The Number One Way I Am Managing During the COVID-19 Crisis

*Photo by Michael Marais on Unsplash

The COVID-19 Crisis has uprooted our lives and turned them upside down. Across the world, everyone is impacted. Some are impacted more than others. The majority have been stuck at home learning how to homeschool their kids and make enough money to keep afloat.

It is no surprise that the well-being and mental health of the world have taken a direct hit. Whether you live with a mental illness like bipolar disorder, or not, your mental health has been impacted.

Let me ask you:

• How do you feel these days?
• Are you struggling?
• What about your family?

Trying to find balance during a time of chaos is exceptionally hard, but it is completely doable. It is within your reach. If you live with bipolar disorder and are proactively treating your illness, you may not have made too many changes to how you manage your bipolar disorder.

Let us take a further look at managing during the COVID-19 crisis.

Treatment Plan

You should already be following some form of a treatment plan. I implement strategies to manage my bipolar disorder from my treatment plan. I composed this plan of taking my meds each day and keeping in contact with both my doctor and therapist.

I eat regularly to nourish my mind and body and to keep my sugar levels stable. I also drink lots of water, exercise, and find downtime. As I know you can relate, downtime has not been hard to find.

To manage during the COVID-10 crisis, I have stuck to my treatment plan with hardly any room for leniency. Some of the different components of my treatment plan, however, have needed minor adjustments. For example, through the virtual monitoring from my doctor, we tweaked my meds. As I mentioned above, with the exorbitant amount of downtime, I mustn’t take too much of it. These are just adjustments that I make during the normal course of my life.

If you have read any of my articles, you probably know how much I endorse the medical model approach to managing my bipolar disorder. This approach is composed of medication management by the supervision of a medical professional and therapy. During the COVID-19 Crisis, everything has switched to virtual and remote means.

Some Ways the COVID-19 Crisis Has Changed My Treatment Plan

Due to my physical issues, I am in a high-risk group. As such, it is important that I take extra precautions. The precautions protect me, my family, and the general public.

Mail-in Meds

Toward the beginning of the crisis, I contacted my insurance carrier to see if they had any kind of mail-in pharmacy. I know others have had their medications mailed to them, and I wasn’t sure if my insurance provided that service. I found out they do offer the service, and I could do everything online. Plus, the mail-in pharmacy delivers three months’ worth of meds at a time.

Teletherapy

Before the pandemic, I saw my therapist regularly—every week. Of course, these were in-person sessions, and I wanted to continue the same schedule. Believing in the fundamentals of the medical model approach to treatment, I needed to maintain continuity with my care. With the use of modern technology, I switched my sessions over to the digital realm of communication.

Telepsychiatry

Like my therapy sessions, I now see my doctor via digital means. In addition, like my therapist, I can e-mail them both if I need anything at all. It has worked out quite well for me because of the continuity of care from before the pandemic right on through it.

Number One Way I Am Managing During the COVID-19 Crisis

I feel comfortable and confident with how I manage my bipolar disorder daily and long-term. During extremely stressful times, I know the importance of ramping up my self-care activities. It makes it difficult when one of my daily coping skills is to get outside—and even more so since I am at high risk.

I have continued the fight, and I have promised myself never to back down and NEVER to quit. Stress changes things, but it is a matter of making slight tweaks here and there.

The number one way I am managing during the COVID-19 Crisis is by embracing my creativity.

When it comes to creative ventures, there are a vast amount of choices. Also, just because you have bipolar disorder does not mean you are inherently creative, and vice versa.

For me, working on a creative project provides focus and a way to make something in a world that is full of chaos and death at the moment. I do not like to overdramatize anything, but making creations during a time of darkness is like shooting light straight through it.

Let me give you some examples of how I am creating during the COVID-19 crisis.

This War Within My Mind

I released my first book on March 27, 2020. I have been working on it for the past few years, but then I buckled down to complete it. It is one of a handful of projects I have recently completed.

The Bipolar Battle Learning Community

I have always felt like a course about bipolar disorder would be extremely beneficial. If you are newly diagnosed, the Taking Charge of Bipolar Disorder Masterclass I created is for you. In addition to the masterclass, I am currently creating other classes as well.

The Bipolar Battle Podcast

In April 2020, I took the plunge and started my podcast. It has the same mission as The Bipolar Battle Blog–to empower those living with bipolar disorder to live the life they deserve. My vision is to create shorter episodes ranging from around 5 to 10 minutes. Sometimes I will bring on guests, and the episodes might go longer–30 minutes to an hour. The idea is to find a few nuggets to share and move on.

Last Thoughts

The COVID-19 Crisis has forced many people to take several steps back and focus on their survival. I find this extremely similar to how I manage my bipolar disorder on a day-to-day basis. I see myself as a survivor, but more so as a warrior.

Each day, I focus on basic building blocks of survival to manage my bipolar disorder. The majority do not live with a mental illness, but they are now fighting to live too. Coping each day is different for each person, but I have found creating to be a vital strategy to maintain my stability and sanity.