Bipolar Disorder - Mania And The Crash

One of the hardest things I have always found about being bipolar is the changing of episodes. It's always great to go from the depressive end of things to the manic side, but not so great to go from mania to depression.
On the one hand, when you're depressed and becoming manic you feel like life is finally letting up on you. Like your soul, your energy, your very being has suddenly returned to your body and you no longer have a need for food, sleep or rational thought. Being manic, at least in the start of an episode has always been a great feeling. Perhaps that's why so many diagnosed with bipolar syndrome go off medications and stop listening to our health care teams during this time, we never want the good feelings to end. But end they do. And, at least for me, that's always been a crash.
Crashing can be the worst feeling in the world. You're going from being manic, feeling like everything in life is wonderful. You've got enough energy to last forever. You don't need sleep, or to eat or to do any of those normal things that get in the way of living. Till suddenly, you crash out one night, after maybe not sleeping for a week, and wake up unable to function.
The alarm clock is ringing loudly in your ears. Screaming at you that it's time to get up and you just don't care. You bury your head under the blanket, throw the clock and just wish the world would leave you alone. You sleep for the next day and still wake up feeling like you never slept at all. The energy of just a few days ago is gone, completely sapped from your body. Every part of you aches and is tired. You want to bite the head off the next person that says good morning to you or looks at you the wrong way. You simply wish you were at home in bed, forever.
The worst part is, the crash is never the worst part of it. The crash just feels crappier than any of it because it comes so closely behind such a high wonderful time in your life, such an up moment, week, or month. The crash is just the start because the more you look back on how good you felt, the worse you feel. The more you have to cope with fixing anything you did while in a manic state, the worse you feel. Simply put, as the days go by, the worse you feel.
Mania I always miss when it says goodbye. I simply wish I could say goodbye to depression forever.

Bipolar disorder can be overwhelming and life altering. To learn more ways to cope with it and understand it, check out http://www.MyBipolarWorld.com

Social Anxiety Disorder Quiz

Using a Social Anxiety Disorder quiz or test can help you discover whether or not you need to seek further advice on your anxiety condition. Social Anxiety, also known as Social Phobia, is one of the most common mental health disorders in the United States today. Around 20 million of the American population has it at any one time. The statistics do not include those who have not reported their condition to mental health experts. If you feel you may be suffering from this type of anxiety, taking a social anxiety disorder quiz will help you make your own assessment. Asking yourself the following questions will help you verify if you are a potential sufferer:
1. Do you have an extreme fear of being in a social situation?
2. Do you always fear that people are judging you in whatever you are doing?
3. Do you prefer to be alone rather than going out with a group?
4. Do you need to drink alcoholic beverages before engaging in public speaking or performance?
5. Do you hate attending parties and other social gatherings?
If your answer is yes to the majority of the questions in the above social anxiety disorder quiz, then you are probably at risk for having social anxiety. Take note that doing a self-assessment is not a conclusive method of diagnosing the disorder. You would still need to consult the opinion of a psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental healthcare professional for a definitive answer. Your Doctor would probably do another social anxiety disorder quiz, test or assessment before they can verify whether you have the disorder or not.
If your doctor does indeed diagnose you as having social anxiety disorder, they will recommend that you start some sort of treatment right away. Mental health disorders are highly treatable when they are still mild, because they have not yet caused any significant disturbances in your way of thinking. In this early period of the disorder, counseling is an effective form of treatment. Through counseling, your thoughts about your social anxiety are addressed and then challenged. In this manner, you will be able to construct positive thinking about this condition that will help you recover faster.
In cases where counseling has not proven to be effective, the Doctor may prescribe medications. Anti-anxiety and antidepressant drugs are given to relieve the symptoms of the disorder. The doctor can also give medications that will control the physical manifestations of anxiety. It is important to continuously monitor for side effects of medications, especially the psychotic drugs. Psychotic drugs can induce irreversible side effects when taken in high doses.
If you are presently undergoing therapy, it is important for you to cooperate with the Doctor to facilitate fast recovery. The treatment can be very frustrating and difficult to cope with, especially during its initial phase, because you are subjected to a lot of changes and interaction with different people. It is also important to be compliant with your medication schedule. When you miss or do not take the prescribed dosage, your treatment can be rendered ineffective and this can set you back in your recovery. Improper treatment will eventually lead you to Generalized Anxiety Disorder or GAD, which is very difficult, but not impossible, to manage.
If your social anxiety disorder quiz suggests that you have social anxiety disorder, do not hesitate in going to the Doctor for assistance. Your information is kept confidential, so there is no need to worry about other people knowing of your condition.

George Hunter is a writer and blogger about Social Anxiety Disorder and other anxiety related topics. He has created a website resource to help fellow sufferers find a solution to their condition. Why not try out one of the most common Social Anxiety Disorder Tests right now. It only takes a few minutes to run through it.
Also, have a look at http://www.SocialAnxietyDisorderGuide.com to find out what you can do about Social Anxiety (Social Phobia) and other Anxiety and Panic disorders.

Divorce Your Addiction

I'm onto my PlayStation 3 again. Once I start, I can't stop. Fortunately, I manage to divorce this addiction with the help of coaching. I've been a gamer since young, from Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation 1, 2 and 3. Of course not forgetting the PC games as well. There were times the playing time went out of control. There were times I wanted to play it daily just like a junkie who wanted to have a daily fix.
I was irritated, when my parent brought me for visitation. I blamed my mum for lingering at my relative's place for such a long hours as I wanted to be at home early to play Delta Force or Dragonball on the Nintendo.
When I was serving national service, I actually had a 1 week leave accompanied by Final Fantasy 7 via PlayStation 1.
With playing those games, I got hours of entertainment, and nothing else. Since playing games is not giving me anything, how come I got hooked onto it?
Isn't this addiction?
Not serving you on anything yet you enjoy the fix. Well, I did benefit from playing games in my work somehow, I will share it later in the post.
What makes addiction an addiction? You have an addiction, when this formula stands true in areas of your life.
Addiction = Activities + Out of Control + Guilt
What leads us to an addiction?
On surface, addiction seems like it's the way to life and enjoyment. But when we dig deeper, usually there are something else about the addiction.
Usually addictions are not serving us in anyway. But what made us stuck to them? Worse if you are into drugs, gambling, alcohol or porn. In terms of values or moral of the society, these vices are not widely accepted. Yet they are the worst kind of addiction that no only harm self, they also harm those around you. I have 2 main reasons that got us addicted to something, see if you agree.
Avoidance or Filling A Gap
The 2 reasons are either to avoid something or to fill something or both.
For some avoidance of the reality brings them to addiction. Some got stress up in work, so they sink in pubs and drown themselves with alcohol to avoid the problems in work. These addictions become a panadol, it helps to reduce the pain.
Then we have the other reason which is filling a gap. A gap that people are searching in their inner world. It could be providing them with thrill, drama, emotion engagements, confidence etc.
Playing PlayStation 3 fills my gap. It provides me with excitement and thrill. It gives me a fantasy of me being thehero in the virtual world slaying Minotaurs(God of War), exploring caves(Uncharted) and assassinating corrupted officials(Assassin's Creed). In real life, I'm just a normal human being. But in the game, I possess super human abilities, achieving things that a normal human can never achieve.
It feels like plugging in and being transported to a world of possibilities. I got addicted into this fantasy world.
We can have a third reason. Both avoidance and filling a gap.
An example of having both the reasons is when I was having a mild depression, playing game becomes an avoidance. I escaped into the game world to avoid facing the reality. The game world became a place to forget my worries. At the same time, I found thrill and provides me a place to be a hero again.
The thing is we know that addiction doesn't support our lives, but we just love to indulge in them, isn't it? Is there no way out? How can we divorce our addiction?
The formula to addiction:
Addiction = Activities + Out of Control + Guilt
There is is nothing wrong in the activity itself. Now you add Out of Control + Guilt, you have addiction. Replace Out of Control + Guilt with CONTROL, and you will have:
Activities + Control
You successfully divorce your addiction.
It seems so simple. How do you apply it practically?
Discovering
Before you can replace anything, finding what is this CONTROL about is critical. Ask:
"With this addiction am I avoiding or filling a gap?"
Your answer to the above question will determine a different method of divorce.
If the answer is avoiding:
Here's the simplified account of my example in avoiding due to mild depression.
"What am I avoiding?" - Meeting people.
"What do I make meeting people means?" - Not trustworthy.
"Who took away the trust?" - XYZ on this incident.
"When do I like to complete regarding XYZ?" - Now.
(At this point, I will go through a couple of completion tools to support my client to have a closure.)
"What would I take on to completely reduce the addiction?"
At this point, you can include a replacement. (Explain this in a while)
If the answer is to fill a gap:
My example of having thrill, drama and being a hero.
"What does thrill, drama and being a hero provides me?" - Fun, control, immediate gratification.
"What does control provides me?" - Power.
"What does a powerful person means?" - authority, confident
"How else can I access confident?" - Knowing that I am good enough.
"How will I be good enough?" - I decide that I'm good enough.
"When am I going to decide?" - Now.
"What steps will I take on to remove this addiction?" - Reducing time spent on it.
At this point, you can again include a replacement. (Explain this in a while)
Replacement
Like replacing Out of Control + Guilt with CONTROL, you replace the addiction with another activity. Say I am addicted to PlayStation 3, and whenever I have that urge again, instead of switching on the machine, I go for a swim. Because when I swim more laps in a shorter time, that provides me with power too.
Then you may ask what if you get addicted to the new replacement. Well, swimming is definitely a better addiction than PlayStation 3. Preferably have the replacement as something that deems to be a better hobby.
A replacement is necessary because most people will find it strange to have an emptiness when they stop engaging in a particular addiction suddenly. We have to fill this emptiness quickly before they will return to their old addiction.
I have successfully divorce my love for anime and comics. And I have been able to keep PlayStation 3 under control.

Lee Joe is a coach, trainer and speaker in the area of motivating behaviour, He has been training since 2003, inspired more than 10,000 lives so far. He trains in the modules like team development, presentation skills and mindset transformation.
His one-to-one coaching has deliver great results for his clients, supporting them in achieving their desired outcome. He helps clients to discover an accelerated way of achieving results. In that process, he gets the clients to see who they are, how they can be happy in life. Visit http://www.coachingwithjoe.com to learn how his clients benefited from his coaching.