Bipolar and Isolation

[sillycatgrl]

Hi everyone! I am curious if any of you isolate yourselves due to having BP Disorder or depression. I work full time, which is very difficult sometimes because being around more than a couple of people is hard for me. By the time I get home I am done with people! Isolation is so much easier. I am on vacation right now and have been sitting home by myself and enjoying it immensely. I need to talk to my tdoc about isolating but in the mean time, would like your input.

[butterflybreath]

I would say that if you are enjoying yourself when you are alone, then that's good. But if you are alone and are depressed because of it, well, that's probably not good. I have become an introvert since my first manic episode. I am finding that no one wants to listen to me talk about my episode, which is very important to me, and I am VERY sensitive to other people's energies now since my first episode. I feel myself melting into depression so easily and quickly if I'm with the wrong people. But, rather than be completely an introvert to an unhealthy extent, I have been trying to keep friends that are into what I'm into and who are healthy emotionally and that will bring my energy up when I'm with them. Also, I find that these days people don't just hang at each other's houses like they used to. We're all isolated! I'm working on finding friends who can just stop by or who I can see pretty easily without making a big deal about it.

Hope that helps!
JEN

[jk]

Hi my name is jk and yes I isolated for 12 years. It is not a good idea. I found I missed out on alot of life. Then my Klonopin was increased and I am no longer isolating. As a matter of fact I enjoy people now. Yes, I still have my moments when I need down time, but I am no longer sitting in my house or laying in my bed waiting for the world to come to me. Please talk with your tdoc and pdoc about this issue I know something can be done to help you enjoy life again. Congrats you are able to work. That is a very big plus!

[Scooby]

To a certain extent I both absorb and give out energies. When I isolate, do my cave-dwelling routine, I intentionally cut myself off from other people. Sometimes I do it too much. I need and am hungry for the energies and caring that real friends give to me, and I like to give it back as well. I do acknowledge I need alone time to recharge my batteries and do inner healing, something nobody can do for me. So I have both phases or colors. Perhaps I am like a chameleon, the animal that changes their color as to be invisible. Sometimes I hide also.

chamelonbottle.jpg

I know two things are true: Part of me changes in a good way when I am around people who buoy me up, and I can slide downhill if I am around low-energy people when I'm also low-energy. I have to mind my emotional energy P's and Q's. Not only do I need other people but need the right people and choose the right people to be with at certain times.

Online in chat rooms I use puns and wacky humor sometimes. I probably do that because I want you to see me as witty and clever, maybe to compensate for part of me that feels he isn't. Beyond interpretatimg everything ad infinitum, I do enjoy listening and being listened to; they go hand in hand. It's the stuff that keeps my motor running.

I don't want people to misunderstand my alone-time needs, but I want them to understand that the way I am wired, I have a need to go there sometimes. I do feel occasionally "people hungry" and it happens most when I feel the intense loneliness. I need to watch myself and mind my moods so that between the extremes I stay somewhere near a balance point. I say "somewhere near" because hitting smack dab in the middle is not always possible except only for a short haul, no matter what the medication milkshake has been. Long hauls are a goal by themselves.

I just need that alone time as well as seek out people who are important to me to both nurture me and for me to nurture them. Not long ago I lost a close friend, Tony, an extraordinary listener, a person who knew the art of listening well, for me and for many who knew him. Finding people with a gift for listening like Tony is well worth the looking; you might say for me he is a reference standard.

tony.jpg

It appears I need time both alone and with people time and that I believe that is my operating system.

[30sumthin]

It is fantastic that you are able to work that helps with the isolation problem some. Your post caught my attention because for the last two or three years I've been isolating and can tell you it is a sure way (when done in excess) to exacerbate symptoms. I just talked to the therapist about it this week. I look back and see how I've lost ground. Not trying to tell you what to do, just a reminder to balance this need for down time and the need for socialization. Oh, if I could turn back time!
Best wishes

[jk]

Hi silly i am jk. Yes isolation is a very big challenge for myself and many others i have had the pleasure to meet. It is a BIG RED FLAG, meaning you r getting into a danger zone.