Bipolar Holiday Recuperation Guide

Congratulations; if you’re reading this you’ve survived the holidays, or most of them anyway. You’re past the late-night wrapping sessions, the overindulgence in eggnog and the stuffing that you never like but every year are forced into eating anyway. Huzah.

But if you’re a bipolar like me, you’ve found that all that forced merriment has left you feeling hollow, tired and depressed, so it’s time to take action to get back to your pre-holiday self.

Shake off the Holidays

The holidays have come and the holidays have gone. Whatever happened, happened and now it’s over. A family with one mentally ill person often contains others as well, which can make for overly-entertaining gatherings. Shake it off. You have a whole year before you have to do it again.

Get Back Into Your Bipolar Routine

Even with the best of intentions we let our routines slip. We’re human. There might have been one day when you forgot your meds and another when you only got three hours of sleep. Now you’re paying the price for that. Get back to your pre-holiday routine. It’s never as easy getting back into a routine as it is falling out of one, but now is the time to re-recognize routine’s importance in your mental health.

Rest Your Bipolar Brain

I dissociate a lot during the holidays. I intellectualize. I put my hockey pads on and elbow my way through December. I do whatever I have to do while attempting not to notice too much.

The holidays often require a supreme effort for a bipolar brain, no matter how you make it through so take days of rest. De-schedule yourself. Sit on the couch with your cat. Each chocolate. Take a bath. Understand that your brain needs time to build up its reserves again.

Get Holiday Help

And if things haven’t gone well for you, if you feel overwhelmed or like you can’t handle the aftermath – get help. I’ve had holidays where I swore I was going to spin apart atom by atom after the merriment. It happens. Web resources, help lines and mental health resources are always there for you. Use them if you need to.

Accept Holiday Recuperation is Necessary

No matter whether you loved or loathed your recent moments, accept that there will likely be fallout. Change in our lives, even temporary, creates change in our bipolar. That’s OK. That’s just part of life. We just need to accept that we can get harder hit than most others and take the time and steps necessary to correct that.

You can find Natasha Tracy on Facebook or @Natasha_Tracy on Twitter.