Bipolar Disorder Support Group
Bipolar disorder is not just a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders marked by periods of abnormally high energy and euphoria, often accompanied by bouts of clinical depression. This is the place to talk about your experience with bipolar disorder, learn from others' experiences, and find support.
Is it possible that my fear of having an episode, either manic or depressive, could cause me to have an episode? Maybe not right away but later on as I continue to be afraid. Some people believe that what we think about we create. I'm not sure.
What do you think?
What do you think?
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I find myself going places in the car and not wanting to get out of the car. I come back home and I don't want to get out of the car. I think it's the only time I spend reflecting. Chronic tiredness from Long Covid plus the immunosupressing meds for my Crohn's is slowing me down but everything just seems a massive effort. I am dealing with the paperwork following my father's death but it's not...
I did an extensive list of "early warning signs" with one therapist. You might find that if you went through that process with a therapist, that having elevated anxiety could be an early warning sign that mania or depression is on the way.
And I absolutely DO believe that simply being in unrelieved anxiety can push into mania or depression. I find that as a general rule I get hypomania less these days because I've been on Lithium a long time, as well as other drugs. But I NEVER get mania, which I used to get a lot. But anxiety can definitely lift my mood state to hypomania and then I can't sleep and then the anxiety gets worse, then I'm in that awful cycle, bla bla bla.
If I stay in a panic and anxiety state long enough, without relief (even though I am on heaps of meds), I will also invariably end up depressed.
I hope that makes sense, it's a very complex dynamic.
But if you do speak to a therapist about early warning signs and it does turn out that anxiety is a precursor to mania and depression, it could be a good thing to know. They might then be able to help with strategies or meds that might cut off the mania or depression at the start.