Opposite Action

Opposite Action is a great tool to combat depression. A couple of days ago, I didn't feel like doing anything. Well, actually, I felt like feeling sorry for myself and was doing a good job at that.

Then I remembered that my goal was to prevent depression because this is easier than overcoming depression.

So I went to my list of tasks I wanted to get done. There was a fairly easy one I decided to tackle, although I had to overcome my tendency towards perfectionism before I even started.

There were only a few glitches, but in less than an hour, my task was complete. And guess what? I felt a lot better.

What Opposite Action did for me that day was to trick my brain into thinking I wasn't down or depressed and could get one thing done.

It was the turning point for me because today, two days later, I woke up feeling much better. Then I realized my mood had begun to shift when I applied the tool of Opposite Action.

When You're Not Physically Well

It's hard enough to stay balanced mentally and emotionally when you're bipolar, even with medication. For me, this takes good eating habits, sleep hygiene, and regular exercise, along with getting out of the house to do fun things with friends and family.

But when I get physically ill or injured, and I can't exercise or my sleep is disturbed, I have to work extra hard at "doing what I can". For example, I fell and injured both legs a few weeks ago so I have to stay off my feet as much as possible. Not only can I not go to the gym to walk the treadmill, I can't drive yet. So I have to ask for rides to the doctor and for anyplace else I want to go.

But I can lift hand weights to exercise my upper body. And I can eat smaller portions and keep it healthy in order not to gain weight, which has been a problem for me since I started taking meds the same time I went through menopause. I also used sleeping pills the first week after my accident in order to get my rest.

Other helpful behaviors include texting, emailing, and calling friends for extra support and rides to the local coffee shop. I've also been reading more and watching TV, although I have to be careful about what I watch. I have a Tivo so can record good movies along with downloading the same via Netflix. Also, I'd missed a few weeks of Masterpiece Theater but was able to watch those episodes on PBS.org.

And I can use this time to catch up on my writing and blogging. Still, I've been waking up somewhat down in the morning, which means I need more than coffee to get me going. It helps to review some of the tools that keep me from going from "down" to "depressed". The best one for me is to challenge my automatic thoughts, such as "I am going to end up crippled and in pain like 'so and so' and no one will ever come to visit me".

Clues to this thought not being accurate are the words "crippled" and "ever", both extreme and not true. I challenged this thought with "I am getting better every day" and "my grandchildren are coming to visit tomorrow"... There are many other tools which will have to wait for another day's blogging.

If you have a specific question for me about how you're feeling and what tools have worked for me to get past that, please comment and I'll answer in a blog. Thanks for reading!