Keeping the Bipolar Balance

I know firsthand how difficult this is to do, but it is still crucial to keep the bipolar balance when dealing with bipolar disorder. In other words, we can get excited, but we can't get TOO excited, and we can get sad, but not TOO sad.

If we go to the extreme either way, we can end up in a bipolar episode, and that's a bad place to be for us, as all of us have experienced.

It's best to avoid extremes in life anyway - any extremes. We should all be maintaining balance, as that is the best way to keep a healthy lifestyle - mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

If you go the extreme mentally, you will probably end up with a migraine from extending your mind too far and for too long. If you've seen the movie A Beautiful Mind, you've seen a good example of going to the extreme mentally.

If you go to the extreme emotionally, well, in our case, you can end up at the very least with some heavy duty stress and anxiety, and at the most with a bipolar episode from the emotional overload, or mood swings that come with the extreme emotions.

If you go to the extreme physically, the least that will happen will be that you will experience muscle fatigue - but the worst that can happen is that you can do real damage to those muscles - strains, pulls, or even tears, much less a complete breakdown if we're talking real extremes here.

If you go to the extreme spiritually, well, we've all heard the term "religious fanatic." You need a healthy balance even spiritually so as not to go too far as to lose sight of reality.

Some people with mental illnesses that involve psychoses such as delusions or hallucinations, like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, have even been known to imagine themselves as Jesus Christ or God or an angel (or some other deity), or to believe other religious false beliefs, or to hear "angels" or "demons" speaking to them.

In all those areas, it's important to have balance, so you can stay rational, and not to get out of control. The more you are in control of your thoughts and feelings, the less chance you have of going into a bipolar episode.

It is so important, when you're living with and coping with bipolar disorder, to stay rational in the area of your thoughts and feelings. The way to do this is to maintain a healthy balance in all the areas I just talked about.

If you do that, you can attain and maintain stability in your life. And stability is the greatest part of recovery for anyone who has bipolar disorder.

You'll feel better as well. If you are balanced, there will be a definite reduction in stress in your life. Your anxiety will be lower. Even your blood pressure will be less. And those migraines I talked about with extremes in mental stress? They could even vanish!

There are many benefits to having a healthy, balanced lifestyle. You will feel much better mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. You will not only have less stress and anxiety in your life, but you will have less bipolar episodes that are triggered by that stress and anxiety as well, which will lead to longer periods of normalcy for you.

Only you can bring more balance to your life. If it can't be balanced right now, at least work toward making it more balanced, a little at a time, until such time as it will be a balanced life, as that is important. You need a balanced life if you want stability in it.

Wishing you peace and stability,

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

Remember God loves you and so do I,

Michele