I used the DBT Skills for Bipolar Disorder. My therapist gave it to me. https://www.amazon.com/Dialectical-Behavior-Therapy-Workbook-Disorder/dp/1572246286
DBT skills class was very difficult for me - I guess I have cognitive problems that get in my way. This book brought it to a level that I could understand, and how it applies to the bipolar diagnosis.
I haven't tried it yet but there's a DBT book for Bipolar, here's a link to Canadian Amazon. https://www.amazon.ca/Dialectical-Behavior-Therapy-Workbook-Disorder/dp/1572246286/
There's stuff in here like acting opposite to your mood which you might find helpful. I got a copy from my public library.
Sarah here. Anger and rage can be something people experience during and outside of mood episodes. You will often hear it called “irritability.” It is more often associated with hypomania and mania but can also happen during depression. When I have clients who report hurdles such as these, I recommend that they consider finding a provider who can do Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) with you. DBT teaches different skills such as emotion regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness. These can be very helpful for reducing irritability, anger, and rage. You can find group DBT therapy or individual therapists. If there are not any providers with this training in your area, then I would recommend starting with a great workbook I recommend that you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/Dialectical-Behavior-Therapy-Workbook-Disorder/dp/1572246286/ref=sr\_1\_1?crid=10FILY5DRZYTF&keywords=DBT+for+bipolar+disorder&qid=1648662171&sprefix=dbt+for+bipolar+disorde%2Caps%2C201&sr=8-1
Well you might want to buy The DBT Workbook for Bipolar Disorder, they sell it on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Dialectical-Behavior-Therapy-Workbook-Disorder/dp/1572246286/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=9048WVU942K3&keywords=dbt+workbook+bipolar&qid=1647377532&sprefix=dbt+workbook+bi%2Caps%2C128&sr=8-1 I don’t know of a specific online group or anything like that but there are tons of articles and workbooks and references to DBT online. The best way to find an in person group is to look for an intensive outpatient program or partial hospitalization program that offers it, but you would need to be Sick enough to meet admission criteria for those.
I think it's both a matter of their diminishing in frequency over time as well as building skills to cope better when they do happen. It sounds like you could use something to help with coping better.
DBT was originally created for women with borderline personality disorder who were in crisis and may have been also suicidal (she developed it while working with women who were inpatient, I believe). It can be helpful for anyone of any gender who wants to learn to cope with emotions better, or improve how they handle interpersonal situations. DBT incorporates multiple methods, so you will see CBT elements as part of it which may seem familiar, it adds additional skills. There are DBT programs and you can also find workbooks. Perhaps you could check out a workbook and see if it might be useful?
I met a couple of people who were working on The DBT skills workbook for bipolar disorder and said they found it helpful. https://www.amazon.com/Dialectical-Behavior-Therapy-Workbook-Disorder/dp/1572246286 The same company publishes a regular DBT skills workbook. I'm not sure of the difference, if any, between the two workbooks. Maybe others on the bp subs might have more experience with this and can say more.
There are a few different versions and I actually haven't used one personally (I'm in a DBT class) but I've heard good things bout them. This looks good: Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bipolar Disorder: Using DBT to Regain Control of Your Emotions and Your Life
The principles of staying stable and recognizing what is mood disorder-driven and what is your regular psychology are timeless things so whatever your medication journey ends up being. The most important principles is recognizing what a mood disorder is, getting your rhythms jammed on, and how to stick to your values despite whatever your disorder is doing to do. That is what will give you empowerment and confidence.
It's more important to be able to develop distress tolerance and acceptance and be able to regulate your autonomic nervous system with activity or rhythm or breathing or whatever works for you, then try to fix the problem, then you will be able to manage whatever happens. Medication is important but if you don't have all of the other skills, you'll still feel at the whim of forces beyond your control. Maybe you can't cure the illness, but you can definitely stop making it worse and allowing it to give you a sleep or stress disorder.
Like this
Interpersonal and social rhythm therapy - Wikipedia
and this (look inside)
Most people get better with medication. It depends what your symptoms are, if you have 1 or 2, a mood stabilizer like lithium or lamotrigine is unlikely to take away your creativity. You may not need stronger antipsychotics. What it may do is break your addiction to mania, you might have to rewire your brain to get pleasure from euththymia, most people find the zombie stage to go away over time, I have heard it so many times. If you're running, and doing sleep hygiene, and breathing, you're probably not going to take a huge hit. Your perception is huge when you go through this.
The most important thing is light and darkness, if you can get a wake up like, that slowly turns on with the sunlight, and do low light after dusk and lights out at a certain time whether you are tired or not look
Sleep Light, Darkness and Mood - PsychEducation CBT-IB: a sleep focused therapy - PsychEducation Dark Therapy - PsychEducation
You are going to be a lot better.
What you can do is work on your values, and what you like about yourself, and focus on that, whatever your moods are doing.
Acceptance and commitment therapy - Wikipedia
Knowledge is power. Yes you are going to have to deal with instability, and concerns, and trauma, and memories, but there are ways of doing all of that. Many of them are outline in these Books
So there is a ton of stuff you can do. And don't ever forget that yeah meds take a few weeks to get strong, trauma takes some time, but if you do all of this stuff, every day, for YEARS, it's not possible for you to imagine how much more stable you may be. It's cumulative, play the long game, and play to your strengths.
The people who do the work on the fundamentals every day are the ones who have long-term success in this, anyone will tell you that. You have power, you can learn yourself with tracking and experiments. Best of luck
You can buy DBT workbooks on Amazon to do independently while you look for a provider. There is even one for bipolar!
And this one might help you too https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1684034582/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1645213480&sr=8-2-spons
Everything you are thinking you need to reverse it, YOU are the scientist that matters most in this situation. You marshal the facts and data, and you advocate for yourself as an equal. You put your feet on the ground and you move, gather the data, learn the language, and all of the sudden, people will start to listen to you. It's all about liability. I am spoiled, I live in Canada, my doctor is an academic, widely known, but guess what, he does not "care" he'll put me down and go against me at the drop of the hat. "Caring" is not what makes him good. Being good at his job is what makes him good. And probably, the people you know of down there, aren't good, and they know it. So they fucked with you and said yeah you're having trouble sleeping here's the antipsychotics, it's less liability for them, they knew what they were doing, if you take them there will be less of a chance of you coming back, you'll be too comatose. You know what I'm saying is true, so what's the solution? Become a scientist of yourself. Track everything, learn everything.
Look at this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_and_social_rhythm_therapy
If your care provider doesn't understand IPSRT or DBT and doesn't have time to talk about it? Fire them
If you don't feel as passionate about a person as you will about huberman, fire them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm1TxQj9IsQ
See? You don't need to be a phd, or be 100% sure of anything, or tell a story to anyone, you just need to track and adjust, that's what being a scientist is. When you try a new drug, you ask the doctor, how long until we are sure it is having a max effect? 3 months? If it is not doing it at 3 months, fire the drug, and taper off. You need control, you need efficacy, you need agency, and you can take that control, and be partners, be colleagues with your doctors. Trust me, my doctors love me, and I go against them all the time, I actually get whatever drugs I want to try, because I make a case, and I track, and I am a credible person, they believe me that I will contact them if I have side effects, and I will report what is relevant, and I will make their job easy, stay hard