AnnieLovesBacon, what great strategies you have for overcoming your bipolar impulsiveness! Really creative! One thing i found to help with impulsive shopping is to get a shopping cart when i go in a store. If i find something tempting, i put it in the cart. After i've pushed it around for a while i can usually put it back on the shelf. Also, as far as clothes go, i remind myself that it will just add to The Storage Crisis and The Laundry Crisis. I've fatted out of most tempting clothes tho, so it's not such an issue anymore.

I'm 51 and in the Spring i get manic impulses to socialize more, not always with the best results. Socializing with my neighbors has become a problem. I live in a condo building of 200 units. It's a vertical neighborhood and i have a dog and we have a dog park and i get tempted to go out in the nicer weather and chat with my neighbors while our dogs frolic.

This is a mistake as they are all older than me and very contrary and like to tell me how to live my life. I really have to make an effort this year, when my Spring mania hits, to resist chatting with them. I don't have the social skills to protect me from their barbs so i really have to work on avoiding them. I've picked up an art class and that gives me a little bit of opportunity to socialize. I can go to a mental health drop-in i used to frequent and a bipolar support group i used to attend regularly where it's all compassionate people in the same boat. It's really just a problem during my Spring mania tho. The rest of the year i don't have the time of day for my neighbors!