usual 200 word limit out of the water, but because it's a listicle, I think it works best as one post.) If you spend much time at all in bipolar groups, you’ll eventually hear someone say “Bipolar is a fulltime job,” and then a bunch of people will nod their heads.  This might not be true for everyone. I guess some people can get their meds sorted and be on their way. But for the rest of us, we have to deeply invest in self-care. And it can absolutely take up 8 hours a day or more. What do I mean by self-care for bipolar? Well, there’s self-care between episodes, to help minimize their occurrence, and there’s self-care during episodes, to help minimize the damage they create. I'm gonna start with preventative self-care. Here are 10 self-care suggestions that I’ve found helpful.   #1 Establish a routine and stick to it .  Include -            sleep -         ...

Why is it so hard to be kind to ourselves—gentle, caring, compassionate—when inside and recovering from an episode? Because we are not who we grew up wanting to be, thinking we’d become. In that sense, we are failures. Because we are reminded every morning with that first pill that something is wrong with us, will always be wrong with us. Because we were taught to be strong women and men. We were taught that if we worked hard enough, were smart enough, we could do anything . Solve the problem! Pull yourself up by your bootstraps! “Pure Horatio Alger,” says Hunter Thompson, which should be our first clue if not our forty-seventh. It’s hard to be kind, gentle, compassionate, when our brains are incessantly tearing us down, trying to get us to give up, give all the way up. It’s hard not to believe your own brain. But we have to believe we deserve kindness and compassion from ourselves. It takes work. I’m certainly still working on it. It takes mindfulness and self-remembering...

Already you know this is a false dichotomy, but it is my false dichotomy! The one I struggle with during every single episode. Although, usually, I weigh in heavily on the side of fight. But I get ahead of myself. What the fuck am I talking about? During a bipolar episode, the mood wants you stay in bed; wallow; all carbs, only carbs. Or let’sgo-dothething-postwithoutediting-makeithappen-goplay-revrevrev. You get the point—give in. My immediate reaction, once I figure out what’s going on, is to tell it NO. I don’t want to be in an episode. If I just do the right thing, think the right thing, it will go away and I will be me again. I fight hard, but the fighting feeds into the mood: I’m failing at life because I can’t control this; I’ll read every single thing about bipolar until I find my fix. When really, the best way to handle an episode is probably self-compassion. I say probably because I’m awful at it and can’t speak from experience. But I’m going to try being gentle with my...

A lot of people with bipolar (and all kinds of mental illnesses) drink. I mean a lot , and they drink a lot . There is a sweet spot between “I shouldn’t be doing this” and “This is when the bad decisions start,” a sweet forgetfulness, a freedom from the absolute fucking grind that is living with bipolar. So yeah, I drank. And once I was diagnosed and medicated? I drank then too. Did I know that alcohol and psychotropic medications were a bad mix? Yes I did. And then my psychiatrist said if I didn’t stop we were "going to have a problem.” Said it just like that, like a mob boss.  He didn’t define “problem,” so I was free to fill in the blank: maybe he’ll stop prescribing my meds, maybe he’ll stop treating me altogether. Maybe I’ll end up back at square one. Oh fuck. So now I drink maybe half a beer maybe once every other month. I don’t miss the bad decisions. I don’t miss wrecking the all-important sleep schedule. I don’t miss getting sick and dangling one foot out of the ...