Copyright (c) 2008 Stephen Lau

To treat your bipolar disorder, you need to see yourself as an Olympic athlete, you need training not just for yourself but also for members of your family. Yes, they need to get involved with your bipolar depression. The reason is that they, too, need to see and recognize the triggers of your bipolar disorder, especially the factors that may disrupt your sleep, thereby triggering your depression or mania episodes.

Train yourself to keep a regular sleep schedule, and they need to see to it that you abide by it.

Anxiety is a common experience of a bipolar patient. Anxiety may be another cause of your sleep disorder. Due to anxiety, you may want to use alcohol, drugs or tranquilizers to overcome your anxiety disorder. These substances may seem like a solution, but they only aggravate the problem. For example, if you use alcohol to make yourself become drowsier in order to fall asleep more easily, the alcohol may also deprive you of a deeper and more restful sleep needed for your bipolar disorder. These substances have side effects, and you need to think long into the future when it comes to what you put in your body.

Because you have bipolar disorder, your brain is different from that of others. Naturally, you may also want to treat your disorder mood swings by eating foods that enhance your energy and elevate your mood. All these years, you may have developed a craving for junk food - what is known as "comfort food." Your mood swings are often linked to regular fluctuations in your blood sugar level. "Comfort food" offers you little comfort over the long haul. The reason is that junk food, usually loaded with sugar and empty calories, may temporarily fulfill a craving brought on by sudden tiredness and irritability, but they also cause your energy and mood to fluctuate, creating episodes of depression and mania.

Therefore, one of the key factors in treating bipolar disorder is to use food to balance your mood, rather than using food as a quick fix to get you out of a mood swing.

Your neurotransmitters - dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin - regulate your mood. These neurotransmitters are built from amino acids, which enter your body in small amounts. In addition, your body does not naturally make them, and accordingly they need to be obtained from your diet. Studies have shown that one of the most effective ways to control bipolar disorder is through the diet: eating pure protein without carbohydrates; eating complex carbohydrates with no protein. It is important to increase your energy level without affecting your blood sugar level. If you eat properly - avoiding junk food - you may not only regulate your neurotransmitters but also require lower doses of medications, which can mean fewer unpleasant side effects for you.

However, knowing is one thing, while doing is another. The temptation to use food and drink loaded with caffeine and sugar to boost your mood is irresistible to a bipolar patient. That is why you require the discipline and training of an Olympic athlete to help you stay on course, and members of your family should serve as your coach to ensure that you will not deviate from the training schedule. You need their support as well as their firmness to help you persevere in your combat against bipolar disorder.