Well, when I get stressed, I get anxious. Too much stress can trigger me. Maybe stress is a 'gateway' emotion for me, LOLOL, and then it's the anxiety that triggers me!!!!!

I DO think anxiety triggers me. It's not usually a single incident that does it. It's unrelieved stress/anxiety.

I hope you dope out how it works for you and figure out a good way to cope with it!!! (((((Hugs)))))

yes it can - and it can also trigger the borderline symptoms, so I hope you are reading up on Both.

We're still pulling for ya as you get used to all this, Jenn.

Yes , Yes and more Yes.

Confusing ?...Yes Yes and more Yes.

Research and learning things from the DS members , talk to your Pdoc, read books..maybe some of the confusion will abate

I've been doing this (officially ) for 8 years...I'm still confused

Hugs

Anxiety is one of my biggest triggers. It leads me straight to mania. After that...I am the one to be avoided.

For me stress = anxiety which in turn = bipolar hell.

Stress turns me hypomanic & from there on in there is no turning back, until I get meds. to calm my arse down. I always end up having to see my p.doc.

Good question. For me, the very nature of BP causes me tremendous anxiety. Anxiety sends me spiraling into stress. I feel totally out of control, Stress absolutely makes me crazy and I usually freak out . . . become hyper. When hyper dies, I get depressed. Hell, it is all mixed up to me and can become a "round robin." Reverse the order of anything above and it does about the same. Hell, my life is a trigger. My answer is yes to about anything. Like you, I am so damned confused.

Stress can for me and stress and anxiety goes hand in hand. I have been under a tremendous amount of stress here latley and luckily know on wood as tho I seem like i could break at any minute I have been holding it together.

Huge yes to this one. I have pretty bad--not horrible--anxiety issues. I get panic attacks pretty often. The first panic attack I ever had sent me into my first major depression which lasted months. That was before my bipolar diagnosis. And actually, after looking back on it, I realize that I had actually been depressed for a couple of months leading up to that point but I didn't really realize it because I was too stoned (Yeah, I used to self-medicate a lot...). But that panic attack really sent me spiraling. And I had a lot of anxiety/stress before my first manic episode as well. Xanax has helped me a lot, although recently I haven't been needing it very much. (I hope I'm not jinxing it...)

A lot of things can be triggers. Actually, my second manic episode was triggered because I was just really excited about one of my classes and my excitement got me carried away. Which sucks, I know, that both positive and negative emotions can be triggers. Knowledge is a good thing. I've found that over time, I've gotten more in tune with my emotions, so I can notice when something starts to feel a little off and try to correct it before it gets too bad.

Good luck on getting this stuff straightened out!

i also say a big yes to this one.

I always thought that anxiety was "part" of an episode...esp. depression. I've been told by several pdocs that anxiety is the result of depression that's being repressed.
Never really understood that myself, though.

Anxiety is ALWAYS there no matter what mood I am in. I also know it can trigger. I think any emotion can really send us into a state if the dominoes are set up the right way.

Thank you so much everyone, this brings a lot of clarity to me. I just wish I knew what specifically it is that triggers an episode, because two weeks ago I wasn't nearly as anxious as I was yesterday, but I had an episode back then. I didn't experience an episode from the anxiousness that I had these last three days.

Hopefully for now the anti-anxiety meds I am on will keep me from having any episodes.

Last year I can definitely see the constant stress/anxiety I was dealing with over two months causing the extreme manic episode I experienced. In fact I would bet that I experienced several hypomanic episodes during those two months.

The year before that confuses me though. I really wasn't in a lot of stress when I experienced my first.. well, I don't know. It was my first relapse since I started trying to stop being hypersexual, however I could easily have been on a steady up and down rollercoaster before that. It could be my stopping the hypersexuality that has caused me to spend a LOT more time in the depressive/anxious side of things as opposed to the manic/hypomanic side... Either that or the bipolar hadn't really developed back then and I was only seeing the beginnings of it forming.

I have no clue. I am far too analytical for my own good.

I'm with ByePole2 , Bipolar Diosorder is such a complex illness, with many facets, and the different facets can trigger the different facets to manifest in all sorts of combinations.

I have been diagnosed with panic and Anxiety Disorders as well as Bipolar and other mental illnesses. However, thyere's long been talk that Panic and Anxiety should be brought under the umbrella of Bipolar Disorder. Certainly every Bipolar person I have met in the real world and online has panic and anxiety.

But the most important thing you can do to try to dientangle this unholy mess we live with is to keep it simply and do what you are doing, and that is to start, rigorously and over time to find out what is an "early warning sign" that whatever Bipolar episode is about to come down the tube. One might be either anxiety or hypomania induced sleep problems. Another might be the panic and anxiety you have described. Then, an adjustment of a new med might be ntroduced and also behavioural changes, such as loselny up on committments that will shortly be happening, having down time meditating, reading or watching sappy TV, or go out to a quiet place in nature. And use your therapy tools too.

I think it helps to bear in mind that this is a chemical imbalance that sometimes has nothing at all to do with an outside trigger.

Sometimes, there IS no identifiable reason for a shift in moods. Our chems just change.