Been a while since we've had a chance to communicate. Hope this finds you doing well!!

You know i think it is so hard to actually explain bp to anyone that has not a clue or has not experienced it, really i do yet it is vitally important that the masses be educated. Like Eric if they were interested they would read up on it esp knowing that someone who is a friend is diagnosed with it.....BUT a lot of people still have the inside the box image of bp so it never hurts when they actually care enough to ask to try and explain it.....

I know for me i try to explain it in various ways depending on who and what kind of person I am talking to (ie family, friend, etc....for i tell few if ANY about my disorder BUT those people but as with all each person's personality will translate what you say into their own psyche way of thinking of course .....so like to my mom who is elderly and widowed i share what she needs to know about it, and my kids well i share little of the sides and internal thoughts/workings ya know for they are too young to really "get it" and they lived with me to see the other noticeable effects/sides, but friends i tread lightly depending on what kind of experiences they have had). Being Mixed mood RAPID RAPID cylcing is even more hard to explain and having hallucinations (all kinds from auditory to visual to olfactory to the worst of worst tactiles) well that is just NOT something i share ....

Lets see I think I would explain to one i trusted these points.....

1,  It is an electrochemical abnormality in the brain that affects how my nerves communicate therefore affecting my mood/feelings/sensations etc

2. it is nothing whatsoever to do with what they see or view in the movies and the mass media that is pure misconstrued information that hasn't been true representative of bps.

THEN i'd take or give them a website like this one or this one is good to try and explain too;     

http://www.healthyplace.com/bipolar-disorder/main/how-to-explain-bipolar-disorder-to-others/menu-id-784/

http://www.bipolarcentral.com/bipolarsupporterblog/?p=1450

I hope these help ya honey. For it is quite a daunting task to explain it when heck i'm not sure the docs even understand it completely sometimes!! I know i even confuse myself at times trying to figure out some of my rapid moods, my triggers,,,,,but then again OFF to the COPING SKILLS I GO quickly when needed.....that is something else you might explain to her the things that TRIGGER you or the things that you just can not or do not tolerate well...should help the freindship some...for instance i have one friend who is also bp so she gets the ins and outs of it but I have a situation where the phone is a DEMON to me for it sounds like a bullhorn no matter how low i turn the volume so we can't talk on the phone long if at all..we do all through email...and she lives 2 states away so the phone would be great,,,,but i can't tolerate it and she accepts that and knows because she IS bp that there are just different things that affect each of us different....but to help her understand YOUR limits if you really really trust and know her well, well then share with her your personal limits or triggers and that could do nothing but make the frienship better. Just a thought for if i hadn't told my bp friend about the phone i'm sure she'd have thought i just didn't want to talk to her ya know. Just tread lightly, go with your gut as to how far and how much to disclose to others ya know....

HOPE you've been doing well!! glad to have the chance to say hello again!!
take care and know i'm wishing you well!!!
ctrygirl

ps wasn't much help was i, it is just far to complicated to put into just flat out words ya know, not sure webster has come up with the words to explain in full the complete effects of bp.....for heck knows it changes day to day and for me sometimes hour to HOUR!!!! YIKES!! now try to explain that!! tehee...

take care my friend!!
ctrygirl

Ice Queen

3/23/09 2:36pm

Has been awhile since we have communicated. I am doing as well as i can feeling as normal as i can. Getting ready for my driving exams on friday. I hope that you are well??.

 

Thankyou for you information it really did help. I have taken the website address down. I will tred lightly. it really isnt easy to explain at all and like you said sometimes you are even confussed by it yourself. Just made it a bit harder as i had got used to keeping it all to myself because no one in my family apart from my mum cared. Like you with your mum i tell mine what she needs to know and thats it. This is the first friend that has been intrested. We have been friends for quite some years.  I think that i will just keep it to the basics and then give her the website address. it was good to hear from you again.

ctrygirl

3/24/09 7:48am

Hey there I've thought about you so many times and just never get on and email ya, I am bad about getting on for periods of time and then forgetting to or chaos erupts tehee or SPRING pulls me away from this to get out side for as you know coping skill =NATURE for me thee.

SO hope you are feeling well, love to hear from ya in email and know how things have been going. Know you had a rough time there for a while..glad to hear you are coping and dealing and doing alright...know certainly what you mean about as normal as normal is for us tehee...GOOD LUCK on the driving exams!!! I will be wishing you the best!!
Hey i am reposting for i forgot to add a great book that explains the GOOD things about bps...."TOUCHED WITH FIRE" By Kay Jamison and an "UNQUIET MIND" by the same author, heck if your friend would read the first one listed (from the library heck no need to buy it unless want to) well she would have NEW FOUND respect for the creativity, the innovation, the artistic spirit, the utterly empathetic/caringness of bps, the in tune with our environment far more than the average joe concept and MUCH more...she would walk away realizing we are the dreamers of the dreams, the creators of MANY MANY works of artisitic expression from actors/artist/painters/writers/singers/songwriters and heck even LEADERS like Churchill and others....I hope you have this site..this will help to break that STIGMA UMBRELLA we all live under.....if not here it is.......(itis famous bps and boy are there some prestigous ones on there ..should make anyone take pause in judging ya know. BUT GIRL YES tread lightly.....and carry loads of information (instead of the stick tehee for if like me and anger outburst comes who knows what ya'd do with it tehee no just ribbing ya!!)......here is the site;

http://bipolarworld.net/Bipolar%20Disorder/Articles/art14.htm

very uplifting site for us too!!
Listen you take care and remember only disclose what YOU feel comfortable sharing, only tell those you KNOW you can trust, and dont ever be ashamed of the diagnosis ...we are far more than ANYONE seems to give us credit for and you are always a child of light my dear

....but they just don't "get it" and I hate to say it but really we don't "Get it "  concerning other illnesses like diabetes or heart problems, or asthma unless we have it either...even though we are very empathetic and caring and most likely would be the LAST to judge someone on an illness...still hard to grasp the fullness of any illness or experience i think, PERSONALLY THINK THAT, unless we go through it.

 

 I realized that when i lost my dad in 2005,

for years i felt such deep sorrow and sympathy and thought i UNDERSTOOD the heartbreak my husband felt when he lost BOTH his parents 6 mo apart AND a brother AND a grandmother within that same YEAR!! but i had not a clue.....not really.....thought i did...but the internal mind/feelings/emotions etc.....way to hard to "get" unless been there done that in my opinion.....

but we always have hope of some tiny bit of understanding or at the LEAST acceptance or leave us alone tehee...

I will be thinking of you ,,,,,,check out the famous bp site you'll be uplifted!!!

Take care my friend, take care,

sincerely

ctrygirl

DRIVE SAFELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ice Queen

3/24/09 12:43pm

Hello. I understand i am the same i don't come on here as much as i used to something eles pops into my mind and that's it i have forgot.  Have memory problems some days. You sort of wander off into your own little world just to keep on coping. Yeah i did have a bad time but that's passed for now at least. Even feeling as normal as we can i still always have this worry at when the depression is going to strike.  

 

I did go and have a look at that famouse people website i must admit that i was quite surprised at how many famouse people there were or are with bp some i would have never thought of having bp. I txt the website adress to my friend told her to have a look and ave her the names of the books. All up to her now. I did say that she will never truely understand it in the way she thinks she will be able to. like you said you can never really understand fully about an illness unless you suffer from it. I will trend very lightly and i only intend to tell her what i feel comfterble with best that way.  I always hate reveling that i have bp to people even the ones i really trust and know.

 

Surpose i had better get back to my study been avoiding it for to long already.

 

Take Care. And all the best to you.