I had another hospital stay two years ago as of this coming February, so it's not the two year anniversary of staying out of the hospital yet, but with the way things are going I'm feeling confident that I'll be able to avoid the hospital in February as well.
Other than being very tired in the mornings, my mood has been excellent. One of the biggest things that indicate that bipolar symptoms are going to be a problem is poor sleep. At first, I thought poor sleep precipitated hypomanic, manic, or depressive episodes, but after talking to my nurse practitioner, she said she thought it was the other way around. My sleep has been good (other than sleeping more than I'd like--more about that later--and I've been falling asleep and staying asleep easily.
I was actually relieving to hear that my manic or hypomanic episodes were causing poor sleep and not the other way around. Instead of stressing about sleep, which often made it harder to fall asleep, I've learned to roll with in and rather than telling myself I needed to get eight hours of sleep every night to recover, I just tell myself I'm going to sleep less and focus on managing the hypomanic symptoms instead of worrying about sleep.
Good sleep generally means I'm not in or going to have a manic, hypomanic, or depressive state, so I'm hoping that continues. Part of why I've been sleeping well has been a medication adjustment which has really worked well. The big downsides of the medication are a insatiable appetite and making it very hard to get out of bed in the morning.
I'm feeling grateful for all the support I've received to be free from bipolar symptoms. It's been very satisfying to make it through the early fall feeling good, and I'm optimistic that I'll make it beyond the two year mark of hospital stays.
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