#bipolar II disporder

[bipolarwhatinthewhat]

Bullet Journals for Mental Health pt 1

So, one of the things my therapist told me to do was track my sleep cycle and my moods. Admittedly, I am really bad at being super gung-ho about these sort of things when I’m feeling pretty good (usually when I’m hypomanic, ngl), and then forgetting about them or not having the will to do them when I’m depressed or even just no longer hypomanic.

Anyway, there is a lot of benefit to tracking those things because sleep is very much tied to bipolar disorder. If you notice you’re not getting enough sleep or sleeping way too much, it can be an indicator that you’re about to enter into a hypomanic/manic stage or a depressed stage. Tracking your mood throughout the day/week/month can also be helpful because it can also serve as an early indicator as well as help you find patterns to your cycling. Tracking those things also helps you remember how things went during the week when you talk to your therapist, especially if you’re like me and the days all kind of run together or you just forget things easily.

When I had my diagnosis of depression/anxiety, I used to track my moods using the bullet journal technique. I actually kind of fell in love with bullet journaling during that time, as it is a really flexible method and super quick to do once you get yourself set up. I stopped journaling when I was voluntarily put into an inpatient program (because I prefer to write in pencil and they only provided pens, and it upset me), and because I hadn’t done it every single day, it got dropped from my routine.

Anyway, I’m about to get back into bullet journaling, so I thought I might share the idea with you all in case you hadn’t heard of it or whatever. This post is getting kinda long, so I’ll put more information in another post about what bullet journaling is, how to get started, where to find information, etc.