Wisdom from my Friend, Julie Fast
The following is Julie Fast’s most recent newsletter post. As always, she’s full of solid, practical, experience-based advice. To learn more from Julie, visit www.bipolarhappens.com
Sometimes it feels like we have become a society that rarely thinks of consequences:
- Put your entire vacation on a credit card! YOU DESERVE IT!
- If it feels good, do it! WHO CARES ABOUT TOMORROW!
- Don’t worry, be happy! ALL THAT MATTERS IS NOW!
Before I started managing this illness successfully, I was a ‘do what feels good now, think about it later’ person. And I was always sick.
Then I created the Health Cards and there it was in black and white. If I do this now, this happens later.
Then I realized the secret to staying stable when you have bipolar disorder:
Think Now, Do Later.
It’s such a simple concept and yet so hard to follow because we are exploratory creatures. For many people, doing something first
and then seeing what happens later is an exhilarating and often rewarding experience, but for those of us with bipolar disorder, this behavior often makes us sick.
Thinking now and then doing later changed my life. It took about five years for me to really make the changes needed. To be honest even today I don’t want to think first. I want to have fun! Travel! Meet hot guys! Get famous and sing all night! well….
That’s not exactly a good plan for someone who gets ill just from an argument with her brother.
Now, instead of immediately saying yes to something I try to say: ‘Let me think about it and maybe I can do it later.’
The Think Now, Do Later model basically works for anything that may make you sick. And for those of you who care about someone with the illness, this can be a great conversation topic. If they won’t or can’t listen, then you can follow the principle yourself as an example.
If you have a decision to make in the next few weeks, especially one that involves work or relationships, ask yourself this question:
If I do this now, what will happen later?
You can then make a realistic ‘bipolar disorder healthy’ decision based on your answer.
Julie
I hope you have a treatment system/plan in place. A treatment plan is the best way to practice this “secret” so you can be sure you’re making healthy bipolar decisions that keep the non healthy decisions to a minimum.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Julie A. Fast best selling author of Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder and Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder is a critically acclaimed six-time author, award winning bipolar disorder advice columnist, national speaker, and sought after expert in the fields of bipolar disorder and depression. Julie’s work specializes in helping people manage all aspects of their daily lives -despite the complications that bipolar disorder creates. To learn how to personalize a plan to help yourself or a loved one find and create stability that ensures the quality of life that we all deserve, visit: BipolarHappens