Knowing Right From Wrong With Bipolar Disorder

Is a bipolar person conscious about what is right and wrong at the time they do something wrong?

The answer is a YES and NO… depends on the person, and how severely ill they might have been at the time the behaviour happened. For many of us living with bipolar disorder, we can experience psychotic episodes at some point during our illness. Psychosis involves loss of touch with reality. So during that time, someone with bipolar disorder may be acting under the hallucinations or delusions. Under these circumstances, we aren’t aware of our actions.

Bad sleeping patterns or insomnia, is a common problem for people with bipolar disorder. Sleep is extremely important, and sleep disturbance most often triggers mood episodes. I monitor my sleeping, and over the years have learned that on my 3rd night of disruptive sleep or lack of sleep I should start to worry and also mention it to a family member. It’s also important to distinguish what kind of sleeping problem you are having, is it trying to fall asleep but unable to? Or is it that feeling of ‘not needing to sleep’, or is it just feeling tired constantly… That feeling of tiredness is usually linked to the depressive side of bipolar whereas the not needing to sleep can be linked to the mania side.

When manic, your sense of boundaries are screwed. That filter that most people use and have in place no longer exists. You can come across as rude or harsh. Also during the mania, I don’t fully remember how down I feel during the depressive times, which can be hard for your loved ones to know where exactly you are in your cycle. One day you’re full of life and the next you can be down in the dumps. However being bipolar should not be a get-out-of-jail-free card. We usually manage to hide the worst side of ourselves from people that don’t truly know us, as we tend to be on ‘edge’ and only feel comfortable and safe around people that do know the REAL us, so we do have a degree of control over our actions and behaviour, however, we don’t often know right from wrong in that split moment, usually, when everything settles down we can see reason.

I would love to hear your opinion on this, write to me on the email below or follow me on Facebook @mswillowbipolar

Love

Ms Bipolar x