For the Bi-polars or similar without close family...

[tears25]

I have a question...

how do you keep on top of your treatments say if you live on your own?
I've never managed it.

The best help I ever received was when I was having to attend a day hospital everyday all day, then return home at night to my own comfortable surroundings. I really liked the extra support, but just as I thought I was making progress, after 1 month they kicked me out.

When I have a weekly therapist or CPN I never keep up with appts.
When my mood is going hey wire, I lose that sense of responsibility. When im stable yeah I know I need to go, but when im not I just end up skipping sessions and medications and things usually get even worse.

So I guess im wandering who else might be in a similar situation, without somone around every day to remind me to take medication or go to therapy how do you do it?

[tears25]

Thanks for all the replys and support on this??!!
I know im new but im doing by best to try help myself...

I chose to drink tonight. I hate myself for it.

I didn't drink much. infact i felt sick even from the smell.
but now I can't stop crying. I had such a positive day.
And i ruined it all. again.

[Chamabama]

I'm sorry you're struggling.

I don't have any experience with Bi-Polar so I can't really be of any assistance. This site has been down for some hours today so maybe that's why no one has had the chance to reply.

I wish I could be of more help!

[JMFburns]

Tears,

I'm sorry you're struggling. I do not have any experience with bi-polar so cannot offer any experience there.

I can relate as I have an adult son who is currently homeless and struggling with mental illness and I am struggling with how much contact with him I should have. I've not allowed him to grow up and take responsibility for himself so I wonder if now is the time to be stepping back. Like you, would he find it even more difficult without support of any kind? Or would that be the "kick in the butt" he needs to start taking care of himself?

Good luck, I hope you find some support and don't beat yourself up.

[Cleansing]

I don't know if you do all this stuff, but get a very small pocket calendar to wrtie down all you appointments, and read it often to remind yourself that the date is coming up so you can mentally prepare for it, and keep telling yourself that it's something you HAVE TO DO.

If you're having trouble taking meds, whenever you're feeling well, use a pill box (one with morning and pm), or get mutliple ones and fill it up for the week, that way when the time comes to take your medes, you just open up the appropriate day and pop them all at once, it'll be fun? lol


Don't worry about drinking. Don't let it ruin your day. If it was a positive day, then it still was a positive day. Let's just make the next day even better by not drinking. Don't feel too bad or put yourself down because you drank. I find that if I feel too bad about it, I'll just continue on that path until it becomes a full blown relapse.

[Silla]

I keep track of things on paper. I have a sheet where I track my mood by numbers in the morning and at night, how much I slept, what medications I've taken. It sucks to get used to but I know that if I don't stay on top of my disorder it will run me over. When I'm having trouble staying on track I start keeping my pills in a little snappy thing like was mentioned. When you live alone, you're basically accountable to yourself so it takes a bit of extra work to keep bipolar disorder in check but I've learned to know myself inside and out. The chart gives me something concrete to hold onto when my moods are going off. Once I got used to it, it became habit and has been something that has held me in reality through some episodes of hypomania and mania.

As for episodes occuring, I used to have contact with a therapist weekly, and my psychiatrist regularly so they can help me catch them. It's very very important to stay in contact with your medical supports.

[tears25]

Originally Posted by JMFburns

Tears,

I'm sorry you're struggling. I do not have any experience with bi-polar so cannot offer any experience there.

I can relate as I have an adult son who is currently homeless and struggling with mental illness and I am struggling with how much contact with him I should have. I've not allowed him to grow up and take responsibility for himself so I wonder if now is the time to be stepping back. Like you, would he find it even more difficult without support of any kind? Or would that be the "kick in the butt" he needs to start taking care of himself?

Good luck, I hope you find some support and don't beat yourself up.

Personally I think even if he is still taking drugs, if he knows he needs to stop and wants, if he knows he has mental illness and wants to sort it out then he needs as much support as possible. No guilt trips and dragging up what might of happened in the past. Just intense help so he can start to love himself and bring him self back from that hole. If he is not interested in anything but abusing substances and neglecting his mental health then cut him off/out but make sure you tell him this is until the day comes he decides he wants to get better.

[tears25]

Thanks for the advice Silla and Cleansing, makes a lot of sense.

I have started doing a daily blog so I can try follow my patterns in mood, just need to keep it up and what maybe is triggering me to decide to mess around with pils or decide to drink.
I know I have to keep up with medications and stuff but its not I forget, I just "lose" it and get nihilistic and just don't want to help myself anymore. I think this is the biggest issue of mine i need to work out.

[Ripley]

Hi Tears,

I'm new here and also have bipolar and live alone with no family in the area. What helps me is scheduling my therapy appointment for the same time EVERY week. Also, I keep a large calender pinned up next to my refrigerator so I can write down what I need to do (if anything - I stay home a lot.) Routine helps me a lot.

With the meds, I know I NEED to take them so I have one of those weekly plastic med cases with 7 slots for each day of the week that old people use which you can get at any drugstore for about 3 bucks. I fill it every week and then leave it out on my kitchen counter so I'm guaranteed to see it every day and it allows me to keep track of whether or not I've taken my meds and also, by being in a highly visible place, it reminds me so that I don't forget to take them.

I hope this helps, at least a little bit and don't give up!

[80mira]

Originally Posted by tears25

Thanks for all the replys and support on this??!!
I know im new but im doing by best to try help myself...

I chose to drink tonight. I hate myself for it.

I didn't drink much. infact i felt sick even from the smell.
but now I can't stop crying. I had such a positive day.
And i ruined it all. again.

It's really hard to try to do things by yourself. I'm really sorry you had a relapse, we are all human and this is a really hard thing to recover from. I do it too, but try not to hate yourself too much for making a mistake. This website helps. *hug*

[BlueMoon]

I'm bi-polar and when I was alone, I had to come up with ideas that would work for me - so here's what worked for me and ii hope it gives you a good idea or 2

I have those pill boxes and use a different colored one for morning, noon and bedtime - that way I can tell for sure if I took my meds that day or not

I have a PDA that I put reminders in and it alarms to remind me of appointments. I set it to go off early so there's time to get there if I'd actually forgotten. For appts that are more than a few weeks away, I set a reminder alarm for the night before ("Appt tomorrow with Dr. P)

also reminders for when I'm due to refill my meds

it also helps me to have a little notebook to keep track of things even more


good job with the blog! that's one thing I've never really managed to do very well for very long -


Blue