[AspiringAuthor]

The book (much recommended): Treating Bipolar Disorder: A Clinician's Guide to Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (Guides to Individualized Evidence-Based Treatment): 9781593854652: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com

The website (clinician-oriented): Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy | Home

This rhythms therapy appears to be the only scientifically validated therapy method that is specific for Bipolar Disorder.

Would anybody be interested in working together on building daily and weekly rhythms to improve stability?

I will start: on Saturdays I make two pots of soup and refrigerate for the week ahead.

[HopeForChange]

I will join I have done Social Rhythm therapy, as I live in the city where it was invented. My goal is to wake up at 8am every day and go to bed around midnight, even on the weekends. Thanks so much for starting this thread!!

[AspiringAuthor]

Wow, I could not have imagined instantly finding somebody who lives where Social Rhythm therapy was invented.

I need a little more than 8 hours of sleep, but like you am aiming at regularity: going to bed at 9PM and getting up at 6AM, weekends included.

[sarahsweets]

I clicked on the book and it didnt describe what personal rhythm theory was and the link to the other site didnt really describe it. Is it like a sleeping schedule? I used to have terrible insomnia and take sleeping medicine which wasnt good for my memory or alcoholism. I read about sleep training and did it myself and even though it took a good 6 months its so easy for me now. I basically wake up in the same window of time and go to bed in the same window of time every day no matter what. For me that means waking up between 4a-6a and going to bed between 10p-12a. I had to use alarm clocks to get into the routine but now its like I almost wake up naturally. There were other things I do but the biggie was the sleep/wake schedule. I had to be very rigid and persistent but it really paid off. Is that what this is about?

[AspiringAuthor]

It is what this is about it, but also much more. The theory, which has received evidentiary validation, is that bipolar is a circadian rhythm dysregulation disorder. The therapy has been developed as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy. German terms ZEITGEBER and ZEITSTOERER are used.

ZEITGEBER: literally ZEIT means TIME and GEBER means GIVER. These are events, patterns, routines, and prompts that organize us. For example, if you go to a weekly or monthly event, that is a ZEITGEBER for you. If you eat dinner or, in your case, wake up in a certain window of time, it is a ZEITGEBER for you. ZEITGEBERS are good for us as they have build a robust system that protects against the intrinsic tendency towards circadian rhythm dysregulation.

ZEITSTOERERs break, disrupt those routines - they are the oppose of ZEITGEBERS. Say, a person loses employment or gets a divorce - in addition to psychologically difficult emotions these events bring about, there is powerful tendency to destroy the rhythms that had been built into that person's days, weeks and months. No more family meals - out goes the daily rhythm of gathering around the table. No more job - the person no longer gets up at a certain time. These ZEITSTORERS act independently and in addition to the psychological burden of negative events, triggering episodes. That is why it is particularly difficult, but also particularly helpful, to have a routine when on disability, without work organizing your day externally.

Using your analogy, after introducing many ZEITGEBERS into your routine, you train yourself.