Understanding my Energy

I would like to start to talk about energy and why I feel it is so essential in bipolar management. Awhile back I was attending a DBSA (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance)meeting and one of the people at the meeting said that bipolar is more about managing our energy than it is about managing our moods. I went home and was thinking about this. At the time I was having a hard time managing my moods and energy. I did some research and found several reports saying our moods in Bipolar are directly related to energy levels. I started to think about this and realized how linked they really were. I noticed during my depressive episodes my energy levels were extremely low while in manic they were extremely elevated. I then started to use caffeine to help boost my mood when depressed. WARNING!: I began this very carefully because caffeine can interact dangerously with our other medications. I treat caffeine as another medication to be used carefully as specific times. It can cause some very negative reactions, so we need to use caffeine very carefully. My doctor told me to be careful with it and I have. What I notice, though was that as I was doing this I noticed my moods seemed to be better. I was easier to be around and I was also managing my bipolar a little better. As I refined this process it became easier and easier to manage my Bipolar. I was not so focused on managing my mood but more on managing my energy. I was exercising and taking vitamin supplements and maintaining my physical health, too. I felt better more often and noticed my moods seemed to follow. So I have to thank DBSA for giving me this very important insight. There are many more things that that I have done since then that i will talk about in other post but if we want to manage Bipolar we must manage our energy. Energy is something a little more tangible to manage than mood so we can manage it more easily.

Note: Chapters of DBSA meet in many places all over the United States. They're all volunteer run, so each will be managed a little differently. Whatever the organization in your area, they may be a worthwhile support resource for you to tap into if you're not already.