Bipolar Disorder: Knowing When More Help is Needed

Help with mental and emotional problems can come in many forms. It can be friends that keep you from feeling lonely. It can be inspiration from a spiritual leader. It can be talking things over with a counselor. Or it could be getting a prescription that helps relieve symptoms of problems. All of these are acceptable and functional ways of getting help.

The problem is in knowing "do I need help?" Or rather a better question to ask is: "Do I have an emotional or mental problem and don't know it?"

I have a close friend that has a problem and doesn't realize it. No matter what those close to him tell him, every problem that happens to him is the fault of someone else. But sometimes that's just not the case... it is within ourselves. It can also be within our own power to solve those problems, once we know how.

Here's some symptoms that a person may need more help than what they can provide for themselves:

1. The feeling that everyone is trying to get you. If you wake up in the middle of the night and hear screaming or other strange noises, it may be that your dreams are a vivid part of your life and it is hard to distinguish what is real and what isn't.

2. You have memories and you don't know if the memories are actual things that happened to you or if they are things you saw on television. If you find yourself sharing memories with family members and they say that they don't remember this or that, it may be that you are confusing things.

3. Every relationship you have winds up with some type of failure. Everyone has friends, thank goodness, but what about relationships that are more than just being friends. Do they end peacefully... or do they end where you have to hide from the other person?

4. You notice that you talk about the same thing repeatedly, but no one else seems to want to talk about it. If you go on and on about something, and everyone else is looking at you, you may need to seek additional help.

5. When you are by yourself, you feel lonely and notice that you are dependent on others to keep you satisfied and entertained.

6. You feel like you are constantly in water trying to get around. Or you feel that you have an imbalance in your head that keeps you from functioning as well as you know that you can.

If you know someone with any of these signs, I strongly recommend that you get them to a counselor to ascertain if any deeper conditions exist. It may turn out that all that is needed is medicine to "balance" the load and make life a lot easier. There's nothing wrong with taking medicine, and I personally know several people whose lives were helped. In fact, they could not function in society without this help to balance their lives.

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