Question

I was talking to my daughter last nite on the phone, shes has BP I with Psychotic features also. We had been talking over an hour and neither of us so much as mentioned Bipolar.

Eventually we said hows your BP, she said Eh fine ,Hows your Bipolar I said Eh fine.

I am not discounting anyones personal journey with Bipolar not at all.
I do remember at first being diagnosed and I micro managed and analyzed every change in my mood to the max.

But ....

I have a right to wake up in a lousy mood and it not be Bipolar. I have a right to just feel blah and sad somedays.. Why ? because I am human.

I don't know maybe this makes no sense, I just think there are many others out there that have this mindset.

Bipolar or any illness for that matter can consume a life, and that is a shame.

Anyway , just ramblings out of my caffeine infused mind

Yes yes yes! This is what I have been saying, and how I have been choosing to live. I think you were more eloquent though sis For me this has been a much healthier mindset.

Bipolar is just the extremes. Lousy week yeah. Not moving from bed or intermittent crying for no reason for over a week or 2 talk to T. If T mentions hospitals or Med adjustment then I think about calling pdoc. I don't feel bipolar is all consuming that way. I do feel it's all consuming because you have such fluctuating "spoons" and mania steals 'spoons' from other random days. So I have to try to use as little "spoons" as possible.

Spoon theory

Yeah, i try not to blame everything on my quirk. ANd i hate hate hate hate the "illness is lying to you" saying. NO, MAYBE I JUST HAVE LEGITIMATE REASON TO FEEL THIS WAY!

Yes, there is a difference from having a bad day and having a cycle. I will call something a bad day only unless it stretches on and on. I can tell the difference between a bad day and me going into bipolar mode.

I have thought the same thing. I may be in a bad mood just because I'm human. Everyone has emotions just bc we have this doesn't mean everyone has to be directly related. What frustrates me is when the few ppl who know I have it discount my moods to just bipolar. I'm upset or aggravated from a long day at work it must be my bipolar.

I mostly only talk about the bp here. My kids and my sister have the dx too. We havent needed to bring it up much lately which is nice. Last week I did tell my sister I was not well and in hypo gone ugly and we talked about meds for a bit. So yea it's been good to not have to talk and think about itas much as it used to have family in crisis.

This is really good. I must explain this "spoon theory" to my husband! Thank you.

I only think about it when I am headed to an extreme of some sort. Otherwise, I don't actively think about it.

Micro managing moods makes it worse in my opinion. When you do that you forget your human and begin to attribute all mood states to the disorder. Then you get confused and wonder what was you and what was the disorder.

:/

I was seriously manic and then seriously depressed. Meds eventually kicked in and I had only one episode of hypomania after that which I could very clearly identify after the fact. Otherwise I've been middle of the road but knowing things could change at any moment. With the Boston Marathon bombings and very sad news from a friend the same day, my mood plummeted. I found myself questioning whether I was slipping into a Bipolar depression. (Since it was my first time becoming very depressed I didn't know.) It didn't take long for me to figure out I was having the same response to a bad situation that any "normal" person would......and I was entitled to that!

I have a right to wake up in a lousy mood and it not be Bipolar. I have a right to just feel blah and sad somedays.. Why ? because I am human.

Yes! This.

My ex-husband used to blame all of our problems on my BP. Even things he did or his bad moods! I couldn't take it anymore, then a marriage T told him he needed antidepressants and he hit the roof. Still don't know what his issue is but he has a new wife to deal with it, lol.