[Mountainbard]

These are from Dr. Wes Burgess' excellent book, The Bipolar Handbook. I highly recommend it.

Four Stages of Bipolar Recovery

Stage I: Accepting that there is something wrong with you that requires treatment. Affirmation: "I am not perfect."

Stage II: Accepting that you must take medication and make sacrifices every day to maintain your health. Affirmation: "I do not always know what is best for me. I must follow rules that I did not make up."

Stage III: Accepting that you truly have a disease called bipolar disorder that will never go away. Affirmation: "My life will not be flawless, but I will work to ensure that my life is good.

Stage IV: Making a lifetime commitment to learn all you can about bipolar and taking responsibility for the details of your health at all times. Affirmation: "I cannot rely on fate. I will take responsibility for myself and create my own destiny."

It took me a long time to get to II, but once I did it was a brief journey to IV.

[Blue_Bird]

Thanks for sharing, this is interesting!

[Mountainbard]

Originally Posted by Blue_Bird

Thanks for sharing, this is interesting!

You're very welcome! Actually there's an explosion in the literature on bipolar going on right now. Two other titles I found recently, and can highly recommend, are Bipolar for Dummies (really!) and Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder.

[HALLIEBETH87]

BP for dummies is good

[jack123]

That was insiteful

[madness2meditation]

The 'explosion in literature' probably has to do with all the creative people being diagnosed with bipolar !!!

Also, this is supposed to be the 'age of mental illnesses' and Bipolar is just such a cute one with all this creativity and intelligence associated with it, so many artists and authors who reportedly had it, such mysterious highs and lows etc.

Anyway, this humour is just to mask my awful mood as I cannot seem to be able to 'take charge of my bipolar' or my life. My 'zombie phase' has now lasted 10 months and its not going away. Can't exercise (or don't), addicted to caffeineted soft-drinks and other unhealthy stuff, don't wanna go out and the whole works really. All these books talk so sensibly but doing them is a whole different thing. But that's the commitment being talked about I guess...sigh

[venusss]

Bleh, if this works somebody, world to them.

I am not accepting illnesses and pills for rest of my life and overfocusing on that. And I think I am doing quite well.

This is just one way, not the only one.

[4ALittle]

I like this.
Legacy Bipolar I here. That is, my maternal grandmother was BP and in and out of hospitals in her day. My own acceptance has been a while in the works. I was diagnosed in 1998 but just accepted the diagnosis after my second psychosis in 2013.
I understand someone wanting to fight the idea of being sick. I've been there. But I'm done. I get it, not everyone sees the world exactly like I do. Who's to judge which is better? My bipolar disorder is now a part of who I am. I will stay on medication because I have a life filled with people I love. I can't let an illness get in the way of my being here for them. We need breath, we need food, we need water and sleep. And some of us also need medicine. I am grateful to those who've come before me and to the doctors that have worked to make medicine available.

[venusss]

I just hope you are not implying I am in denial and have nobody who loves and or whom I love.

[4ALittle]

Originally Posted by venusss

I just hope you are not implying I am in denial and have nobody who loves and or whom I love.

Ummm. Didn't mean to imply anything of the sort.
I've just come to a place in life where I personally am using medicine to prevent another psychosis and hospitalization.
My path is my path

[Crazy Hitch]

Originally Posted by HALLIEBETH87

BP for dummies is good

I found this book very useful

[Crazy Hitch]

Originally Posted by venusss

Bleh, if this works somebody, world to them.

I am not accepting illnesses and pills for rest of my life and overfocusing on that. And I think I am doing quite well.

This is just one way, not the only one.

One size doesn't fit all. You need to find what works for you. If this works for you, you are one of the lucky few

[venusss]

Originally Posted by Hooligan

One size doesn't fit all. You need to find what works for you. If this works for you, you are one of the lucky few

Please, don't call me lucky. I worked too hard for this and calling me lucky is hella dismissive.

If I accepted the four stages, I might never finnished my education. I woulda accept "bipolar" robbed me of it and that I am just ill. Who knows. I am just very hard on myself.

These four stages are all about illnesses and pills and little about thriving and being at peace. Too many measure their success by their med compliance and going to doctors. These are means, not the ends......... but their often get mixed up. Not only by sufferers, but by well meaning advocacy groups as well....

[Mountainbard]

venusss, your path is your path, and I respect it. It is pretty obvious you are very hard on yourself.

What I cannot accept is your dismissal of medication as a viable treatment option for bipolar disorder. You seem to either forget or be unaware that bipolar disorder is a progressive, neurophysiological disease. It has a physical basis, and left untreated it will get worse over time. There are perhaps a very fortunate few who can manage their bipolar without medication. But if a person has diabetes or another progressive disease which has no medical cure at this time, their taking medication does not mean they are not thriving or at peace. Yes, society is over-focused on medicating people's ills. There are many other things wrong with society as well, and I admire your passion for trying to change those things. Just please stop criticizing, implicitly or explicitly, people who are using medication to help control their bipolar.

[venusss]

i am not dissmissing drugs help with symptoms. But taking drugs for the rest of your life is in no way a success story........ it is a mean of treatment. Just like I don't consider myself a success story for not taking psychdrugs and taking meadowdrugs This was sorta posted in wrong section.... success is what you make of life. And each of us has crosses to bear. Making whole life about your trouble can hinder you in many ways.

And ahhhhh, the progressive disease and diabetus comparision. I admit I hate it. I don't consider it a truth or of any value. From what I read here and anywhere else, the progressive thing.... it seems to vary for people... and drugs play no role. Mine is not getting worse. Few people here went off drugs and didn't get worse, in fact they gotten much better. Some people's BP is getting worse despite (or because of?) everbloating medication coctail. So what does it say? Being on drugs is a choice our possibilities one has. It might a be good one, but to say everybody needs to be on drugs and it's the *lucky* ones who do without.... you are harming those for whom these drugs don't work that well.

If drugs work for you, feel free to dismiss my advice. I speak for those for whom it doesn't work... not to be bullied into taking stuff that seems to make them only worse, just because it is the mainstream approach.... and... not to be fooled that compliance and non-compliance is what makes them either good or bad person. Which is what this introductory article implies... that drugs and trusting others but yourself is what leads to recovery, only after that you can move on.

I mean this?

"I do not always know what is best for me. I must follow rules that I did not make up."

I am too much anarchist for this. I only follow the rules that are good for me and those that I consider good. I will not listen to anybody trying to change me into something that I am fundamentally not. I do know very well what is good for me.... and if I don't know it.... the others know it even less. I am gonna make my own mistakes. My own choices. Learn from my mistakes. Not follow rules that bind me and hold me back "for my own good".

Maybe, it's because I skipped straight to "stage four" and learned from other sources than mainstream too, lol. All this "you are ill, take your meds" seems so basic and skirting only the very edge of the problem.

[newtothis31]

I've found this to be a useful framework. It has taken me a while to accept that bipolar is a permanent condition. Regardless if you decide to use medication or not- you do have to commit to a treatment plan that constantly needs to be re-evaluated to work long-term.

[thatguyinla626]

I have and read Bipolar for Dummies and its a great read

[gayleggg]

Originally Posted by Mountainbard

venusss, your path is your path, and I respect it. It is pretty obvious you are very hard on yourself.

What I cannot accept is your dismissal of medication as a viable treatment option for bipolar disorder. You seem to either forget or be unaware that bipolar disorder is a progressive, neurophysiological disease. It has a physical basis, and left untreated it will get worse over time. There are perhaps a very fortunate few who can manage their bipolar without medication. But if a person has diabetes or another progressive disease which has no medical cure at this time, their taking medication does not mean they are not thriving or at peace. Yes, society is over-focused on medicating people's ills. There are many other things wrong with society as well, and I admire your passion for trying to change those things. Just please stop criticizing, implicitly or explicitly, people who are using medication to help control their bipolar.

Hi, Mountainbird. I find I can't control my bipolar issues without meds. I came to believe a long time ago that I would always be on medication to combat being bipolar. I was diagnosed late in life and suffered only mild manic symptoms in the beginning then almost ruined my life before they diagnosed me as being bipolar. I'm so glad that some people are able to go without meds but I'm not one of them.

The four stages rang true with me. I'm definitely in stage four. Thanks for the book suggestions. I will look into them.

Still learning.

[lunaticfringe]

Thanks for this. One of the best books out there for BP!

[Jdvivre]

I'm torn. It all seems very helpful but I'm still not convinced I need medication...yet, anyway. I don't know.

I'm only recently giving credence to my diagnosis of BP2 and as a philosopher I can't just accept it as the truth, there are so many variables.

But I do accept that I am unwell. And I accept that I must make daily sacrifices for my health and overall well-being, and that my life won't be flawless, and that I must remain commited to taking responsibility.

How much responsibility, though? Can I really rely solely on self-transparency to judge how much guilt I'm to reasonably accept? Can I trust my mind enough to know what's me and what's a chemical reaction?

I don't know. I'm still confused. But getting there...

[Jdvivre]

Originally Posted by 4ALittle

I like this.
Legacy Bipolar I here. That is, my maternal grandmother was BP and in and out of hospitals in her day. .

Would you mind elaborating on this? My grandmother was also BP1 and my uncle is Schizophrenic, dad is alcoholic, brother commit suicide (drugs/depression)...but I can't seem to find enough evidence that will force me to accept my BP2 diagnosis. I've never heard of "legacy bipolar"...would you mind explaining further?

[redposy]

Wonderful post, I am on stage three , I accept that there is no magic cure, but I can help myself to live a full and healthy life...

[One More Day]

So happy to have accepted the four stages. Life really is easier once you 'get it'.

[BipolaRNurse]

I'm kinda stuck in Stage III---acceptance of this incurable (but manageable) disease is taking a lot of work---but I know eventually I'll get through it and move on to stage IV.

[fishin fool]

I would have to say that I am in stage 3.
I think every stage has been a long road.