How to Keep a Bipolar Treatment Contract

A bipolar treatment contract is a way for a person with bipolar disorder to stay in communication with his support system about his illness. It can alert people to days when the disorder is affecting the person's judgment. It can also help the person to understand what his own symptoms are telling them. A treatment contract will tell others how they can help when the person is having symptoms.

Instructions

• 1

  Evaluate the way you feel when you are well. List the ways that people can tell when you are feeling well and are not being affected by depression or a manic state.

• 2

  Fill out about two pages of the symptoms of your depressive stage. This will tell others what you are going through at the time and will help them to understand. You will also list as many triggers of this state as possible. This section can help others to understand what caused the depression and can help them to avoid triggers in the future.

• 3

  Think about how you can best cope with your depressive state. Devote a page to your best coping mechanisms and how others can help you with it.

• 4

  Devote several pages of the treatment contract to your manic state. This will include the symptoms you suffer from during this time and how it may be triggered. Create a page of coping strategies to help minimize the manic phase.

• 5

  Read the pages on coping with the illness whenever the symptoms begin to appear. These pages can remind you that your thinking is not normal at the time and can remind you about how to minimize the symptoms. Alert the people included in your contract whenever you recognize that the bipolar symptoms have become bothersome.