Can a Person with Bipolar Disorder be Happy?

Can I still be Happy with Bipolar?

  The answer is yes!  I do think being Bipolar makes it a little harder to achieve.  When you get on the right medication you will begin to feel better.  This is the hardest part of being Bipolar!  A lot of  people are constantly complaining about the meds they are taking.  They expect to feel a change right away.  It takes at least a couple of weeks before they begin to work. 

  A good Doctor will expain why he is prescribing you with a certain mediction.  I know some people who seem to be on way to many meds.  The least amount of drugs you can take the better off you will be.  If you are walking around like a zomby all day, you are on to many drugs.

  Try to keep people in your life who are upbeat!  Do not surround yourself with depressed people.  It will start to affect you, their unhappiness becomes your unhappiness.  Misery does like company, so if you want to be miserable, hang out with a miserable person.

  Watching to much television makes me depressed.  Just watch the news, almost everything is bad.  Even commercials can be depressing.  Next time you are watching television try to find a positive subject, it is not easy to do.  Think about what you are going to watch, before you even turn it on.

  Like anything else in your life, happines takes a little work.  There is no magic pill you can take.  Some people think that if they could just move away that it would make them happy.  Nope!  I tried it several times.  You live in your mind, not on your location.  Eventually, your problems will pack a suitcase and move in with you.  I do not mean this literally, I am just saying that you can not run from your problems.  Face them head on.

Here are ten things you can start doing to make you happy!

Establish and stick to a morning ritual: Your morning ritual could involve exercising, meditating, praying, remembering all the things you have to be thankful for, or writing compassionate notes to family and friends in need.

Eat a healthy diet: A healthy diet is a source of energy and nutrients, both of which contribute to physical and emotional well-being.

Exercise: If you don’t get enough physical exercise, you have less energy and stamina to work at achieving happiness. The simple tasks of everyday life become chores, and no one looks forward to doing chores! To reconnect with the joy of living, you have to get your body moving again in a way that goes beyond your normal daily routine.

Get enough sleep: Sleep is essential to health and happiness. Yet, millions of people suffer from acute and chronic sleep deprivation. Children need around ten hours per night. An adolescent needs eight to nine hours. Adults require seven to eight hours.

Seniors can get by on roughly six hours unless they’re unusually active — for example, doing a lot of physical labor or continuing to work full-time into their retirement years. (Seniors often nap at least once during the day, which means they can get by with a little less sleep at night.)

Meditate: Meditation is the oldest technique known to man for producing a state of inner calm and relaxation. All religions include meditation, in one form or another, as a primary way of achieving a spiritual connection. It has a variety of medicinal benefits — lower blood pressure, decreased muscular pain, improved sleep — in addition to leading to improved self-esteem and a general sense of well-being.

Make a spiritual connection: It doesn’t matter which religion you practice, or whether you actually consider yourself religious at all. (Plenty of people think of themselves as spiritual, but don’t follow any particular religious faith). What matters is how often you make that spiritual connection. Research has shown that just showing up at a religious service of some sort once a week cuts your odds of developing heart disease literally in half. Now there’s something to be happy about!

Be thankful: Gratitude is one of the identifiable key ingredients to achieving happiness. First your needs are satisfied and then you’re grateful — that’s how it’s supposed to work. But for many unhappy people, that’s not the case. They find themselves neither satisfied nor thankful for what life has provided in the way of material things or opportunities.

Think and feel with compassion: All world religions and all truly great figures in the history of mankind have one thing in common: They teach, preach, and exemplify compassion. Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Jesus, and Martin Luther King Jr. all were champions of compassion.

Lend a helping hand: What have you done lately to help someone else? You don’t have to be a knight in shining armor. The simplest things count, too.

Have a sense of humor: Lighten up! Try not to take life so seriously. Put a smile on your face. Don’t just read the sports page in the newspaper — read the comics! End the day by listening to your favorite late-night comedian. Spend some time with an irreverent friend, someone who has a healthy respect for the absurdities of life. According to the Bible (or The Byrds), “There’s a time to laugh and a time to cry.” Make sure you have the right balance between the two.