tips for averting mania?

[mawbroon]

I have bipolar and have been pretty stable for the last 3 years.

I was a bit depressed in November and December. I hate Christmas but kind of have to do it for the kids but find it all pretty stressful and it comes with eating loads of crap and erratic sleeping.

I was really glad when the kids went back to school and started on a decluttering project with a view to decorating some of the house. This has been the plan for a while, so it's not a hairbrained manic idea!

So, been going great guns with the decluttering, feeling the benefit of having less shite lying around, booked a holiday for the Feb break which we are all excited about. something else really exciting has come up. It would out me to be specific, but it is something that other people are really interested in too, so again not a hair brained manic thing.

Anyway, I am recognising some early warning signs of mania and need some tips on reining it in.

My psychiatrist has been happy for me to judge my own dose of anti psychotic meds, so I have taken a higher dose tonight which I expected would knock me out, but I am lying in bed wide awake. I have routine appointment on Wed, so will see what he says then.

I can't be ill. I don't want to be ill!! Any suggestions for nipping it in the bud?

Hi Mawbroon, sorry to hear you're feeling like you're coming off the rails. Very impressed that you actually recognise the onset! My grandmother and my father both were/are bipolar, and they never seemed to know when they where within the spectrum from one day to the next. I'm lucky in a way that despite I only inherited the depressive side of it. I find watching what I eat helps tremendously, i.e. no crap and I can definitely feel a change in 'brain chemistry', when I do eat stuff that's bad for me.

This is probably not much help to you but at least it'll bump your post up :)

Thanks MrsBigD.

I managed to get a decent sleep last night and I'm feeling a bit calmer today.

It's so deceiving because it is really easy to think that the extra energy is because the depression has gone, but having the house so tidy and the weird urge to plough on and get stuff done is definitely not my "normal".

But it's so tempting to keep up the momentum. I know it would end in tears though.I've had psychosis in the past and I absolutely never want to go there ever, ever again