Six Coping Strategies for Living Well with a Bipolar Diagnosis Hi, I’m John McManamy and I live with Bipolar Disorder. I’m both an author and an advocate. I’m here today to share with you six coping strategies for living well. Let’s get started. First and foremost, know thyself. For years, I lived in denial then I got smart. But the doctors didn’t tell me everything. I needed the courage to engage in ruthless self inquiry to confront my demons, to work with my strengths. Then of all things, I could be myself. Second, mindfulness: think of the mind, watching the mind. That way we can act on our thoughts and feelings and energy levels fast before they completely take over. In this manner, we can literally nip a mode episode in the butt. Third, managing stress; it is if I know we learn to avoid stress and to manage the stress we cannot avoid. This may be simple as scheduling strategic timeouts in your day and stopping to smell the roses. Fourth, managing sleep; often, we don’t want to go to bed or we may not want to get out of bed, then bad things happen. One ironclad rule, routine the scheme. Fifth, diet and exercise; you are what you eat. Set amount of goals and find the regimen you can stick with. As for exercise, find the activities that are fun to do with people to do with life. Six, connectedness and resilience; when we are depressed it is very easy to isolate. This tends to worsen our depressions. Here is a simple guideline. At times you want to stay in the house are the very times you need to be getting out of the house. These are six coping strategies that work for me. I’ve also seen them work for others. But I also recommend you do your own research. Establish a good working relationship with your doctor and therapist, reach out to the people around you, find support, and become your own expert patient and an advocate. This is John McManamy. For more information visit Google and type in Coping Strategies for Bipolar for more information. Thank you for watching and be well.