8 Steps for Managing Bipolar Mood Swings

by Michelle Montoro

First, I want to be clear…I am not a licensed mental health professional. I am just a woman who was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder nearly 20 years ago and have done years of painful, introspective, soul-searching work to find the coping formula that works best for me.

Every person is unique and different in the way their illnesses present themselves. Symptoms of mental illness manifest in vastly diverse ways depending on a combination of personality traits, severity of the illness, and personal history and experience. As a result, what works for me will not work for everybody. But the route to finding the perfect combination of coping skills is absolutely based in trial and error.

You sort of have to try everything to discover what works for you and what doesn’t work.

In an effort to clearly articulate the steps I take to handle severe mood swings, I have to be highly in tune with and connected to my thought processes and how I will respond to them both intellectually and emotionally. I am sure you all well aware that our intellect and our emotions can become quite difficult to untangle and lay out into definitive statements that are easy for others to understand.

In any event, I am going to give it my best shot to break down my coping mechanism into 8…