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For those of you who don't experience frequent episodes of mania/hypomania/depression even when you aren't medicated, how do you deal with being bipolar when you aren't experiencing the episodes? Do you still take medications or go to therapy regularly? Can you keep up with charting your moods? Do you ever feel disconnected from having the illness until the symptoms show up again?
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To answer the above questions.
I take medications, but I don't go to therapy. When I'm well I'm not sure what I would talk about in therapy. I only chart my moods when I'm unwell, writing 0 everyday gets tedious and repetitive. If I notice my mood fluctuating I might start again, just to watch if it gets worse (or overly better!). I don't feel as disconnected from bipolar as I did pre-medication, there's that daily reminder to deal with. I do, however, start launching into the 'Maybe, I don't have bipolar' thoughts, but my husband squashes those rather quickly. Depression was very nearly fatal for me, and it's that that keeps me on medication. I love my life, and don't want to lose it because I didn't want to take some pills.
As for this forum. I joined when I was deeply depressed, but didn't post or participate as I didn't feel anyone would care, couldn't see the point, and just deserved to die. I returned more recently when I started writing my memoir, as it took me back to thinking about bipolar a lot. I pop in occasionally, but as you can see from my stats I am not a big poster. If I have something useful to say I will post a reply, and I get a kick out of reading mania related posts as so many of the could be me! Really you can use the forum any way you want.