Are Your Episodes Triggered By External Events?

Hi everyone,

Just wondering what your experience is: do your depressive and manic episodes come out of the blue, or are they caused by an external event?

My personal experience has been that my depressive and manic episodes aren't caused by any particular event or thing, except for certain anti-depressants, and seasonal changes. External events do not affect me in such a big way that it would lead to a full-blown episode. A day or two of feeling depressed, perhaps, but nothing more.

I've always assumed that Bipolar is more of a chemical imbalance, so external events shouldn't have much of an influence. But I'm wondering if your experience has been different?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

i do have external events that trigger the depressive side of bipolar. BUT these are things that are residuals of my false beliefs. i use CBT to learn new skills to cope. so it can throw my bipolar our of whack but the causes are stemmed from my reaction to things. there is a dispute re chemical imbalance re bipolar. idk which way is correct. http://www.anxiety-and-depression-so...der_causes.php and http://bipolar.about.com/cs/bpbasics..._causes_bp.htm

Long term stress and being out of balance (sleep/exercise/eating/work) seem to cause me problems.... and episodes.

sometimes, but more often than not there is no trigger.

i am about 80 percent external trigger vs 20 percent just random mood change for no reason

Yeah. A lot of the time my episodes are triggered by external events, though sometimes mood shifts just happen for no reason, too.

I am simmilar.

I would agree with those that say, sometimes one and sometimes the other.

Chemical imbalance or not, stressful external events definitely do trigger my depression and mania rollercoaster (more often than not the depression), however these mood shifts have also occured independent of any external factors.

Sometimes I can't pinpoint anything that has caused me to have depression or hypomania. Other times it is obvious.

Last week I was sitting at Friendly's, having a good conversation with my dad, eating my favorite ice cream and suddenly felt immensely depressed. This soon turned into suicidal thinking and ended in an ER visit. I believe that 80% of mania, mixed, or depressed episodes are internal.

However... psychotic episodes, the 2 I've had, were completely triggered.

This describes my experience too. External generally creates a short-lived flip, not an episode.

Exception seems to be prolonged heavy stress. At least that is what some of my depressions would seem attributable to -- it might also be that the stress is exacerbating what was already going on, rather than causing it per se. If it's not sudden, it's really hard to say. (I've tried hard to parse this out this particular year, so something I've really pondered.) My first huge depression came out of nowhere -- I was having a really good time, no stress to speak of, even had a few friends(!). Then BOOM! Perplexed the heck out of me.

I'd agree with the 80-20 rule, except reversed for me. 80 percent of my swings have no triggers, 20 percent do.

I think mine is more of a 60/40. 60% its external, 40% it is not.

Triggers no longer throw me into a mania or depression, but the cycles are still obvious. Triggers are external events that I can control my reaction to. Most mood swings that happen as a result of a trigger are simply my normal emotional reactions.

More often then not its a trigger by an event like today I know I'm getting served papers for family court and I know the thought of my ex with custody will drive me down and I was just pulling out of the down that the split had caused

Perhaps when the body's chemicals are out of whack, one becomes more susceptible to external happenings and then it would appear as if your mood swings are in fact a response to an external. For me, I can almost always pinpoint the trigger for my lows, which are generally the result of an some minor annoyance, inconvenience or misunderstanding in my daily life.

I'm hoping some renewed cognitive work can lead to better recognition of these incidents when they happen so that I am capable of dealing with them immediately and not three days and many glasses of wine later.