Introduction
Hi,
I'm SarahBeth. There, now we're introduced. I am 26 and work in the accounting field. I work 40 hours a week and go to school full-time to get my accounting degree so that I can not only do the accounting work, I can get paid for it as well.
When I was 18 I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It has become my life. Making sure I get enough sleep, remembering to take all the pills, not just some, visits with psychiatrists and therapists, watching my mood closely and always wondering when the shoe will drop and I'll end up back in the hospital, with no job and no place to live.
Granted, in the past few years, I have stopped letting the bipolar disorder run my life as much. I do stupid things like get completely plastered with my best friend at her apartment. I just make sure that I have time to recover and my doctor knows what I'm about to do. I have realized that going a tad bit up does not mean that I'm about to have a major manic cycle and it is ok to ride it out. Of course, I have also learned that the minute it seems like this is a major manic cycle that I'm on the phone to my psychiatrist immediately.
I have two wonderful doctors, Dr. Y my psychiatrist (pdoc) and Doc my therapist (tdoc). I have been seeing Doc for almost 10 years because I was put in therapy during high school (it was believed that I was puting myself under too much pressure) and went back to him when I started having real problems. Dr. Y I have been seeing at least since the beginning of 2001. I can't remember when I started seeing him. I just know that he gets bipolar disorder. He has his PhD in psychology as well as his MD for psychiatry, so his approach is quite unique. He pushes therapy and has said often to me "Meds are only 5-10% of the equation. The rest is you." I don't think he realizes though that without that 10%, the other 90% is impossible.
I hope this blog is encouraging to others as I make my way through life as a bipolar. I hope to show that I can make it, so can you. I will post on bp issues as well as other life happenings and things that trigger my curiosity or make me laugh.
I'm SarahBeth. There, now we're introduced. I am 26 and work in the accounting field. I work 40 hours a week and go to school full-time to get my accounting degree so that I can not only do the accounting work, I can get paid for it as well.
When I was 18 I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It has become my life. Making sure I get enough sleep, remembering to take all the pills, not just some, visits with psychiatrists and therapists, watching my mood closely and always wondering when the shoe will drop and I'll end up back in the hospital, with no job and no place to live.
Granted, in the past few years, I have stopped letting the bipolar disorder run my life as much. I do stupid things like get completely plastered with my best friend at her apartment. I just make sure that I have time to recover and my doctor knows what I'm about to do. I have realized that going a tad bit up does not mean that I'm about to have a major manic cycle and it is ok to ride it out. Of course, I have also learned that the minute it seems like this is a major manic cycle that I'm on the phone to my psychiatrist immediately.
I have two wonderful doctors, Dr. Y my psychiatrist (pdoc) and Doc my therapist (tdoc). I have been seeing Doc for almost 10 years because I was put in therapy during high school (it was believed that I was puting myself under too much pressure) and went back to him when I started having real problems. Dr. Y I have been seeing at least since the beginning of 2001. I can't remember when I started seeing him. I just know that he gets bipolar disorder. He has his PhD in psychology as well as his MD for psychiatry, so his approach is quite unique. He pushes therapy and has said often to me "Meds are only 5-10% of the equation. The rest is you." I don't think he realizes though that without that 10%, the other 90% is impossible.
I hope this blog is encouraging to others as I make my way through life as a bipolar. I hope to show that I can make it, so can you. I will post on bp issues as well as other life happenings and things that trigger my curiosity or make me laugh.
posted by SarahBeth | 8/16/2006 12:38:00 PM
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