Why You Should Know your Moods
In order to cope with being manic depressive, you have to learn how to monitor your moods and know if you are getting or if you are Manic or Depressed.
If you don't know how you are feeling, you will not be able to understand why you are doing silly things, and you will not know how to adjust your actions (and perhaps your medications) to compensate for the mood swings.
Know the Signs of Mania and Depression
Before you can monitor yourself and recognise your moods, you need to know what the signs (indicators) for being Manic or Depressed are. For me, these are my 30 symptoms of Mania and my 18 symptoms of Depression.
We will not all show the same signs / symptoms, and we will manifest them slightly differently from each other; so while the signs of your moods swings might look a lot like mine, they will not look exactly like mine.
You might also show some symptoms that I don't manifest. For example, someone told me that they walk faster when they are manic; which is something I don't do. All this is normal.
I'd recommend that you print out my lists for Mania and Depression and add in any other indicators for Mania and Depression that you know or notice about yourself. You should also strike out the items on my lists that don't apply to you.
Keep the lists handy! Stick them to the door of your fridge! Show them to the people you live with!
If you're not sure if a particular thing you do is a sign for mania or depression, check to see if it regularly happens when you're having the mood swing (remember, you are supposed to keep a Mood Chart).
Or, ask the people who live with you - they will likely know. Two questions to them is
"Is <this thing> something I usually do when I'm Depressed / Manic?"
"Does <this thing> start happening early in my Depression / Manic episode - it it an early sign, or is it something that happens when I'm well into my Depression / Manic episode?"
Start Monitoring
Set up your Mood Chart - use this link to see an easy way to do it.
Monitoring takes Practice
The monitoring thing comes with time and practice. I didn't suddenly know when I was hyper or when I was slightly depressed. Also, I didn't suddenly realise all in one day that all the indicators on my list were related to my mood swings. It took many many months of observation to realise when I was up or down and to notice which things happened fairly consistently in which mood.
Note that you won't always get your signs right. That's okay - just after I was diagnosed, it took me about two years to realise that some of the signs I thought were indicators of Mania were actually indicators of Depression. Stuff like this happens. Mostly, have confidence in yourself and don't worry about getting it wrong sometimes. That's life and you can always add or remove things from your list of Manic and Depression signs.
What's the Point of Monitoring Again?
The advantage of monitoring yourself and having a list of indicators is that you can recognise if you are becoming hyper or depressed. By getting an early warning signal, you can take some kind of action to delay the onset of the depression, or stop it from happening, or close off what you are doing gracefully, or at least warn people around you of what is happening.
For example, I know that a tense jaw is an indicator that I am getting hypomanic / manic. Once that starts happening, I can take some action to help me delay the onset of the mania, or I can take Tegretol (carbamazepine) which will prevent me from becoming Manic . And I can warn people to expect me to be irritable and snap at them at the littlest thing.
Or if I realise that I am starting to get confused and out of focus about what I am doing, a sign of Depression, I can tell my office mates that I will be working a bit slower than usual, or I can tell C. to expect me to act a bit uncaring or distant. It isn't a perfect solution, but at least C. doesn't feel snubbed.
Not all of the indicators I am monitoring are negative. One of my signs of Mania / Hypomania is the ability to talk fast and play with language. In fact, once I am up and at speed I can win pretty much any argument or presentation against anyone on any issue. Depending on the situation, and knowing this, I can either play to win or charm the socks off anyone when I am ready. It's handy in social situations and I'll be darned if I consider this a nuisance.
Learning to Let Go of Bad Habits
Another of the major reasons I learnt to monitor myself was so I could get rid of my bad "habits" and learn to relax. Take for example my irritability. It's not naturally part of my character - I snap at people mostly when I am hypomanic.
It's not a nice thing to do, and I'd rather not do it. So I monitor myself, and if it appears that I am more annoyed at people than I feel is typical or warranted in the situation, I say to myself, "Jinnah, recognise you are overdoing it again - calm down and approach things a with a little less emotion and a bit more common sense." And sometimes it works. And sometimes it doesn't. But I try.
All this is really no different that a "normal" person trying to get rid of stress and bad habits. Us manic depressive persons just have a bit lot more incentive to do so.
At the end of the day, I monitor myself because
I don't like my bad habits and I do want to change them, and
I hate being on medication, and will do anything to reduce my dosage to a minimum.
I'm finding out that monitoring myself constantly, gauging how Manic or Depressed I am, and taking action to counteract the mood swings can help stabilising my moods. And particularly for those symptoms related to mania, it can actually allow me to reduce the medication (see also Tegretol carbamazepine).
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Can't comment here on Google Sites, but you can Email Me at livingmanicdepressivemail@gmail.com