Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

Being bipolar and living with the illness means that you should have a bipolar disorder treatment plan in place. This usually begins to be formed from the time that a diagnosis of bipolar disorder is made. Often the bipolar disorder treatment is split into two types – one for treating manic episodes and one for treating depressive episodes. It is essential that this happens so that the person with bipolar disorder is getting the correct bipolar disorder treatment.During a manic episode the bipolar disorder treatment will start with the elimination of any substances that might could the sufferer harm – many will turn to stimulant drugs so they should be removed as they can further alter the mood. Next an assessment should be made to determine whether the best form of bipolar disorder treatment is to hospitalise the sufferer. In particularly extreme manic episodes this can happen to prevent the sufferer from coming to any harm.Then mood stabilising drugs need to be administered as the next phase in the bipolar disorder treatment. Lithium tends to be used at this stage as it is can be a highly effective mood stabiliser. If after a week or so the bipolar sufferer will then be given antipsychotic drugs which should help to stabilise the moods. After this stage of bipolar disorder treatment additional drugs may be prescribed along with any therapy that might be needed. By this point the bipolar sufferer should be quite stable and able to continue with their daily life as usual.During a depressive episode the bipolar disorder treatment is quite similar with lamotrigine or lithium being given to the sufferer initially. If they fail to respond to these many doctors have the opinion that they will have to cope with the depressive episode for as long as it lasts. Strangely antidepressants are not normally included in bipolar disorder treatment plan for depressive episodes as they don’t tend to work very well.Once the bipolar disorder treatment is underway the next step could be to begin cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) so that the sufferer can start to recognise what triggers their bipolar disorder and learn ways to avoid these triggers. Therapy of this form can be hugely successful if the sufferer is willing to try this type of bipolar disorder treatment. By being able to manage their different moods a bipolar sufferer is helping to reduce the number and severity of depressive and manic episodes. Alternative bipolar disorder treatments are also quite popular with yoga and meditation being two of the most widely used by sufferers around the world. Although there is no known cure for bipolar disorder there are a number of ways that bipolar disorder treatment can help sufferers and there is constant research into finding more ways. It may seem as though there is nothing that can be done for someone who is bipolar but as you can see there are several options that sufferers can try to find which is the best bipolar disorder treatment for them.

It is never easy living with an illness, especially one that can be hard to manage at the best of time and bipolar disorder is such an illness. Bipolar disorder affects the mood of a sufferer to such an extent that living a ‘normal’ life can become virtually impossible. Some of the characteristics of bipolar disorder are that a person with it will have episodes of incredibly intense ‘highs’ or elevated happiness and at times these episodes can result in mania and extreme behaviours. At the opposite end of the scale a person with bipolar disorder will also suffer from extreme ‘lows’ where they are swallowed by feelings of depression, guilt, anxiety and may even have suicidal thoughts.When a person’s mood swings between these two opposites it can make living with bipolar disorder very hard to cope with. In many cases the sufferer feels as though they are the only person who has to live with bipolar disorder and this can be a trigger in itself. It is at these times when it is useful for someone with bipolar disorder to have someone to discuss their feelings with.Often there are also, in between these episodes of feeling high and low the person with bipolar disorder can feel very normal and often it is these times that can cause the most problems. It is at these times when a bipolar disorder sufferer can start to think that they can manage their condition without the need for medication – and some will stop taking what has been prescribed to them. This is very dangerous as this can be the trigger for an episode and without mood stabilising medication the high or low experienced can be incredibly intense and difficult to deal with effectively and safely. Another very useful treatment which is used in addition to medication is psychosocial therapy sessions. These can take the form of cognitive behavioural therapy sessions where the therapist and the patient try to identify ‘triggers’ to a bipolar episode and work on ways to overcome and avoid them. Or they can be family behavioural therapy sessions in which the person with bipolar disorder and the people they live attend and try to work out coping strategies for everyone. This type of treatment can be massively successful when there are other people involved as often they are able to identify when a bipolar disorder sufferer is about to have an episode and can then act accordingly. One thing is for certain, living with bipolar disorder is not easy – but it is more achievable than you might think. As long as a person’s bipolar disorder is kept under control with the correct medication, and any emotional triggers are identified and avoided there is no reason why life cannot continue as normal. Problems occur however when the medication is not taken and the person with bipolar disorder has an additional problem with alcohol or stimulants, both of which can play a large part in the illness and should be avoided.