Good afternoon @Meowmy ,

 @Klutz , how are you going with your bipolar 

my husband has had depression and axiety all his life and has had lots of different diagnosis including bipolar 

hello @Former-Member , that is a good question , the doctor say to take the meds only for a short time but getting off them is harder than staying on them 

@Mazarita, thank you for sharing and yes i agree with what you said --

am starting to think depresson underlies everything in bipolar. as mr shaz was diagnosed with major depression first before bipolar 

hello @Olga , @Appleblossom , @SJT63 , @greenpea , @HenryX , @eth , @Dimity 

@ethwrote from her thread Managing Bipolar 1 

So managing bipolar has 3 main aspects - medication (psychiatrist), therapy (psychologist) and self management, including the main one being sleep 'hygeine' (google it), monitoring - for me I keep daily charts; self discipline, diversion of energy into things like art, craft, exercise, cooking, gardening - generally things I can do quietly at home but still use my racing brain. Mindfulness activities are good too. I find I get overstimulated really easily if I let myself get out in the world too much when manic. Sounds possibly too restrictive, but it's working at this time. Otherwise I could be shooting off on all sorts of risky and expensive ventures - have done in the past.

The charts include depression/elevation, sleep, anxiety, irritability, and medications. So I can see if I start to swing in one direction or another. You can get these charts from psychiatrist or psychologist, on-line or make your own.
I also use a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) that's another thing you can google. It's brilliant and is there as a resource for my support people too if I get too far out of whack.

I'd really welcome contributions to this thread in the hope that we can help each other and also people newly diagnosed.