So finally my friend came back from a bush bashing art exhibit. I asked him about his routine with bipolar. He said being aware of self care is important. Two warning signs are loss of appetite and insomnia. Being aware of the warning signs is important just to keep self care in order. He made a reference to just trying to carry on as normal by eating and putting in time to sleep. De-stimulating is something I have gone about he reckons that is good too. But he said that it is important to talk to people you can trust. Sometimes people don’t understand but talking helps with your general grounding.

My friend has regular visits to his psychologist and gets to assess his strategies over time. This helps a lot. So generally keeping normal routines going helps. If you let the general order of your life go too off the charts it doesn’t help keeping a balance. Of course it is easy for me to say all of this but in practice it is hard. Lets for a moment consider what I do when I have a level of psychosis. I simply try to switch off. I try to meditate and relax. Not everyone can relax though because that in itself is an art. One way to try is to just dim the lights have a bath or just relax. You have to do it no matter how busy you are. I find putting my phone on silent helps. Having a decent meal and so on.

So I suppose the main component is self care. It is hard enough with the illness. Medications can sometimes help. Relaxing and talking. For me the key to my own mental health is my medication which can only do so much sometimes. I hope this helps people in some way.