You are not alone: Bipolar disorder is experienced by millions of people around the world. Living with a mental illness like bipolar can be an isolating experience. You are not alone. Going to treatment for bipolar, you will meet many others who might struggle with bipolar specifically or with another mental health condition, who feel as isolated in their issues as you do in yours. Together you can support one another to recover.

You are not your diagnosis: Having bipolar is sometimes used in a different term like being bipolar. A mental health issue like bipolar is something that you have, but it doesn’t define you. You have extreme mood swings defined by high highs and low low’s. You  can’t control when your mood is shifting or how long it is going to stay that way until it switches to the other direction.

You do not have to struggle for the rest of your life: It is going to get better. In fact, if you are struggling with unmanaged symptoms of bipolar disorder right now and you are reading this article, you are developing the slightest bit of hope that there is hope. There is hope. Going to treatment for bipolar disorder does not mean you are struggling for the rest of your life. You are struggling now. In the future, there will be struggles. However, treatment is where you learn how to manage those struggles effectively and make it through them without feeling lost in your emotions. Bipolar disorder doesn’t have a cure. What bipolar disorder does have are many different treatments and therapies to make living with bipolar disorder easier.

Medication is part of the process: Medications prescribed for the treatment of bipolar disorder are not cures for bipolar disorder. They are part of the treatment for bipolar disorder. Medications will not make the bipolar go away, but they will help normalize the fluctuating moods which define bipolar. Everyone has a baseline for their emotions. Emotions aren’t always on the baseline- sometimes they go up and sometimes they go down. For example, happiness and excitement might go a little above and grief or mourning might go a bit below. Bipolar disorder is characterized by going high above the baseline and far below the baseline. Medications like antidepressants and mood stabilizers can help you get closer to that baseline and keep you as close to it as possible. However, you will have to use the different tools and techniques you learn while in treatment to also help yourself regulate.