Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition characterized by extreme mood swings that can significantly impair your life. For anyone struggling with bipolar disorder, the most important question becomes how to control bipolar mood swings and prevent them from negatively impacting your work and relationships. Bipolar disorder is one of those conditions that must be treated by professionals, and finding a reliable partner for it can significantly improve your quality of life. Use resources from Mental Health Providers to find the professional support you need.
Understanding Bipolar Mood Swings
To learn how to control bipolar mood swings, you first need to understand when and why they occur.
What is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness in which common emotions become intensely and often unpredictably magnified. Individuals with bipolar disorder have extreme mood swings. They can quickly go from immense happiness, energy, and clarity to sadness, fatigue, and confusion.
While all people with bipolar disorder have manic episodes (states of abnormally elevated or irritable moods), not everyone will experience depressive episodes.
Common Triggers for Bipolar Mood Swings
Triggers for mood swings may vary, but some of the typical ones are:
- Lack of sleep or disrupted sleep patterns.
- High levels of stress in work, relationships, or finances.
- Substance use, including alcohol and recreational drugs.
- Changes in medication or skipping doses.
Can you control bipolar mood swings without medical help? This list demonstrates that not all bipolar mood swings demand professional support. You may be able to control some by changing your habits, while others may require medication. It’s important that you recognize what your particular triggers are and seek assistance when you can’t handle them alone.
Strategies to Control Bipolar Mood Swings
Several strategies offer an answer to the question of how to control bipolar mood swings. You might rely on medication management, therapy and counseling, or lifestyle changes, depending on the severity of your mood swings and what triggered them.
Medication Management
Bipolar disorder is one of the mental health conditions that require medications to lead a fulfilled life. Typically, you would be prescribed mood stabilizers, like lithium and anticonvulsants, to manage your symptoms (primarily mood swings). Furthermore, if you’re experiencing depressive episodes in addition to manic episodes, you might be prescribed antidepressants that help you deal with low moods. Finally, antipsychotic drugs are useful in the treatment of acute mania and as maintenance therapy.
Therapy and Counseling
While medications are preventing mood swings, psychotherapy provides an answer to the question of how to control bipolar mood swings without medication. Therapy and counseling deal with your thoughts and emotions and help you with specific triggers in your life.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps you reframe your thinking patterns to cause a positive change in your reactions and behavior.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) assists you in emotional regulation. It teaches you how to find the fine balance between change and acceptance.
- Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT) teaches you how to regulate your mood by maintaining a structured routine.
Lifestyle Changes to Stabilize Mood Swings
Lifestyle changes, on their own, are insufficient for managing bipolar disorder. However, they act as a complementary strategy for mood stabilization, especially for triggers that can be controlled by simple changes you can make without professional support. Lifestyle changes contributing to stabilization of mood swings include:
- Maintenance of a consistent routine: Regular sleep schedules and structured daily activities create a sense of stability in your life, stabilizing your mood as well.
- Healthy diet and nutrition: Eating a balanced diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids improves brain health. Furthermore, avoiding caffeine and sugar can contribute to beneficial sleeping patterns and, with that, mood stabilization.
- Exercise and mindfulness: Engaging in low-impact exercises like yoga and walking stabilizes mood regardless of your diagnosis. Adding meditation and breathing exercises can help you reduce stress, which is one of the major triggers for mood swings.
When to Seek Professional Help for Bipolar Disorder
If you’re having mood swings but aren’t getting bipolar disorder treatment, consider professional help. A customized treatment can make all the difference and help you live an uninterrupted life while experiencing joy and happiness.
Signs That Treatment is Needed
Are you still unsure if you need professional help? Here are some indicators that professional assistance is necessary:
- Your extreme mood swings are affecting your relationships and daily life.
- You have increased risk-taking behavior during manic episodes.
- Suicidal thoughts or severe depression started occurring.
While these signs are showing a serious impact of bipolar disorder on your life, you shouldn’t wait for extreme situations to take place to seek professional support.
The Importance of Professional Treatment
Bipolar disorder requires long-term management through medication and therapy. A reliable mental health facility can help you get that type of support. Once you find a facility that fits your needs and preferences, you will get a customized treatment plan. Professionals will evaluate your condition, consider your circumstances, and tailor a mood swings management program that will ensure lifelong management of bipolar disorder.
Seeking professional support in a timely manner can help you avoid worsening the symptoms. If your symptoms, however, worsen, you’re facing the risk of hospitalization, leaving you with fewer choices on how your bipolar disorder should be treated.
Finding the Best Treatment for Bipolar Disorder in California
Depending on the symptoms you are experiencing, you might need different levels of care. Those requiring more support will benefit from inpatient programs, and those who only require maintenance can rely on outpatient care.
Hospitalization is necessary for severe manic or depressive episodes. The best inpatient mental health facilities in California will provide you with 24/7 medical supervision, therapy, and medication management. Furthermore, they will customize their approach to address your needs and particular triggers and challenges. More than helping you deal with cute symptoms, they will teach you how to control bipolar mood swings and empower you to care for yourself.
We can wholeheartedly recommend Alta Bates Psychiatric Hospital in California to anyone struggling with bipolar disorder and in need of psychiatric care. They specialize in crisis stabilization and inpatient treatment. By implementing a multidisciplinary approach, including therapy, medication, and holistic care, Alta Bates’s professionals ensure equal care for your body, mind, and spirit.
Find Expert Help Today
Bipolar disorder is a serious condition to deal with. Still, with a proper mood stabilization strategy and much support from your loved ones and professionals, you can take charge of your life and live it to the fullest. Build strong connections in your social environment to ensure support from loved ones. For professional support, turn to Mental Health Providers’ resources and get the best care possible.
References:
https://www.apa.org/topics/bipolar-disorder
