Everyone living with bipolar disorder experiences and is affected by bipolar disorder differently.

However, we all share specific sensitivities that can cause us to be more symptomatic or less symptomatic.

1. We are all affected by changes in our circadian rhythms.

Circadian rhythms are the natural rhythm that occurs in our body that tells us things like when its time to eat, sleep, when to wake-up, time to be active, have sex, rest etc.

Everyone has these rhythms. With us living with bipolar disorder, our brains and bodies are more sensitive to changes in these rhythms.

2. We are highly sensitive to changes in our quality and amount of sleep.

When our bodies need less sleep we are highly vulnerable for mania or depression, possibly already in stages of mania or depression.

Quality sleep, deep sleep, is very important in maintaining our stability.

We ideally go through 4 cycles of sleep during the night. Our goal is to experience those complete cycles of sleep.

During our REM sleep (deep sleep in which we dream and have rapid eye movement, increased heart rate and blood pressure etc) all brains are both organizing and processing emotion, retaining memories and managing stress. By not getting the proper amount of REM sleep (4-5 cycles) our brains cannot do what they need to do to maintain emotional and mental and emotional control and stability.

3. We are very sensitive to light.

Our bodies are so sensitive to light that even if we try to go to sleep with a mask on our bodies can still be affected by the light around us and this will affect our quality of sleep.

We need our sleeping space to be as dark as possible to promote our best quality sleep.

Sometimes things like watching candle-light can promote falling asleep. However, that same light will wake us up out of deep sleep once we have achieved it and completed a cycle of sleep.

4. We are highly sensitive to our thoughts and emotions.

What we focus on grows incredibly fast.

Our sensitivity to our thoughts and emotions is so intense and rapid that we often do not have time to think about our thoughts and emotions to support them with evidence. Instead, we feel our thoughts and emotions incredibly deeply. We experience them in our mind and bodies in ways that cannot be put to words and easily understood from someone who is not living with bipolar disorder.

We live our thoughts and emotions, instead of thinking them. They are real to us until we take control, set our boundaries and define or make sense of them.

Our thoughts become feelings and actions impulsively. This process happens so fast that we often do not even think about it unless we know how. And even when we know how, it often will happen and we simply have to back-track and make corrections to our thinking and behavior.

5.  We are highly sensitive to stress.

We have the ability to face and conquer stress.  However, stress can easily throw us into an episode if we don’t know how to respond to it.

If we respond to stress with a sense of urgency or panic we are in trouble. We are asking for a manic episode.

Therefore, we need to learn and practice ways of responding to stress that do not invite the panic response.

We need to have a plan for responding to stress. One way of doing this is to plan for the stress that you know you are going to have in your daily life due to your responsibilities.  If you know that there are certain things that you have to do, then you have control over that stress and are able to respond to it without urgency or panic.

What tends to throw us through a loop are the stressors that we don’t plan for. When “shit happens” our goal is to plan that we’ll do the best we can with the resources we’ve got in that moment…and if it’s not perfect, so what!

Everyone we are dealing with under circumstances of stress is human…they’re not perfect too.

When you are living with bipolar disorder, it is not in your best interest to be a perfectionist. That’s just asking to be manic all the time.

Make space in your life and your relationships to make mistakes and be willing to own it and do your best to do better.

Take the stress off of yourself to be perfect.

It is so important that you know your own limitations and are willing and able to communicate them during times of stress. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or support.

There are some stressors like major loss, natural disasters, economic struggles etc that you just can’t plan for or do anything to control. During these times all you can do is grieve, feel a whole lot of pain, be angry, depressed…basically be just like everyone else during the worst times in their life…and get support, help and resources.