Small Things Count with Bipolar Disorder

Sometimes it's the small things that count with bipolar disorder. Like the other day, I was supposed to go to my step-daughter's high school graduation and, wouldn't you know it, I started getting all anxious just thinking about all the people that were going to be there (I don't do well in big crowds).

I started hyperventilating and shaking and everything, and before you know it, I was all worked up. So I started thinking about what I could do to calm down, because I knew I had to go soon.

So I started doing some deep breathing exercises. Something small, but it made a big difference. Soon I started calming down. I stopped shaking, and stopped hyperventilating. The anxiety went away.

I also changed my thought patterns. Another small thing. I kept thinking, "This is not about ME. This is about HER. I don't want to disappoint her - she is looking forward to seeing me and her dad there. I have to go."

I just kept repeating that over and over to myself, and pretty soon, that helped to calm me down as well. Just another small thing, but it worked.

See? Sometimes it's just the small things that can make a big difference. Two small things that I did that made a big difference in what was happening to me at the time.

But if I hadn't done anything, it could have made a bigger difference in my bipolar disorder at the time.

Sometimes we can blow things out of proportion, too. We can let little things become great big things if we don't do something about them right away when we can.

If I hadn't done what I did when I did, I may have had to miss my step-daughter's graduation, and then I might have gotten depressed, and that would have just made everything worse.

It's better to take care of things as they happen, with the bipolar tools that you have to work with right then, than to have things get worse later.

Wishing you peace and stability,

Remember God loves you and so do I,

Michele
ps. Check out my new bipolar book at: www.brokenroseministries.com