CREST.BD Independence & Bipolar Disorder Slides

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CREST.BDBipolar Wellness Center Webinars
Connect. Learn. Engage.

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Bipolar Wellness Center Webinars
Connect. Learn. Engage.CREST.BD
Independence

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Connect. Learn. Engage.CREST.BDCREST.BD
Featuring: Dr. Eric Youngstrom
CREST.BD Member and
Professor of Psychology and
Psychiatry,
University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
Independence

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Defining independence
Why independence is important to your QoL
Independence and BD
Tools and resources
Webinar focus

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Independence - ‘freedom from outside support or control’1
Empowerment – ‘the process of taking control and
responsibility for actions that maximize personal
fulfillment’
• Similar to independence, empowerment includes
self-reliance, participation in decisions, dignity,
respect, belonging and contributing to a wider
community
1
World Health Organization (2010). User empowerment in mental health: a statement by the WHO Regional Office for
Europe. Copenhagen: World Health Organization.

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Independence usually requires some healthy
dependencies on others!
Knowing when you need to ask for help and effectively
doing so can be empowering
Often a fine balance; can take some trial and error to
figure out

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Why is independence important to QoL?
The ability to independently choose, navigate or create
environments that support wellness is core to mental
health2
Being independent gives us the sense that we are able to
influence our environments and life events
Regardless of how much control we actually have in our
lives, most important is the sense that we are capable of
acting for ourselves and in our own best interests
2
Ryff CD & Keyes CLM (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of personality and social
psychology, 69(4): 719.

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Independence and BD
Little research specifically on
independence and BD
People with BD interviewed about
their QoL described their struggles
with establishing independence in
terms of:
• financial independence
• independence within families
• independence within healthcare
system
Michalak, E. E., Yatham, L. N., Kolesar, S., & Lam, R. W. (2006). BD and QoL: A patient-centered perspective. QoL
Research, 15(1): 25-37.

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Supporting independence in youth/adolescents with BD
BD often first appears in adolescence and early adulthood,
a time of life when people are often struggling to establish
independence, even when they don’t live with mental health
challenges
Independence and BD

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How you can take action
Social support and independence
Foster relationships, including those with healthcare
providers, that allow you to get the support you need without
unnecessarily inhibiting your independence
Find supporters:
• you can speak freely to about your concerns
• who give you a voice
• you have a healthy partnership with
Identify different supporters to help you with different parts of
your life

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Goal setting
Envision the life you’d love to have (e.g., I value having my own space;
living alone in my own apartment would be my ideal situation)
Set a target goal to help you embrace this life vision (e.g., to move out
of my parents’ home and into my own place within a year)
Set some smaller goals to help you reach your target goal
• describe these in detail – good goals are specific and clearly defined
• set some goals that you can act on now! (e.g., save 10% of my
income for future deposit and 3-month rent cushion)

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Challenges to working on goals
Common challenges:
• Being afraid of failure if goals are not achieved
• Depression, fatigue or stalling
Workarounds:
• Treat your challenges as an experiment
• Watch out for false assumptions about what may occur if you
try but fail

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Challenges to working on goals
Workarounds:
• Create a goal hierarchy
❒❒ list all your goals from easiest to hardest and work on one
or two of the easiest first
❒❒ after your easy goals have been achieved, move on to a
harder one
• Praise yourself for your accomplishments!
• Keep track of your successes

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Tools and Resources

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SMART criteria. (n.d.). Retrieved Jan 13, 2015 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria#cite_note-
Siegert-12
Setting reasonable goals (SMART)
• S - Specific [what, how, where, when]
• M- Measurable [how will I know when it’s achieved?]
• A - Acceptable [will I feel good about this?]
• R - Realistic [can I do this?]
• T - Time-limited [when will this be achieved?]
Taking Action: Just Do It!
Assessing Your Progress

Goal setting

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Resources
1. The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide (2nd Ed) - Dr. David J. Miklowitz
2. Welcome to the Jungle: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About
Bipolar But Were Too Freaked Out To Ask” - Hilary Smith
3. On Your Own: A College Readiness Guide for Teens With ADHD/LD - Theresa
Maitland

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For more information and resources,
visit our Bipolar Wellness Center at:
http://www.bdwellness.com/
To assess your quality of life,
visit our QoL tool at:
http://www.bdqol.com/

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Acknowledgments

CREST.BD Independence & Bipolar Disorder Slides

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CREST.BD Independence & Bipolar Disorder Slides