Bipolar: Holidays Are Coming

Well, the holidays are coming, and you can tell by an almost shift in the air, if not all the holiday commercials on TV that have started flooding the airwaves!

This year I'm "in the spirit," so to speak, so I am happy about all the hullabaloo, but I can remember years when I was so depressed that all of it just made it worse for me.

The holidays can be the most stressful time for someone with bipolar disorder. What might be exciting for someone without bipolar can be either overly exciting (manic) to someone with bipolar or cause them to go into a depression.

I've been in both at holiday time. So this year I'm happy that I'm stable at this time of the yar, and looking forward to a good holiday season.

I've already even gotten my Christmas shopping done, believe it or not! And I'll be putting up my Christmas tree on Thanksgiving Day, so I'm looking forward to that.

I'll be wrapping presents that day and putting them under the tree, thus to begin the month-long wait until Christmas to be able to open gifts. That's the hard part - just having to look at all those gifts and not be able to open them! (my husband has his shopping done too).

I got my shopping done so early because crowds are a trigger to my bipolar disorder, so this way I don't have to deal with them. I'm so glad it's all done!

I used to wait, so that I could be a part of the Christmas spirit at the malls and stores, but I didn't find any Christmas spirit there - just a lot of stressed out people looking for the best deals they could find. It's even worse now with the economy the way it is. So now I don't have to deal with all that, and that makes me happy.

This year we're going to my husband's grandmother's house for Thanksgiving dinner, so I don't have to fuss with all that, so that makes me pretty happy, too. I remember too many years that making the whole dinner totally stressed me out. This year I won't have to deal with that. Smooth sailing on Thanksgiving Day!

I hope you're taking care of yourself this holiday season and, like me, avoiding your bipolar triggers. If you do, you can have a good holiday season. You just have to do some adapting, like avoiding crowds and planning ahead of time, and things like that.

Don't forget to check out my bipolar book at: www.brokenroseministries.com

Wishing you peace and stability,

Remember God loves you and so do I,
Michele