Best Ways to Use Therapy and Medication in Bipolar Disorder

[Paul]

It has been witnessed that managing bipolar disorder often works best when both therapy and medication are clubbed. Medication helps in stabilizing mood and reducing episodes. Therapy on the other hand provides the required tools to cope with stress, improve relationships and manage daily life challenges.

Studies have found that clubbing the approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychoeducation and mindfulness techniques leads to better results compared to medication alone. However, it is also to note here that access to regular therapy is not always easy for everyone.

I would love to hear some valuable thoughts from other members like these:

• How you see therapy is helping along with medication?
• Can you share some therapy approaches that work well in real life?
• What mental health services may do to make therapy easier to access for everyone?

Your insights and experiences may help others in managing bipolar disorder in a better way.

 

[tarymst]

1. I am really tired so I’ll answer what I think you’re asking and tell me if I’m off base here. I see therapy helping me to change mindsets, by that I mean it’s helping me by letting me see the moods as they come instead of being blindsided with them. Usually it was me going along and my partner being the first one to notice my symptoms of mania or hypomania. That still rings true most of the time but I’ve gotten better at noticing the signs as they come.
2. Mindfulness, in that I stay in touch with my body. I’ll check in to how I feel every once in a while. Like at least a couple times during the day. I’m not perfect so it sometimes doesn’t happen regularly but I’ve noticed it being helpful. That’s really the basis of our treatment plan right now.
3. I have a crisis unit around me that I can call instead of the police. I also can call for paramedics instead of, but also the main thing is that I have a group that I can go see when I’m feeling okay (I’m schizoaffective bipolar type). It’s been helpful in the past. I also participate in group support on discord in support servers. I’ve also made friends and surround myself with people who know or will help me in a time of need. I don’t know if I have a NAMI around me, but I do have a group that I found on meet-up.com that I can go to if I have the time. Most of the time they meet when I can’t. So I haven’t checked them out.

 

[johny899]

Combining therapy with medication creates a powerful impact. While medication can help stabilize an individual’s mood, therapy helps individuals build skills to manage the day-to-day stressors of life. Techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy, mindfulness, and psychoeducation provide pragmatic methods for individuals living in real life.