I'd love to hear about your different therapeutic activities for every mood. We are open to every new idea we can get for handling moods. Right now, he is heavily medicated, but he will have to have less meds at some point or he won't be able to get back to life. Any ideas that you have for coping would be much appreciated.
well whether or not someone has bipolar the healthier they are the better they can manage the moods and bumps of life...
But for a bipolar it is essential to stay focussed on that. All I've done to throw myself out this week is work too hard the week before, eat too many carbs ( definitely mood-altering ) and miss a days swimming!
When the mood wobbles there's a window to do something about it and it's different for each person but eventually it turns into depression or mania and if it worsens then I lose touch and don't take meds/ don't take control.
I never touch alcohol, try to avoid caffeine and stuff like decongestant meds.
A lot of it will be a learning curve for your son and recognising his 'trigger' things which for me are stress lack of sleep pattern and alcohol.
And maturity helps most things, so he will 'forget' or go ahead and do some of this stuff anyway, and it may take him a few times to accept consequences.
It's like managing any illness though- the more strategies you put in place whilst you are well the better it goes when you're sick:
*have a good psych doctor to call on for meds
*gym/pool membership, I have a 24 hour place
*handful of friends/relatives who understand the illness and that one coffee or a beer may well hurt you etc
*therapy for the emotional aspects
*minimum meds- which means behavioural management is crucial
*record keeping: some people record their moods, some journal, some write out anxieties or plans...it's a useful tool for keeping focussed
*sleep. If all else fails medicate sleep and take to bed for 24-48 hours. This has never failed for me, though it took me years to accept it because when you're manic it's the last thing you want to do, sleep it off, but you're also exhausted so it's necessary to recover.
My concentration's not 100 % so I missed a few things I am sure, it's great to see you learning how best to help your son and as I said before you'll be amazed at some of the positive stuff comes from the illness once the negative is in balance.
Balance is the key word with bipolar.