What is it Like Waking Up with Bipolar Disorder?
What it's like waking up with bipolar disorder seems like a random question to ask, but it isn't. In this video blog post, I share what it is like when I wake up with bipolar disorder.
Waking Up with Bipolar Disorder: Surprise!
When those of us who live with bipolar disorder wake up, the anxiety kicks in, the questions start flooding through our heads, and the thoughts just don't seem to have an end in sight. It is nerve-wracking not to know how you are going to feel in the morning. You can go from having a fantastic and productive day before to waking up the next day feeling overwhelmed, anxious and depressed. You never know what you are going to feel like when you wake up with bipolar disorder, but you can be confident that you are going to feel something.
Even when I feel numb in the morning, my mind is still racing. When I feel depressed, I become worried and feel guilty, trying to figure out how I am going to change this day around. I start searching through my journal and bipolar self-help books to try to find coping methods.
Accepting This is Another Day with Bipolar Disorder
Living with bipolar 2 disorder, I have learned that sometimes you just have to accept things the way they are and ride out the emotions. Starting off your day beating yourself up for living with bipolar disorder does more harm than good.
What do your mornings look like when you wake up with bipolar disorder? What do you do when you wake up depressed? Please share your experience and thoughts or send in a response video to info@healthyplace.com. Thanks!
APA Reference
Blum, H.
(2018, March 7). What is it Like Waking Up with Bipolar Disorder?, HealthyPlace. Retrieved
on 2024, April 16 from https://www.healthyplace.com/living-with-bipolar-blog/what-is-it-like-waking-up-with-bipolar-disorder
Author: Hannah Blum
Have bipolar 2 as well as being depressed I get terrible pressure over my eyes anybody have that just horrible
hi hannah
I'm kelly, mom of Emma, age 22, very recently diagnosed BD after a TBI about a year and a half ago. I can see that Emma goes through what you describe every day. She is so tired of living at home (even tho she just graduated college and took her last class last week) but I can tell that she does not trust herself to go live independently. She is anxious, depressed, struggling and on 4 different meds. What can a mom do?
I get this too but only since I hit my 50s! I used to sleep well! I went on vacation about 6 years ago and I haven’t slept well since. I’ve had bipolar since I’m a kid! I wake with rushing ocd thoughts that drive me nuts and I can’t get them out of my head! Like u said. Thanks for sharing. I Hope i sleep better in the future n u 2!
I wake up with with an overwhelming feeling of guilt and destruction, I feel like a burden and the only way I can cope is to lock myself away, then after a while I paint on my fake mask I wear everyday and head out and try and make everyones life around me fantastic, amazing, fulfilled, but for me it's still as empty as when I woke up and I have repeated this cycle my whole existence
I wake up every morning with anxiety when there is nothing to be anxious about? Sometimes I will get up at 3am in the morning and start reading a book to calm my nerves. After that I'm usually ok unless I have to present in front of people that day.
I just wake up feeling worthless every morning.
I have no help or support. I have no job. I have no significant other. Everything I touch goes wrong somehow. I no longer look for work because being fired from all the jobs has destroyed my self worth, and having only myself to depend on has kept it that way.
Please don't tell me it gets better, I need actual help, not empty platitudes.
Hey Luke, I am feeling for you, I have woke up for 14 months with that dreaded, anxious, depressed almost paralysis feeling. That is the time frame since I was diagnosed with bipolar. What a evil beast of an illness, I am not going to sugar coat it, it’s been and still is bloody hard. Just keep the faith, and roll with it. Just keep telling yourself it is just the illness..
Well reading this seems all too familiar. Y'all are not the only ones that feel like this. It is such a struggle and can't explain it. My problems do subside after forcing myself out of the house.
exactly what roxanne said. take my example: yesterday i woke up feeling like myself, i kissed my boyfriend good morning and i took my meds and even biked 26 miles. after that i was tired and kind of shut down by the end of the night, looking forward to sleep. i managed to fall asleep fairly quickly, i don’t remember falling asleep but i set 4 alarms early in the morning that i slept all through. sometimes when this happens i miss work opportunities, being an on-call service staff. i woke up numb, irritated and anxious. I can’t communicate my feelings, i can’t remember my dreams, just the anxious dreaded feelings they leave me in the morning. I wonder why no one talks to me, but it’s because i can’t give anything back during this episode. i’m waiting for something, i distract myself with writing, a book, or social media (this one isn’t the healthiest but it’s an outlet) i don’t know what to do these mornings. sometimes they get better through the day, with errands or something to do, but the feeling is over whelming and i go to sleep hoping i can be myself tomorrow. anyone have any coping skills for this?
I'd say its realizing no ones messaged your phone because you've once again successfully isolate from your friends and they understand that "sometimes you get that way, to give you space until you're feeling better". Or realizing you shift started 2 hours ago and feeling the hopelessness of "not again" when you just slept for 13 hours and through your alarms seemingly out of nowhere. Or mid shift zoned out tired and numb, you didn't sleep cause your mind was racing but now its empty, you wonder if anyone will notice that you're 'not all there' or when your anxiety is physical though nothing has changed from one day to the next 'Am I the only one that can notice?. Wondering "Am I even capable of stability or change when one day I wake up at 6am, or feel fully rested having not slept, or couldn't manage to wake up and face responsibilities, instantly putting my employment or relationships at risk. It's having to communicate although you feel like you can't and its pointless cause so many blame you personally and can't seem to separate the illness from the person, and sometimes you can't either, sometimes you wonder if you're even in control as much as you try to be..