Bipolar Check-in #86

This is a support thread, that’s for all areas of life. Yes even the broken washer that’s too expensive of a fix. Not everyone has the money to just replace problem machines. Frankly hearing about other’s problems makes me grateful. I am not physically able to bend and handle the clean up. That makes me grateful that I live in a building where there’s a matanice person to handle things like that. Sure it’s a pain to not have a washer dryer in my unit, but gosh! I don’t have to handle the blow back. I appreciate the feeling of gratitude

MD: Magnesium works too; that's basically what's in Philips...LOL. You can look at the active ingredient. I'm not sure if it's cheaper to buy magnesium pills or Philips but it may be worth a price comparison?

Thanks. That stomach bug I had last week and the one imodium I took really messed things up.

Oh, immodium can do that. My doctor urges me not to take it when I have nervous bowel issues. He prescribed something else because he hates immodium.

Brake check!

I mean, for me anyway, the worst thing you can do to a person with bipolar is hit them when they're up...

I love immodium. But one must be judicious in its use.

I want pizza rolls. Thinking of making some.

My pizza rolls were good. Burned my mouth 6 indivual times.

Yeah the imodium worked great and I only took one and I'm still dealing with it lol.

@Crazy Hitch teaching classes back to back like that is so hard. I hope you had the energy you needed!

To join in on the constipation talk, I accidentally discovered that the prebiotic inulin can be helpful. It's in those poppi sodas and you can buy probiotics with it in it.


I've had trouble falling asleep the past couple of nights so I am taking a prn of seroquel tonight. Despite having trouble falling asleep, I woke up with plenty of energy this morning, to the point where I felt a little hypomanic. My energy crashed a little bit during the day, but that's just part of the ebs and flows of a normal day. This week is one of the week's I'm not thrilled with my lesson plans, but I am trying to let that go. I did the best I could. Outside of today, it just won't be a very fun week for the kids. It's more independent work than would, in an ideal world, be in one week.

I think my bad coffee habit is affecting the enamel on my front teeth so I better make some changes there. I use enamel care mouth wash but still should work to cut back on the coffee I drink, or at least switch to iced so I can drink it from a straw.

@JaneOnceMore

Why are you being so mean?!

(I'm sorry. Please don't lynch me. 🙏 )

Oh, another constipation thing I've learned in chia seeds. A few tablespoons per day in my oatmeal and I've not needed any meds for constipation in months.

I'm trying the things my PT taught me. Pushing on my stomach kinda hard in a circular way from my upper stomach down to my lower stomach and also doing leg lifts. I'm hoping something helps soon.

@Mountaindewed

Not to be tmi, but I take 400mg of seroquel on the nightly and it makes me terribly constipated. I take milk of magnesia for it every other night and it really DOES help, so you should be getting relief soon. 😊

I worked myself up so much over this constipation issue that I got so dizzy I was wobbling like I had one too many. I took my blood pressure and it was 147/98. Then I threw up. My doctor wants to do an A1C. The last one I had was a bit elevated. I know I'm drinking water and soda like crazy and I'm tired a lot. I also have this spot on my stomach that isn't healing no matter what I put on it or the pants I wear. My dad died from diabetes and my mom has it too. Idk. I'm lying down in the dark now. My smelly cat was lying on my bed earlier.

Just reading through the last few threads. Oh my. I come in peace. How is everyone? Today felt rough but I’m going to remind myself I had 3 good classes with only one class where I had to contact a few parents of students who flat out refused to work and played games. Tomorrow I teach 4 on too so it’s going to be hectic again ughhh. And I see the naughty class.

@raspberrytorte:

Being the victim of hate crime causes unpredictable effects. I'm under a lot of pressure.

As the sun sets on another day of living this life that we only get once, I can honestly say, today was a great day. All of my senses were stimulated. All of my needs were met and then some. I had some wonderful energy interactions with people, with Treacle, with the weather and earth I stand on. And the shower was hot! I mean, how better does it get than having a hot shower when it's needed. As of now, we are not long out of bed, where we will lay and listen to a bit of ASMR with Ozley before drifting into the land of Nod. Which Is in Oz tonight. Until you need nod, then you can have him too. Today had its rough patches, bit of a tussle with my specialist over the phone leading into Thursday, and, how awesome to have a specialist to argue with LOL. Pretty awesome, Ive been challenged to wait for a while, so I shall enjoy the process. And, prepare for what if it turns out better than I could possibly imagine.............

You are so strong managing your panic and anxiety. It's funny, my psychiatrist says everywhere in my city are being slowly off benzos and your Dr is wanting you to be on them. I'm on medicaid. I'm sure you are too but new York, Oregon, California, and the upper north east states have their own form of medicaid. Like there's only one place here that does medicaid management. When you get a therapist, they've usually just graduated and once you start to finally trust them they leave and go into the public spector. So I've used music as my therapy. That's why with this new therapist I just want to do cbt. Not get into my trauma. I watched it ends with us on Netflix and bawled my eyes out. I completely understood that and I wish I had a man that had my back. My dad died when I was 4 and men in my life have hurt me. But anyway I had a good cry, lol.

Sorry about the long paragraphs, I'm on my phone and you can't go up to correct things. But hopefully I'll be getting a new laptop soon.

I always burn my mouth on pizza rolls lol I always tell myself I’m gonna wait till they cool off but I always end up eating them and burning my mouth lol

Oh, thank God. Much better sleep last night. I feel so much better already; yesterday I was getting racing thoughts even, have to admit. Good sleep hygiene is so important to leveling out my bipolar, it's crazy. Sleep does more for me than all the meds I take combined.

Yeah I live in NY that may be why it’s different

CBT is a good idea! I’ve found it very helpful. I’m sorry about your dad dying and the men that hurt you

I’m glad you have music to help you with coping, do you listen to music or play an instrument or both? I love music myself. I listen to a lot of it and I also play the violin daily and sometimes dabble in ukulele and keyboard

Music is a great coping skill

Glad you got good sleep! I got really good sleep last night as well. 8 1/2 hours according to my smart watch. Woke up feeling good.

I’ve been trying to improve my sleep hygiene as well. Putting my phone away a couple hours before bed and just using my kindle to read before bed. Sometimes a shower before bed helps me as well. Meditation is good too and journaling. I like to journal before bed. I have two separate journals. One is a gratitude journal I write everything I’m grateful for daily. Could be little stuff like a good cup of coffee or big stuff. Anything really. I do that every day, go through my days mentally and catalog all the good stuff. And then my regular journal that I just write in like a typical journal where I write about my mood, my day, my plans etc

Good morning! I slept good. I have an inspection today I think. Aside from that I plan on doing some art, practicing violin and getting on the treadmill. And reading. Lately I’ve been having an easier time focusing on reading than on watching shows. I tend to get distracted every 5 seconds when I’m watching shows. But reading immerses me enough that I’m not distracted at all.

I might look up some watercolor tutorials today on YouTube to get an idea of how to use them since I’ve never really used watercolors I’ve mostly used acrylic.

Enjoying my first cup of coffee and some music right now

I read some of that art shading technique book last night and learned about the different types of pencils, paper, erasers and blending tools and their effects

@Blueberrybook:

Glad you got some good sleep. Yeah, sleep promotes health better than meds do. I did relatively well with four hours from 4:00am to 8:00am. It's so unusual for me to sleep-in that late, since being a victim of a hate crime on January 12, 2025, that i was really pleased. It's more typical for me to sleep from 11:00pm to 2:00am since my incident. I feel a little better today, but there's still a long way to go, as four hours is still short sleep.

Looking forward to a quiet day spent snuggling my dog in solitude.

Hugs to all the strugglers out there, and please see my separate thread of apology for all my nasty behavior yesterday. I feel terribly.

This is more playful joke but the nature makes me want to put it in a trigger box in case haha.



Never tried loperamide. I only get diarrhea when I eat psych ward food or drink unfiltered pond water (probably same thing) and then I just enjoy the weight loss and excuse to drink liquid IV (FLAVORED HYDRATION!!!) without going for a 8 mile hike.

I'm doing ok -- I'm "working from home" because my boss is afraid I'm going to give him shingles still. I told him I don't want to be there and have them feel they are at risk, even if I know they are not. I'm healing up very nicely and I told him we can take it day by day. I am logging full day because I cannot afford not to work.


Feeling pretty good emotionally today. I'll take a win when I can get it.

Having GI issues and a headache. I think it’s PMS because I’m due for my period any day now.

Sometimes I wonder if I have premenstrual dysphoric disorder. My anger, irritability, paranoia, anxiety, mood swings, headaches etc are intense in the week leading up to my period. As soon as my period starts I feel so much better and all that is gone.