I HAVE A LiFE BUT

You're doing the right thing.  I've had to go back to my psychiatrist a number of times to have my meds tweaked, and sometimes increasing dosages and sometimes replacing with different, or adding aditional.  Dealing with depresion and irritability seem to be never ending battles for me; however, thankfully there have been long periods of blessed calmess and stability. 

One thing I added that was very helpful was to see a psychologust (who was recommended by my psyciatrist) for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).  One of the things she had me do, which sounded absolutely silly to me was get a small 6-inch mirror and set it up wherever I was sitting and frequently look into the mirror and smile.  That sounded so stupid to me and I resisted doing it but finally started doing it, and it helped out.  It wasn't the only thing that I did from the CBT that was helpful, but it was the most surprising thing, because it was fake smiling.  I was smiling just because I had to, not because I felt it, but somehow it would make me feel a little better.

Good luck.

 

Hi maggs.

Hope your better now. 

I also suffer from bipolar type 1 disorder. For anything to work out you need problem identification to be done first only than can you work towards a solution. Because you have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder so the main hurdle has been overcome. 

 

Ill guide you thourgh a very easy solution which works for me consistently (take them as guide lines)

1. Be positive: In every difficult situation that you face look at the positive. For example you are going through a period of depression than you could imagine that after this cycle of depression a period of normalcy will come I will look forward to that etc.

2. Be resilient: The worst thing hit with bipolar disorder are our relationships with family and friends. Even when you falter and have a fight or disagreement of some sort with your close ones you need not feel hopeless and think that I can never get things done correctly. Instead focus that ok there has been a hiccup but I will remain focused will try again to get things right.

3. Medication: In bipolar disorder roughly 51% of the treatment is based on medication and 49% on management techniques. So you need to focus on both.

4. Excercise: In bipolar disorder there is a chemical imbalance which causes us to feel irritable, depressed, sad, hollow, numb for no apparent reason. What you can do is excercise. Make a routine of walking for 20 minutes in 3 or 4 rounds every day. By walking endorphins (pleasure producing elements in body) release which causes us to feel positive and happy. This takes care of the depressed feelings created by the chemical imbalance.

I hope you give these tips a try.

maggs, i am just guessing that we may be around the same age as you mentioned adult children and a grandchild......  i am going through the same. i am depressed 75% of the time..  and it is different now. although i do at times get suicidal, i am at that horrible place where i just don;t care about things. i hate it.  i am beginning to worry if aging with the illness is worse, or if it is progressive. i am presently thinking that if this is as good as it gets, i am done......this is just so upsetting for me as i used to be able to do so many things and have so many friends. i isolate now and try to take all pressure off of myself. it is definely crippling my every day life.  good luck to you. hope your medication change helps. just wanted you to know you are not alone.....

thanks for the reply, and oh yes, we have all kinds of things in common. i can make it over to see my grandaughter and she just puts a smile on my face, but underneath is that underlying " ugh..."  look for me to message you. i would like to hear about your medications and such....