Tag stress & bipolar disorder | Thrive With Bipolar Disorder

Good Stress vs. Bad Stress: How stress can trigger a bipolar episode

In the news lately, Catherine Zeta Jones has openly shared her story of being treated for bipolar disorder that may have been caused by the stress of her husband, Michael Douglas, struggling with cancer.

People are wondering about stress and its relationship with bipolar disorder. By no means do I believe I have “the answer”. However, I do have a perspective that comes from my own experience that may shed some light on the types of stress that trigger an episode.

Good Stress vs. Bad Stress

Good stress comes from the combination of responsibility, goals and purpose with having a plan and structure to manage it.

Good stress is external, meaning it comes from doing something in the world.

Good stress may not cause a bipolar manic or depressive episode.

An example of good stress is, “I want to be successful in life. In order to be successful I need to develop my abilities to do something that is meaningful to me. In order to develop my abilities I need to learn information and develop the skills to apply them. To learn information and develop skills I need experience. In order to get experience, I need to get educated. In order to get educated I need to study. In order to study I need to pay attention in to my teachers and learn. etc…”

This example is full of stress and one that we all go through. In my opinion, the stress of having to do these things is not what causes an episode for someone living with bipolar disorder.

This is productive stress that is goal oriented and task based. This stress is emotion contained by a plan of action.

Bad stress is caused by internal pressures in response to overwhelm, urgency and fear.

It is caused by thoughts and feelings playing on each other without a plan of action.

Bad stress welcomes and ignites episodes of bipolar disorder.

BAD STRESS can take on multiple forms that build upon themselves:

Overwhelm

Overwhelm is a temporary state that occurs when we simply don’t have the interpersonal resources and information to achieve a goal.

In the example of good stress, there was a plan of how to reach a goal. With bad stress there is no plan of how to achieve a goal. As a result, a person may experience so much overwhelm that mania or depression gets invited as a coping mechanism. Mania takes action or depression shuts you down.

Overwhelm is simply shouting, “I don’t know what I’m doing!” “This is too much!” “I can’t handle this right now!”

So mania kicks in and the brain says, “Yay! I can do anything!” And it’s thoughts race a million miles a minute causing a person to focus on a goal for 20 hours straight using all of their brain power, even if the result makes no sense.

Or depression kicks in and the brain says, “I think and feel nothing. I’m not getting out of bed. Lights are out, no one is home. Go away.”

Overwhelm + Urgency

Urgency is a real or imagined perception that something has to be done, RIGHT NOW.

This is a recipe for disaster for someone living with bipolar disorder because the imagined perception of urgency is a part of daily living. Therefore, when it combines with overwhelm it can easily lead to mania or depression.

Overwhelm + Urgency are simply screaming, “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I have to do it RIGHT NOW!”

Mania kicks in and gets the job done or depression does nothing and simply shuts down. Either way it is a coping mechanism to conquer overwhelm combined with urgency.

Overwhelm + Urgency + Fear

This is the worst. Not only do you not know what you’re doing and it has to be done right now, but you have to deal with all of the “could’s”.

Example: “I could fail.” “I could be humiliated.” “I could disappoint everyone.” “I could lose.” “I could lose the person I love the most in the world.”

When overwhelm, urgency and fear combine, which they tend to do eventually, you have the perfect storm for mania or depression. It is a combination that is just asking for it in a person with bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is interesting because it often causes many people to live with a sense of urgency regardless of an external source causing urgency.

In my own experience, I have to consciously remind myself that there is no external urgency in what I am doing. I have to slow myself down.

The Hidden Stress

That doesn’t feel like stress at all

Excitement

When people think of excitement, they often don’t think of it as a stress response. However, for a person living with bipolar disorder excitement is the match…or even easier a torch loaded with fuel.

People often ask me why that is…here’s what I believe.

We do not get excited about things that are familiar to us.

We do not get excited about things we know how to do well.

We do not get excited about things way off in the future.

Excitement is simply the really fun form of overwhelm and urgency.

Therefore, it is very common for people to experience excitement and have it lead to mania and possibly even depression.

5 Sensitivities That Affect People Living With Bipolar Disorder

in Information by Robin Mohilner June 25, 2010 4 comments

The earth & all life are sensitive to the moon

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.