While John may or may not have given you the answers you are looking for; I'll give you my personal response. I've been BiPolar longer than you've been alive it sounds like.  And have been on more meds. than the pharmacutical companies can keep making. lol! I have yet to find any combination of meds. even with meditation (no offense John) that will in fact keep Impulsive Behavior at bay or stop it from occuring. Yes, it will slow down; but stop completely...nope! That would be like finding the perfect medication for BiPolar disease and curing it. Impulsive disorder is a tag-along symptom for BiPolars i.e. Mania -  we spend to the the heavens; Depression - we spend to get back to the heavens.

I do have a trick I use though for my impulse spending either online or in stores. If online...when it shows up...don't open it and write RTF (Return To Sender) on the package. Not the best way to do it but it took me years to get to this point.

If I'm in a store; put it in a basket or carry it around the store, don't buy it immediately give your brain time to decide if this is really what YOU honestly want. Worse comes to worse you may always return it later also.

The hardest impulse shopping you have to be cautious of is what you do for others. We are either "Givers" or "Takers". I'm a Giver...has put me in hot water more times than I care to remember. The hardest thing to remember is to tell someone especially in a manic mood is I need 30 minutes to think about it alone. You really do need that 30 minutes alone, I can't stress that enough.

I hope some of this has helped!

Blessed Be!

I actually have this exact same difficulty with the escalating thoughts that have led to the suicide attempts, many words that should not have been said, etc.  I am attending a Dialectical Behavioral Therapy class that is helping SO MUCH.  My insurance only covers 5 more sessions so I will continue with paying out of pocket as I am improving my emotional stability so much.  I do have bipolar I & take 6 medications for it & they are necessary, but I could tell that there was something wrong still with my thoughts & that somehow I was jumping from one thought on to a speeding bullet train to irrational thoughts & conclusions that led to (you guessed it) irrational acts & behaviors.

DBT teaches different techniques--one John mentioned--"mindfulness"  which is NOT meditation as I understand it.  It is refocusing as one would with a camera on one thing to let the sensation of that experience wash over you rather than let the multitude of stimuli of the world bombard you constantly.  Practice some time each day doing just one thing "mindfully" even as simple as washing the dishes, folding warm laundry, putting hand lotion on, listening to soothing music, actually sitting down & slowly eating & tasting your food, etc.  Practicing these mindfulness techniques when you are not in a highly emotional state will make it easier to draw on the technique when you need it when you find yourself emotionally distraught & need to calm yourself down & push the "pause" button (another DBT technique taught) & thus not allow your thoughts to escalate further or for you to act rashly.  By having that "pause" you can start to think things like:  "What evidence is there that -----?whatever your particular paranoid thought might be" or "Hmm, isn't if interesting that I would jump to the conclusion that ----when I really don't have any FACTS to back it up.  All I have are FEELINGS & though my feelings are quite intense, I know feelinings are not facts."   I have tested this & it works!

This is a 26-week course so I can't go into all it teaches.  Just some of the other topics:  Breathing Techniques,  Distress Tolerance, Guidelines for Objectives Effectiveness:  Getting What You Want, Building Self Respect & Mastery, Reduce Vulnerability, Building Positive Experience, Learning How to Self Soothe, Effective Communication & Negotiation.

It was originally designed for people dxed with borderline personality disorder by Dr. Marsha Linehan.  All of the women in my group have borderline but I fit right in with my struggles with overwhelming emotions, difficulties with emotional regulation & over-reactions to situations & extreme sensitivity to criticism or perceived criticism.

I haven't looked at it yet, but a web site that was said to be helpful is dbtselfhelp.com.  

I have been diagnosed with bipolar for 5 years now and I STILL experience irrational and impulsive thoughts.  It's definitely not an easy thing to control.  I believe it just takes a lot of practice of saying "NO" to the irrational thoughts/behaviours.  Over a period of time, it will eventually get easier.  I'm sure that's not the answer you were looking for.  We all want a quick fix, right ?  Unfortunately, that's not gonna happen.

Good Luck !

~Me

I've been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder besides my Bipolar Disorder. At my local mental health center, there is a group called "Emotional Regulation". The best thing that I can think of that has helped me in my own struggle against impulsive behaviors is using the skill "Wise Mind". It is using a combination of thinking emotionally along with thinking rationally. I've learned this skill from the above mentioned group's handouts. They are from Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder by Marsha Linehan. That book is referenced on this self-help website: http://www.dbtselfhelp.com/. I haven't personally been clicking around the website, but that first page has a bunch of links on it.

If you were an avid Star Trek watcher, then I can explain wise mind easier.