Bipolar paranoia

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How do you guys deal with bipolar induced paranoia? How are you able to make the judgment call as to when your concerns are genuine/vaild (and relate to your personal safety/well-being), or when you are making completely unfounded judgments due to paranoid thinking.

I am very concerned about paranoia interfering with my judgment. I haven't had much issue with this in the past, but in the last 3 months I have found it more and more difficult to disentangle my logical reasoning from my paranoia induced thinking/emotionally clouded decision making.

I once found myself having complete paranoid thoughts/distrusting a very close friend of mine for an hour or two and I am deeply ashamed about this.

I am wondering if you guys could suggest any strategies for rational/logic based decision making, and preventing paranoia or emotions from clouding ones judgment.

Are you on any antipsychotic? Maybe a med change can help.

For starters, never take any kind of preemptive action in any aspect of your life ranging from social situations to physical safety. Whatever is worrying you, be prepared to react (and try to keep a range of options available to avoid doing anything excessive in that particular situation) but never make the first confrontational move. If there is anyone you trust you can confide in, keep them informed about what is going on. If it is a reoccurring problem then a med change may be in order.

I am still in the process of initially getting my meds right. I am on Valproate, not an anti-psychotic, but the dose still needs to be increased.

At this stage I haven't had any big issues/confrontations or anything like that, but I'd rather be prepared and know what to do in advance than clean up after it's too late. The thought of hurting anybody really upsets me and I want to do anything I can to prevent that. I am adjusting the medication as fast as possible, but it may still be a few weeks before it is right.

Getting it right sucks.....but once you find the right mix, it gets better. Most other BP people I know are on lithium, a mood stabilizer, and an antipsychotic at the least.

If you are that worried, I'd give your pdoc a call and ask them their thoughts.

I'm not a doctor, but I know that valporate usually doesn't keep you stable all by itself so you might want to ask your doctor about why they are using it that way. If you are concerned about how to handle paranoia, you might want to ask about counseling too. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an excellent technique for separating the irrational from the logical, and it tends to work well for the high functioning end of the autistic spectrum as well. You have not said anything threatening about yourself or others so there is nothing they can hold against you.

I don't think I have experienced any sort of severe paranoia yet (my symptoms seem to be more strongly physical and emotional in the sense of either feeling really depressed or really happy) but I like to be prepared for any eventuality. I think the little bouts of paranoia I have experienced have been more due to depressive non-trusting thinking, than schizotypal type paranoia - doctor says I don't have any schizo type symptoms, thus his diagnosis of bipolar 2.

My DH is BP 2, and before his meds were all figured out he would go through times when he thought I was thinking negative things about him, or trying to stop him from doing things, etc. It just seemed like he was highly irritable and mean. It took a long time to figure out how to stabilize the irritability. Abilify and seroquel seemed to really help even out the manias. Everyone is different, so I hope you find your right combo without having to trying everything under the sun!