How to Stabilize Your Mood When You Suffer From Manic Depression
Do you experience mood swings, sometimes very severe? So severe that sometimes you can barely get out of bed yet other times your feeling like life is one big party and you are capable of doing anything.
Do you sometimes feel like your emotions are out of control? Like you are guided by an outside force that tells you how to feel which in turn guides the way you act in situations. Have you been impulsive, maybe very impulsive? Have you ever gotten up one morning and just decided to quit your job or end a relationship or do something that drastically changed your life.
If your mood swings are this severe what you may be suffering from is manic depression. Manic depression affects 22 million people and those are only the ones that have been diagnosed.
Now if you have either just been diagnosed with manic depression, think that you may have it or are still trying to get your manic depression under control there are many things that you can do to help stabilize your life.
Notice I said stabilize your life and not just stabilize your mood. I said it this way because the moods that we experience on a day to day basis are the number one thing we experience in determining the course of our lives. I could write a complete article on this so I will save it for a future time.
Now I don’t suffer from manic depression, I suffer from unipolar depression, but many of the therapies are the same. And the first and foremost thing that I found in conquering my depression was ACCEPTANCE.
The first thing that I needed to learn was that I have a disease and it’s absolutely no different than any other disease. I have it, it’s not my fault, I have had it for a long time and now I have to handle it. For me this is the single most important thinking in dealing with any problem. In fact it’s this exact thought process that helped turn around my life.
The next line of defense for those suffering from manic depression is medication. Medications can be classified into several categories. First you have your mood stabilizing drugs, second you have anti depressants and then you also have anti psychotic drugs. Along with these medications there are also many others used in conjunction to mostly ease the symptoms of the side effects.
One very important thing to remember about medications for mental health is always take them when you are supposed to. Do not skip a dose and do not change the dose that you are taking without asking a professional’s advice.
The last line of defense for manic depression is talk therapy. It has been medically proven that talking out your problems changes the physiology of the human brain. And since manic depression is a brain disorder the chemical balances in your brain will begin to change when you talk out your problems.
Manic depression is a serious disease that affects many lives. With the right treatment however it can be kept well under control. If you think that you may be experiencing any of the symptoms the best advice is to see your medical professional.
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June 11th, 2008 at 5:04 am
[…] Manic depression which is now known as bipolar disorder can be divided into three categories. Then within those three categories there can be many variations. You can be mildly manic-depressive or your cycles could be more severe. You may just need a little counseling and maybe some mild medications or you may require stronger medications or even ECT in order to be able to function and lead a normal life. Fortunately when it comes to treatment options there are many available. Medication is vital in treating manic depression. In fact many patients need to combine several medications to receive the best effects. One thing to understand with manic depression treatment is that the first medication that you are prescribed may not be the right one. Finding the right treatment can be a very long process of trial and error. If your first medication is not helping don’t be alarmed there are many types of medication available. The downside to medication though is that although rare there are possible side effects and that medications actually alter brain chemistry. Here is a look at some of the most widely used types of medication: […]