Tuesday, September 18, 2007

"Can you drink when youhave bipolar disorder"

At first I thought, "What a sillyquestion," because you see commercials all the time on TVabout how not to drink alcoholwhen taking this or that medication,whichever one they're advertisingfor. But then I thought, well, theynever advertise for bipolar ones,so maybe it's a valid questionafter all.

Either way, I decided to answerit here, because I'm sure there aremore of you out there with thesame question.First let me say, I havenever had a drink in my life.I am not saying that to brag just to let you know I don'tspeak from experience.BUT, I haven't jumped off a cliff either doesn't mean I have to do thatto know how bad it would be forme :)But I have done a lot, and I mean a lot, of research into bipolar disorder, as you know, andalong with that, there is a lot of mention about people who havethe disorder who also have problemswith alcohol abuse.

Even by itself, without bipolardisorder, alcohol can be a hugeproblem. See, alcohol is adepressant. Which is kind offunny, because people who aredepressed don't know that, andthey turn to alcohol to make themfeel better when they're depressed.

And too many people end up asalcoholics, with or without thebipolar disorder to deal with aswell. But since I'm only talkingto people who have the disorder,I'll only talk about it in relationto that.Let's just talk in terms of yourmedications. There are all kindsof warnings not to take alcoholwith your medication, aren't there?So it's kind of a moot point to evenask if you can drink if you havebipolar disorder because of courseyou will be taking medication foryour disorder.That's the simplest answer I cancome up with!

Drinking alcohol can be bad enoughin itself, but can be deadly for the person with bipolar disorder, whenmixed with their bipolar medications.In addition to this, there are somany other bad things that alcoholbrings.It can and usually does cause weightgain. It causes people to eat more when they are drinking.

It causespeople to engage in relations withpeople they normally wouldn't.It causes people to say things theynormally would not and get theminto trouble.

It causes them do possibly drivedrunk. It causes people to spend moremoney they shouldn't spend.The reason why I have this list in myhead because I had this conversationwith a person in the gym that said, "Howcome you never ever drink." I gave herthe reasons. As much as she wanted to NOT believewhat I said, she had to believe itbecause everything was totally true.This person by the way does drink andand alcohol has caused many problemsfor her.

If you go through my courses/systemsbelow, you will not find one high functioningperson with bipolar disorder that drinks.I don't know of one person at all. SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?Visit:http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?Visit:http://www.bipolarparenting.comHAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?Visit:http://www.survivebipolar.netAnd many of the people in my courses USE TOdrink and they indicate it made it almost impossiblefor them to get their bipolar disorder undercontrol.Oh, I forgot one more bad thing with alcohol.

Some who drink become violent.I seriously might have 3000 horror storiesof people with bipolar disorder that weredrinking and not stable.

If you think thata person with bipolar disorder who is notstable is bad, when you add alcohol it makesit 100 to probably 1000 times worse.This is going to sound crazy, but I would appreciateif some people with bipolar disorder that useto drink would post how bad drinking is onmy blog and warn others.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

The whole story, facts and fiction for those who want to know

Bipolar disorder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Manic Depression” redirects here. For other uses, see Manic Depression (disambiguation).
Bipolar disorderClassification & external resources
Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric condition defined as recurrent episodes of significant disturbance in mood. These disturbances can occur on a spectrum that ranges from debilitating depression to unbridled mania. Individuals suffering from bipolar disorder typically experience fluid states of mania, hypomania or what is referred to as a mixed state in conjunction with depressive episodes. These clinical states typically alternate with a normal range of mood. The disorder has been subdivided into Bipolar I, Bipolar II and cyclothymia, with both Bipolar I and Bipolar II potentially presenting with rapid cycling.
Also called Bipolar Affective Disorder until recently, the current name is of fairly recent origin and refers to the cycling between high and low episodes; it has replaced the older term Manic-depressive Illness coined by Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) in the late 19th century.[3] The new term is designed to be neutral, to avoid the stigma in the non-mental health community that comes from conflating "manic" and "depression".
Onset of symptoms generally occurs in young adulthood. Diagnosis is based on the person's self-reported experiences, as well as observed behavior. Episodes of illness are associated with distress and disruption, and a relatively high risk of suicide.[1] Studies suggest that genetics, early environment, neurobiology, and psychological and social processes are important contributory factors. Current psychiatric research is focused on the role of neurobiology, but a clear organic cause has not been found. Bipolar disorder is usually treated with medications and/or therapy or counseling. The mainstay of medication are a number of drugs termed 'mood stabilizers', in particular lithium and sodium valproate ; these are a group of unrelated medications used to prevent relapses of further episodes. Antipsychotic medications, sometimes called neuroleptics, in particular olanzapine, are used in the treatment of manic episodes and in maintenance. The benefits of using antidepressants in depressive episodes is unclear. In serious cases where there is risk to self and others involuntary hospitalization may be necessary; these generally involve severe manic episodes with dangerous behaviour or depressive episodes with suicidal ideation. Hospital stays are less frequent and for shorter periods than they were in previous years.
Some studies have suggested a significant correlation between creativity and bipolar disorder. However, the relationship between the disorder and creativity is still very unclear.[2][3][4] One study indicated increased striving for, and sometimes obtaining, goals and achievements.[5]
Contents[hide]
1 Signs and symptoms
1.1 Classification
1.2 Depressive phase
1.3 Mania
1.4 Hypomania
1.5 Mixed state
1.6 Rapid cycling
1.7 Cognition
1.8 Creativity
2 Diagnosis
2.1 Diagnostic criteria
2.2 Delay in diagnosis
2.3 Children
3 Epidemiology
4 Etiology
4.1 Heritability or inheritance
4.2 Genetic research
5 Treatment
5.1 Medication
6 Research
6.1 Medical imaging
6.2 New treatments
7 Prognosis
7.1 Recurrence
7.2 Mortality
8 History
9 See also
10 References
10.1 Cited texts
11 Further reading
12 External links
//

See also
Mood (psychology)
Emotion
List of people believed to have been affected by bipolar disorder

References
go here

Triggers

I cannot and will not look back to see when my BP started, but I am learning to identify triggers that activate different modes in the present.

This gives me a hope of doing damage control in the future.
Triggers: not enough sleep, too much sleep disruption of my daily routine no sex/too much sex colds, alergies all extremes of coffee to food to smelling of flowers in the garden overtly nasty people and overtly nice people.
well...... anything taken either by me or people around me to the extreme. (that sounds right)

Now, as a BP diagnosed in 83, most of my life has been extremes, so basically being alive is a trigger for me. My meds prevent me from being arrested, hospitalized or dead. hopefully they will continue
Rose
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