Mental Health: Early Summer

Spring and early summer sometimes bring with them bipolar episodes -- generally hypomanic episodes that make it difficult to sleep well, focus, and manage increased energy. While I'm feeling well right now, this time of year does bring me a certain anxiety and a fear that my bipolar symptoms will flare up, making it difficult to complete my daily activities.

While life can get difficult, there are things I do to manage or prevent an episode. Right now I'm trying to eat well, get good sleep, and exercise. While these things help, in the past it has been very frustrating when I feel like I'm doing all the right things, and the episodes still happen. While I've been told otherwise by my friends, family, and health care providers, it still feels like it's my fault for having an episode.

Still, I'm trying to stay optimistic. I'm on a combination of medications I haven't been on during the spring and early summer, and since I started this combination in February, I haven't had even a blip of an episode.

So, having made it this far through spring, I'm going to keep doing what I can to prevent an episode and try and do my best to not worry about the things that are out of my control.

In my next few posts, I’ll write about mania, anxiety, and depression, along with some strategies I use to prevent and mitigate the symptoms.

Thanks for reading.