How to handle stress with bipolar disorder? I don’t fully know the answer. I guess I don’t even know the question. What is stress? The definition is “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” Stress is so very many things. I know that I can’t hide from it, and when it gets high I am at risk of mood relapse. The big stressors tend to make me manic. I used to think I could hide from it in a tiny town. But it always finds me. Stress is inevitable and is needed for growth. But I can’t grow if the stress breaks me. 

The easy anwser is self-care. But self-care is so ambiguous and broadly defined. I don’t really think self care is defined as solving the problem that’s causing the stress. Often solving the problem causes more stress which can lead to an episode. Like my most recent episode was triggered by the loss of my mobile home. What put me in the fast lane of mood episode was solving the problem. Arranging to buy the lot, haul away the trailer, clean, and move in with my new girlfriend. Also trying to make arrangements to build a house. A house I couldn’t really afford. 

I think self care is indeed the answer. It’s not bubble baths. It’s taking my medications and when I am getting more stressed and irritable it’s taking my prn for mania. It’s sleeping at 9:30pm and waking at 6:00am. I need to stay away from bright light and social media before bed. Just relaxing or doing calm activities. Its showering and brushing my teeth. Its eating on a regular schedule. It’s prayer and meditation to keep spiritually healthy. It’s exercising, even if it’s just a chill walk. These things are easier said than done when I’m having mood problems though.

The problems need to be solved but I have to pace myself. I’m a man of extremes. All or nothing. I think that might be another way to look at bipolar really. It’s more than just mood extremes though. It’s everything in my life from my hobbies to my job, from the way I treat strangers to friends and family, and of course my moods and energy. It feels like it is my nature, making it that much harder to change. But the Aesop fable grandma wrote into my soul states, “slow and steady wins the race.”