My 6 Tips for Managing Bipolar Disorder
Key takeaways:
Jamie Goudeau has dealt with mental health issues since she was a child.
When she was a young adult, she was diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder.
Now a grandmother and a licensed mental health professional, she has written a memoir about living with mental illness and offers the following advice.
Jamie Goudeau has dealt with mental health issues for much of her life. She says it took her years to get a proper diagnosis — and even longer to learn how to manage her condition.
For a long time, Jamie says, mental health issues have been veiled in stigma and silence. Now a grandmother and a licensed mental health professional herself, she turned her story about living with bipolar 1 disorder into a memoir. And she says she wants to offer others hope and understanding.
Jamie’s mental health journey began with a childhood she describes as being rather turbulent. While she was a relatively happy child, she was also prone to bouts of extreme anger and rage. And she recalls being unpredictable and sometimes throwing things across the room.
“I noticed that my anger toward frustrating situations continued to accelerate,” she says. “I had a hard time hiding it.”
By the time she turned 28, her extreme mood changes and unpredictable behavior had become so severe that her then-husband committed her to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation and treatment. At the time, Jamie says, she could barely function and could no longer care for herself or her young children.
“I had huge dark circles around my eyes and had lost weight, down to about 88 lbs. I was wasting away and didn’t care about anything. Even my children’s needs were too much for me to deal with,” she says. “By the time I got to the hospital, I knew I had four kids, but I couldn’t remember their names.”
It was during that hospital stay that Jamie first got diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder with psychotic features, and the first time in her life that she received treatment for chronic mental health issues. While her time in the facility was difficult, Jamie says it was where she finally began to understand what was going on inside of her brain and how she could learn to manage her condition to live a life of happiness and stability.
Decades later, Jamie, who now describes herself as “stable,” enjoys her life with her husband, four adult children, one bonus child, and six grandchildren. Based on her experiences, Jamie has the following six tips on how to handle the highs and lows of a bipolar diagnosis.
1. Follow a routine
Sticking to a routine helps Jamie stay level-headed and focused on her goals. In the morning, she gets out of bed, gets dressed, takes care of her hygiene, and prepares regular meals to make sure she has at least her basic needs met for the day.
2. Attend therapy
Jamie’s time in the hospital taught her to shift her perspective on what it means to be mentally ill. Rather than feeling shame, she says, she started to open up. Group therapy and regular counseling helped her understand herself and others better, stay on track with her goals, and process past hurt and trauma.
“I began attending group meetings. It did help to talk and to listen to stories similar to mine. I realized I was not alone,” Jamie says. “A good counselor will help you to learn your symptoms [and] the triggers to your symptoms, and then help you identify coping skills that empower you to overcome your symptoms or teach you how to avoid them altogether.”
3. Stay on top of your medications
Throughout her life, Jamie has had times when she would stop regularly taking her medications, because she decided she no longer needed them. But that kept her in a cycle of needing help.
Today, she realizes that listening to her doctors and following their treatment plans is important. She takes her medications as prescribed and notices that adhering to treatment improves her health.
4. Have a support system
Having a strong support system is another important part of Jamie’s life. After she was diagnosed, her family helped make sure she took her medications and attended therapy. They also helped her realize she could not handle her diagnosis on her own, she says.
“I had to accept my own frailty. I had to accept that it’s OK to need help,” Jamie says. “A good support system is essential to your process of making changes. You will need someone who can say, ‘Good job!’ or ‘I am there if you need a shoulder to cry on’ — or just someone to offer you observations of your behaviors and how you are doing, from the outside looking in.”
5. Practice honesty and forgiveness
Jamie says learning to forgive herself and accept forgiveness from others was an important part of her healing. She also had to learn how to be honest, even when it hurt. Rather than beating herself up when she would fall back into old habits, she learned to acknowledge what was happening, forgive herself, and move forward.
Jamie, who became a licensed mental health professional herself, stresses the importance of being honest with your clinicians.
“I suggest that you be forthcoming,” she says. “I can vouch for the fact that the clinician can only help you by assessing the information you provide.”
6. Develop healthy coping strategies
Learning what things to avoid and what things to invite into your life is also an important part of balancing the highs and lows of bipolar disorder, Jamie says. Over the years, she has developed healthy coping strategies that help her to do just that.
She avoids drinking alcohol and self-isolating behaviors, and she continues to surround herself with her support network, which includes her family and members of her church. She has learned to embrace her condition instead of denying it. And she sticks to having healthy boundaries.
“I take naps every chance I get on the weekends,” she says. “In my personal life, I distance myself from negative people and avoid people, places, or things that trigger my mental health symptoms.”
For additional resources or to connect with mental health services in your area, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357. For immediate assistance, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, or text HOME to 741-741 to reach the Crisis Text Line.
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