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.
The assignment sounds a little weird, but I totally understand why my therapist wants me to do it. I have been keeping a journal/scrapbook of my adventures in BP. I have quotes and stories that have inspired me, mementos of mania and depression. Thought records and mood charts. Lists of medications I have tried and why they worked/failed. Pictures of friends and family members who love me, and friends and family that hate me. Basically a history of my fight for the last 2 1/2 years.
The goal is to add things to remind me of the bad and encourage me to strive for the good. Also if I totally loose my mind there is a good record for me to build from. For the last nine months it has really helped me out.
Thus far there is one subject that has remained taboo in the journal, with only an honorable mention. The thoughts of suicide are minimal and really dark. So my therapist and I have decided we need to add things to help me if or when those moments return.
My homework assignment for this month is to write a suicide note and follow it with an essay, at least 5000 words about why suicide is wrong. The goal of the exercise is to see both sides of the issue and hopefully if I need to I can look at them and realize the error of my thinking.
I did something similar with my intrusive thoughts a while ago so I have that to refer to when the intrusive thoughts rear their ugly head. And it really helps with the thoughts.
Anyway, the problem I am having is in writing the note. I am stable and just can't think that way right now. I see it as more of a blessing and less of a problem to not be able to finish this assignment, but I have to have it ready for Tuesday.
Thanks,
BPsweety
The goal is to add things to remind me of the bad and encourage me to strive for the good. Also if I totally loose my mind there is a good record for me to build from. For the last nine months it has really helped me out.
Thus far there is one subject that has remained taboo in the journal, with only an honorable mention. The thoughts of suicide are minimal and really dark. So my therapist and I have decided we need to add things to help me if or when those moments return.
My homework assignment for this month is to write a suicide note and follow it with an essay, at least 5000 words about why suicide is wrong. The goal of the exercise is to see both sides of the issue and hopefully if I need to I can look at them and realize the error of my thinking.
I did something similar with my intrusive thoughts a while ago so I have that to refer to when the intrusive thoughts rear their ugly head. And it really helps with the thoughts.
Anyway, the problem I am having is in writing the note. I am stable and just can't think that way right now. I see it as more of a blessing and less of a problem to not be able to finish this assignment, but I have to have it ready for Tuesday.
Thanks,
BPsweety
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Hey all, i know its been quite awhile since i posted on here. Its been a summer all right. Its been something else........... You know how they say not to open the can of worms? Well a few months ago i decided to find out what my due date would have been for my first baby, the one conceived by r***. My baby would have been due on March 4th of 2006. They would be 20 years old. I was R**** on June...
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Hey All...I hope that you have a lovely, peaceful beginning of your weekI have a bunch of chores that need doing but may put them off til tomorrow and just hang out with my landlord/roomie todayWhat about you?...Anything special going on?Have a great day and take good care of you!!..Xo
So I think to myself, no one will understand all this rambling stuff, and the dark thoughts tend to lessen.
I think I might be afraid to actually put pen to paper with a suicide note....makes it too real.
But I do understand the reason behind doing it.
The idea of a BP scrapbook is cool.....I think I may start one
If you find it too dark then I 'd do what dd has suggested and perhaps if and when you have dark/suicidal thoughts write them down...
I think when stable it would be a good time to read what we've been thinking when unstable..
Things can seem so reasonable in a depression when it's actually all a lie that our minds are telling us.. it would be a good tool to look at in order to 'see' in our own words the darkness of depression.. something to reflect on to show us that it is illness when we're that low..
If you're having trouble with it maybe hold back until you have your next appt...x