Unit 5 - Regular habits and stress management

Summary

Regular habits and stress management are extremely important in bipolar disorder, and belong in any complete treatment program. These two points are crucial for other psychological interventions (essentially interpersonal therapy and cognitive–behavioral therapy) and become the central axis of the theoretical and practical approach of these interventions, especially of interpersonal social-rhythm therapy. In our program, regular habit and stress management are presented from the earliest sessions as essential factors in keeping the disorder compensated and, like substance use, are part of almost every session. This is why we decided to handle these points in greater depth in two sessions, at the end of the program, to remind the patients of the whole program content.

Many bipolar patients tend to organize their time rather erratically, although regularity would help them keep their disorder compensated. Regular schedules and better structuring of activities must thus be one of the key points in any individual intervention with a bipolar patient. In the group, all we can do is to get across the importance of these aspects, presenting them as information, as there is not enough time to work on techniques such as recording activities, which are usually useful for bipolar patients. It is important for patients to keep the proper balance between a schedule that maintains their euthymia and schedules that favor social adequacy and quality of life.