Thanks for your comments on my post yesterday. They got me thinking more about insight…
What’s the point of insight into my bipolar disorder and its symptoms? What do I do with it?
Insight is useful when it can help improve things somehow. For instance when I notice that I’m having depression or manic symptoms, I can check things out and do things to make my life better.
- I can check my recent sleep patterns. If they’re off, they may be a trigger and I can fix that comparatively easily by getting back on track.
- I can check the stressors in my life. A bunch of them? If so, can I avoid any, or make time to relax or meditate to compensate for them? If I can’t avoid it or compensate somehow, just knowing that’s what’s affecting me can at least lower my anxiety level about whatever I’m experiencing.
- I can check my meds, new ones may cause stuff I’d want to call my shrink about; or if no new ones, did I take them all recently? If not, well, get back on track and that’ll probably help.
- Once I even realized I was talking about being dead being better than being alive in the course of a discussion. Hmmmms, that’s got to be a sign something’s out of whack for me. So I got with my support folks, and asked for help.
- If I’m starting to get manic, I can drop the caffeine, nail my eating and sleeping schedules, force myself to have quiet time, exercise when I just have to move around, and often manage it or derail a big escalation upwards.
- etc.
I track my general mood as best as I can gauge it, anxiety level, irritability, hours of sleep, time of sleep, meds I take and when I take them, happenings or stressors that may affect my state of mind, unusual activities, unusual eating, exercise, and since I have asthma (which can affect mood) my peak flow, all on a daily basis. I even enter it all in moodchart.com so I can see trends on nice little graphs and pie charts. Techno-insight LOL It is kind of a pain in the butt. I don’t really want to do it. But it does help me and my psychiatrist see patterns and sort things out. And when I see these things, I can try to do something about it. I often can help myself some, or get help, even if I can’t fix it.
What insight I have doesn’t happen by accident. I work really hard to have it because it’s useful to me. It would no doubt be easier to just be medicate heavily and just amble around in a fog. Easier maybe, but I don’t think I’d like it at all. So I do what I need to do to help myself.
Babbled by Immi.
Entries (RSS)
Apologies for any apparent lack of appreciation for the subject matter on your previous post. My joking about insight was in response to it oft falling short against issues such as symptom relief. My own is also hard-won & definitely the key to my remaining sanity. Keep up the good insight! ~_~
(|_|*ch33rs*|_|)
“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes
Dorian, Oh I knew it was humor. No apologies needed. Even humor can make people think though
Truth be told, what I usually credit as key to my [remaining] sanity is the ability to laugh at myself..