How I Beat Bipolar

August 15, 2017 Leave a comment

‘How I Beat Bipolar’ is a day of presentations, activities and discussions in Leicester, UK.

This is for:

  • people who experience excess anxiety, depression or mania
  • charity workers, professionals, family, carers and supporters

Beat-Bipolar-Leicester-2017-Sept-19 - online advert
Outline:

  1. Understanding my internal and external moods
  2. Getting into, on-to and then over recovery
  3. Divide and conquer – ‘causes’ and ‘cures’
  4. Know what you want / Behaviour for what you need
  5. From victim/rescuer to driver/navigator

Reserve a place: www.wraptraining.co.uk

Example slide:
How I Beat Bipolar - example slide

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Ups and Downs – Research Report Published #bipolar #bipolardisorder

February 11, 2014 Leave a comment

‘Listen, empower us and take action now!’: reflexive-collaborative exploration of support needs in bipolar disorder when ‘going up’ and ‘going down’. Billsborough J, Mailey P, Hicks A, Sayers R, Smith R, Clewett N, Griffiths CA, Larsen J.

This is an article published in J Ment Health. 2014 Feb;23(1):9-14. doi: 10.3109/09638237.2013.815331.  US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24484186

This was a project I was involved with and that I will say more about soon. 

I was fortunate enough to present this work at Nottingham University in 2012, where I concluded with one thing I learned from the study. Influenced by a sister of someone with a bipolar diagnosis who I interviewed during the study this thing I learned was that a (maybe ‘the‘) key factor in recovery and long-lasting wellness is love or if not love then it is something very like love that a lot of us need.

I have to admit that perhaps only one of all the people we interviewed actually said ‘love’, it is just that with everyone interviewed telling us how much difference it made when they were ‘really’ listened to… it is seemed clear to me that something very like love from the people closest to us makes all the difference.

As I say, I will write more about this research later.

Roger

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Causes – a change of emphasis – Dec 2012

December 14, 2012 4 Comments

A change of emphasis

Finding a person’s causes and triggers for mood disorder is something we have talked about for years and yet it seems it could be time to change the way we say this.

Recovery is most successful when we first tackle the triggers – essentially, what is causing the ‘episodes’/’relapses’ (as the medical people describe the blips we have). We have to tackle the triggers to gain the stability we need to move on.

Traditionally, moving on is about getting back to work, repairing damaged relationships (if it is not too late to do so) and learning to live with the bipolar disorder label for the rest of your life. However, the label stays no matter how well you become, even when you may feel fully recovered. The change we are suggesting here is that; after you have identified and dealt with some of your triggers, to regain that essential stability, it is not time to move on! It now seems this may need to be the time to look for the root causes and in particular identifying if there may be a physical cause of your troubles that has been overlooked.

If your mood disorder has been primarily caused by a physical health problem, then sorting this out is essential to stop your difficulties from returning.

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