Mania Depression Toolkit

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to put together a bit of a toolkit for my family, friends and/or myself to use when I'm in a period of mania and/or depression to help bring me out of this period and offer support and advice for those involved.

Any ideas tips and tricks as to what would be good to put in the toolkit, feel free to let your ideas run wild on this one :0)

So far I'm thinking of putting in the following

Background on Bipolar
The type I have (hypomania)
My current management routine i.e. exercise psychologists etc.
Contact numbers for each of the different support people
A personal contract written by myself to me, to read when I am manic or depressed to allow others to help me and for me to let them.
Some things friends and family could do to help me feel better, such as things that make me feel good when I'm depressed, maybe even some psychological exercises such as cognitive based therapy.  
A list of things to look out for to check it is not getting worse
A plan of attack for if it does
What to expect as I go through a period of say mania, and the possible after effects such as a period of depression.

Please do your best to write whatever has helped you in the past to come out of episodes both depressed or manic.

Maybe even put a list

Ideas for Mania


Ideas for Depression


Thank you everyone in advance for any tips or advice you can give as it will be much appreciated.

Cheers



Dave :0)

[Xila31]

Yes, I have thought of doing something like that myself if I am ever in crisis. I actually have a number saved in my important files for my husband to call if I ever need the suicide crisis line. It also suggests to the support person how to take care of me and not to overwhelm themselves until more help can be found.

It is a really good idea. I mean, we prepare ourselves for natural disasters, so it makes sense to prepare for bipolar disasters, too.

[starbunny]

What helps? I think keeping a mood tracker is a good idea and also keeping a journal. Especially as things never seem so bad in retrospect (for me) and it is good to remind oneself (at the right times of course).

The challenges I would have to consider with preperation for me would be that I have no support system in terms of family (I am not allowed to even mention mental illness) and I generally don't allow friends 'in' when depressed, and when manic, have little insight and less control over the situation and would be inclined to ignore any plans I had made.

Having said this, although my family dismiss bipolar, I can usually get signals that things are deteriorating through increased arguments (especially over spending frivolously / staying out late) or friends may start to comment on how I look different hair/clothes every time they see me.

When depressed,  I journal and journal when but when manic I would only journal when I had done something I had later regretted such as blown my savings (big clue).
I think it's a brilliant idea, and I have done something similar in terms of collecting bits and pieces of my medical history and putting them in a file. I guess it's putting it into practice that counts, and different things work for different people.

[Xila31]

Anything that can be there to save you when you need it helps. I remember there used to be this non-profit group started by a family whose son died of a suicide. He had actually went to them and said, "I'm going to commit suicide" and they gave him the good old, "Yeah, whatever, you just want attention." Anyway, then he was gone. So, they started this foundation where you could get these little yellow cards. On the card it explained that you were suicidal and you needed help right then. It explained how it was not a joke. The point was to have these cards to give to people when it was too hard to tell them what was happening.

Anyway, I can't remember what they were called and can't find them on the net any mroe. But, something like that would be good in a tool kit.

[starbunny]

Yes, I know what you mean, and I have heard so many similar stories of suicide threats not being taken seriously and then (surprisingly !!!) in happens. In my county you can get mental health CRISIS cards, a credit card sized foldable card, where you keep emergency details on like GP,pdoc, therapist, crisis team, family numbers in the event of a crisis, and can jot down preferences etc when well. Good idea really, it should be available for everyone, and if not I guess you could design one yourself?! Just a thought.

[BP2PROFESSIONAL]

Like the idea of the cards, think I may include the login to my journal and mood tracker as well on it, so then if they call the crisis line they can logon and check my mood tracker.

These are some really good ideas please keep them coming, also I like the idea of the frequency of writing in my tracker actually being a signal, I've been trying to unfilter my comments in my journal also so I can try and get an idea of my ego as I write, for lesser mood changes, but frequency is also another signal.

It would be good if we could somehow have a logon page that we could fill out tailored to ourselves that in an emergency could help someone navigate and more importantly help decifer our current mood kind of like what we are describing above, less frequent entries could be a signal of mania.  Extra long posts could be a sign of depression etc.

Maybe if we could get two login's, with different settings for the type of situation, and maybe a yellow and red card.  A yellow card for if you are in a period of mania but you aren't feeling suicidal but need to put a wellness program in place, otherwise you might freak people out unnecessary but then have the red card for more serious situations for if you have had a suicidal thought and or are feeling highly anxious and are deeply worried about your health.  That can then trigger a different type of response and after the fact when you are better you can determine what actually happened.

It would be good if we could maybe get someone here who runs the site to have a look at this and see what we could do with the site in its current form, i.e. Maybe this could be done with two different logon's one for the yellow card and one for the red card and then with a note as to what to click to read first where we leave a bunch of instructions of our wellness plan.

I don't know how to email the site or where the suggestion section is so I might try simply reporting this post to get attention, if you are reading this from the post being reported please become involved in our discussion as any ideas or tips you might have could also really help as well. :0)    

[BP2PROFESSIONAL]

I was thinking with the two different logon's i.e. new registered users you could then simply add them as friends to your own mood tracker, but with the instructions to read before hand.

[BP2PROFESSIONAL]

Another idea on this topic, for me if I get into a highly anxious state simply taking a Xanax pill normally brings me right down, it's kind of like an off switch to my mania.

I was thinking if maybe attaching to the red card and or yellow card somehow possibly in a waterproof capsule but if you break the capsule, it sets of a gps tracker.

[BP2PROFESSIONAL]

Maybe even hook the GPS tracker trigger into a social networking site such as say facebook, with two separate accounts on that as well, one for the Yellow Card, One for the Red Card.  That way you could have it separate to your normal facebook account but you could invite all of the necessary people on it as friends such as your doctor, Pdoc, psychologist, close friends that understand the situation, family and possibly even your neighbour.

That way when the gps tracker went off everyone could be made aware of your co-ordinates in real time and when you come out of it you could also let everyone know simply through the social networking site also.  

[BP2PROFESSIONAL]

I'm thinking an iPhone application for the GPS tracker would be brill, anyone that decides to build one of these things please don't forget about the guy that actually came up with the idea please :0)