by Priscilla Benfield

Created on: July 27, 2010

Once bipolar disorder is diagnosed, it is not as simple as taking a mood stabilizer and continuing on with your life. It often takes time for your psychiatrist to determine the right medication or combination of medications to properly treat your symptoms. This is a very frustrating part of being diagnosed as bipolar. Especially if you suffer side effects that are common with taking psychiatric medications, you have to learn how to deal with your symptoms while you wait to see if the medication cocktail is going to be right for you.

Even when the medications become managed, it does not take away all the symptoms of bipolar disorder. There are no magic pills for mental illnesses, it takes life alterations to learn how to deal with having bipolar disorder. If a patient understands that therapy is important for learning how to cope, they will live a better life than those who only rely on medication to ease their symptoms.

A person who has bipolar disorder can learn how to avoid certain triggers that might cause them excess stress. There is no avoiding stress in this life, we can only learn how to better deal with it. Adapting a healthier lifestyle with an emphasis on taking care of yourself can make you better prepared for dealing with unforeseen stress. Eating healthy, making sure to get enough sleep and avoiding recreational drugs and alcohol are all things to do to help manage your symptoms. Living on junk food, not getting enough sleep and self-medicating all leads to disaster when you are bipolar.

Another way to manage your symptoms is to keep a daily journal. To make it simpler, you can use a mood calendar to record your daily moods. This is also good for managing your medication changes. You should log changes in your sleeping and eating patterns, your moods and other reactions to your daily life. Bringing this with you to your therapist and your doctor who prescribes your medication can help you with your treatment program.

If you can, keeping a diary is helpful. Sometimes writing out how you feel can help you to resolve feelings. It can keep the bipolar person from being out of control with their emotions and possibly stop them from doing something they may regret. Medication helps to lessen your symptoms but you still will experience periods of mania and depression. Some people may experience more depression than mania but they both require coping mechanisms.

Having a support system in place is necessary also. You should have friends or family that you can rely on and joining a support group is beneficial as well. Many times friends can get overwhelmed by a bipolar person's neediness and being part of a support group can help to take the pressure off of your friends. Talk therapy can help you to take an honest look at how being bipolar has effected your life and your relationships. You cannot make bipolar disorder go away but you can learn how to live with it.

When you are going through a particularly rough period, try to focus on just getting through the day. Remind yourself that this episode will pass and you will feel better soon. It is easy to get overwhelmed and worry that you will never be happy but you will get there. Learning how to manage your bipolar disorder symptoms takes time but you will succeed as long as you keep up the fight.

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