Can Someone Help Explain Triggers?

So, I thought the whole idea with bipolar disorder was that our mood changes for no reason. So can someone explain how there are triggers?

I ask because I have had many times where I have reacted to situations, but in an extreme way. For example, I recently found out I got a job doing work-study at my school. I was really happy, but it felt like climbing into hypomania, not like normal excitement. In addition, there are many times where I think about my ex girlfriend and it leads me to depressive episodes.

Are these triggers? Or are these things just normal?

Well the ex girlfriend thing, I think that would be kind of normal for most people. Going through breakups is hard, moving on is hard, and can be depressing. I think that's situational depression, when you have dealt with it and have moved on, gone through all the grief and acceptance stages that come with ending a relationship, the depression you feel about it would also pass.

The mood in Bipolar can change for no reason, but probably more often than not there are triggers that happen that help push the mood along, or start the switch in the first place. Good example would be your getting a job. Most people would feel excited about this, and maybe even stressed. But if you go way beyond normal excitement and move into hypomanic symptoms, then it could be looked at as a trigger.

A person can have lots of triggers, some of the most common are stress, sleep, abrupt changes, breaking routine..., even something good happening. This is going to be personal to the individual.

How long did you feel hypomanic for when this happened? How long do you feel depressed for when you think of your ex?

Knowing your triggers can be good, not to avoid them altogether cause that's impossible and limiting, but learning how to minimize effects they may have on you I think is the goal. The thing with bipolar is that even though these things that happen in life are normal, and reacting to them is normal, the intensity of how we feel it is probably intensified a lot.

Like say, I have a lot of stuff going on in my life right now, nothing bad, but lots of change, that makes me feel stressed, the stress makes me sleep less, the lack of sleep cause me to start getting manic, I recognize the mania and look for the triggers, try to cope with the stress better, get my sleep back to normal, and keep practicing self care ( meds, exercise, whatever you do for this etc ).. I might be able to bring this back to a stable point.

I find that this is a shady area. It is easier with my migraines: I know that dehydration and caffeine withdrawal will cause a migraine. They are definite triggers. I also suspect that red wine might cause a migraine. That is a possible trigger.

My ex' threatening to break the remaining connection with me used to be a definite trigger of suicidal ideation, but I have found that with Prozac it no longer is the case.

Lack of sleep feels horrible but I would not say that there is a mood change.

Overall I am pretty stable.

My swings- both up and down- can be completely unrelated to anything in my life or environment but anger is a bad-mania trigger. (I have what I think of as good-mania and bad-mania. For example: cleaning the house top to bottom, getting 3 ch. ahead on homewk and using the inability to sleep anyway to make love to my husband- thats "good mania." Screaming at the kids bc they dropped something on accident, breaking things bc something unrelated was minorly frustrating or trying to get someone fired bc they made me a little mad at wk- "BAD mania.") If someone makes me mad I may have a fit of bad-mania that lasts days when I am over the initial anger after an hour or two.

I know when I get triggered my emotions are the first to go. They get completely and absolutely out of control and unmanageable. then I get the hypo or depression. sometimes mixed and I get them both. hmmmmm... I am more likely to get mixed when i am triggered than I am having a non triggered episode anymore. but that is the way it happens for me