Hello. Though I don't have bipolar disorder, but I have GAD and OCD that both make this cycle worse. My OCD would make me check over documents for hours until I knew they were perfect because if I didn't, I would consider myself a failure at any mistake.

I have imagined things that happened in the past and think how they have affected me now.

Maybe you can try thinking that you are human, and humans make mistakes and we learn from them. People who only have perfect lives wouldn't have experienced much of the world. Many successful people made many mistakes before they succeed such as Thomas Edison.

Anyways, that may not work, so you can try to distract yourself. Sometimes this works for me, sometimes it doesn't. If I am too worked up about something, that's all I'll be thinking about. Maybe try taking a walk? When I walk, I try to think positive about myself and try to solve my anxiety problems enough so I can work on things. I try using positive thinking, though I know positive thinking is not going to solve all my anxiety, it can help temporary at least? Anyways, I hope this helps .

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