Tag: Questions and Answers

Questions Answered About My Bipolar Episodes and Treatment

Questions Answered About My Bipolar Episodes and Treatment

These questions are from bipolarsojourner

What are my successes and frustrations with ECT?
When I first started ECT, I did it for a while, probably about a year. I don’t remember it at all. But I decided to stop because I wasn’t sure if it was working or not. So I stopped for a while, about 6 months maybe. Then when I started back up I knew for certain that it was helping because it helped bring me out of a big depression. I now do ECT once every other week. It destroys my memory, but it helps my depression. I’m hoping that I can soon switch to doing a treatment once every four weeks. I honestly don’t remember much of anything. It even messes up my memories from before I started ECT, when I was a little kid. They said that is very unlikely, but it happened to me.

How does your husband support you? Is it effective?
My husband is very supportive. He was my best friend and knew all about my bipolar disorder before we started dating. He helps me recognize when I’m in an episode and helps me remember to take my medication. He’s very understanding when I’m not feeling up to doing something. For example, I had a hard time when our dog died this past April. He was ready to get a new dog before I was. He didn’t push me to get another dog, he let me wait until I was ready. My husband makes me feel safe and comfortable being myself, it is extremely effective.

What is your depression and mania like? Do you have benefits from your bipolar?
During my depressions, I always end up eating excessively and gaining weight. I tend to sleep a lot, I lose interest and often don’t care about things that I normally care about. I get angry easily and often feel worthless and suicidal. During my manic episodes, I generally go many days at a time without sleeping (my insomnia get really bad). I usually have racing thoughts, I get all jittery, I don’t make any sense, and I talk really fast (so much so that it sounds like I’m using drugs again, but I’m not). I also get suicidal during manic episodes. I used to self-harm during both depressive and main episodes, but it’s been many years since I’ve done that (although, to be honest, I think about it a lot). I prefer to be manic than depressed. At least when I’m manic I can get things done and I have the energy to workout. I can lose weight when I’m manic a lot easier, but when I’m depressed, I almost always gain weight.

Sunshine Bloggers Award

Sunshine Bloggers Award

I would like to thank Wallflower or Butterfly for the Sunshine Bloggers Award nomination. Please check her blog, if you haven’t already.

The Sunshine Bloggers Award Rules: 

  1. Thank and link the person who nominated you!
  2. Answer the questions they provided for you to answer!
  3. Nominate 11 (or however many) bloggers to participate in this award!
  4. Give 11 questions for your nominees to answer!

My Answers:

  1. If you had three wishes, what would they be?
    1. I would wish to live closer to my family.
    2. I would wish for my dad to be alive.
    3.  I would wish to travel the world.
  2. What’s your favorite and least favorite colors?
    My favorite colors are either dark blue or burgundy. My least favorite color is pink. I’ve never been a girly girl.
  3. What meal do you feel you cook the best?
    I love to cook. I’m great at cooking just about any casserole. I also like cooking biscuits and gravy.
  4. What’s your favorite cookie?
    I love the Fudge Striped Cookies.
  5. Do you prefer the mountains or the beach?
    Definitely the mountains, but I still go to the beach every year.
  6. What’s the last book that you read?
    Fifty Shades Freed was the last book I read, but it was a while ago. I’m not a big reader.
  7. What is your biggest regret?
    Not being with my dad and my family when my dad passed away. I was so close to the hospital, but I chose to get high instead; it was before I got sober. I regret that my dad never saw me get sober.
  8. What are three dreams/goals do you have?
    1. To be able to work from home. I’ve been on disability since 2009.
    2. I always dream of my husband and I buying our own home.
    3. To own a horse again. I miss horses so much.
  9. What are you addicted to?
    I’m addicted to just about everything. I’m a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. I’m also addicted to food and anything else that I like. I don’t know what moderation means.
  10. What do you do on your day off?
    I don’t work, so I don’t have a day off. When my husband has a day off, we usually visit his family members and go to doctor appointments.
  11. What one thing would you change about your life?
    I would love to live on a horse farm. Even if I stayed living in the same city I’m in, just being around horses would have a major positive impact on my life.

I Nominate the Following Bloggers:

Bipolar Strength: Rebel WITH A Cause, In Between The Episodes, Too Polar, Minds Like Ours, Bipolar To Happiness, Musings of a Mad Woman, Weathering the Storm, Decoding Bipolar, Blue’s Bipolar Life, and The Manic Years.

My Questions:

1. If you could change one aspect of your life, what would it be?
2. What are you most grateful for in life?
3. Who is your personal hero?
4. What songs have the biggest effect on you? Which song gets you excited, which one makes you smile, and which one tells your story?
5. What type of animal do you connect with the most?
6. How do you want other people to remember you?
7. What is your favorite memory?
8. If you were stranded on a deserted island, who would you want with you?
9. Other than mental health, what has been your biggest challenge?
10. If you could bring one musician back from the dead, who would it be?
11. What is your definition of family?