There are many ways bipolar disorder presents itself and a plethora of unwanted life situations that it causes. If you recognize some of them it may help in discovering if you or a loved one is possibly bipolar. The journey has to start somewhere. If I’d known way back when what I know now, I may have avoided some pains. Then again, maybe not. Everyone’s situation is different.

But if you know what to look for you can get a jump on fighting it before it gets real out of hand as this illness so loves to do. Following a system like mine and doing so before your symptoms become outrageous can save you from a world of woes. See if any of this sounds familiar:

• Eating disorders. As your mind fails, your body follows. The severe depression that frequently comes with bipolar makes you apathetic to your hunger. You lose interest in eating. The manic side has you so charged with energy you don’t even feel hungry or simply forget to eat as you rush from project to project. In the end you suffer because you’re undernourished. The lack of nutrients adds to the strength of your symptoms. The hunger worsens your moods. As your body slows down your mind starts to clog with inefficiency.

There’s a part two to this issue. Many of the medications prescribed for bipolar cause weight gain. It’s quite common to get overweight as you medicate your head. It’s a listed side effect on many psychotropics.

And there’s a triple threat looming on the horizon. The disease and medication, either separately or together can both cause system failures in other areas of your body relating to food. Your thyroid can slow down. This causes the munchies to become enacted in full force. I dealt with this one. I was on so many meds for my head that my body started to fail. I craved endless amounts of sugar, a low thyroid symptom. I gained 75 pounds. Couldn’t cram enough pastries into my maw. Now the thought of eating like that nauseates me.

• Love animals, hate people. This goes in a few directions but basically, your tolerance for the rest of the human race evaporates. People annoy, bother and hurt you in one way or another. You lose the ability to functionally communicate or understand others. Animals are just little affection bombs that are only capable of worshipping you and they always love whatever you have to say! Not hard to see why so many bipolar folks shun the rest of the world and just hang out with their dogs or cats.

-Symptoms activated by certain foods or presence of hunger. This is the opposite of the above eating problems. Most people get cranky when they become hungry. That’s natural. But bipolar people can launch straight into nuclear meltdown as they run low on fuel. The negative sensations brought on by hunger get massively exaggerated in us.

I was a big practitioner of this friendship builder. When I got hungry I went straight to almost total hatred for all around me. I would barely be civil to family members and I’d get a very scary demeanor to me as I lost the ability to cope with the world around me. Or maybe I’d just start to be one great big ass for no particular reason that I was aware of. I could never spot this happening. Those close to me would pick up on it and ask me when I ate last. If it had been 3 or more hours ago then I knew to calm down and eat right away. Then I was harmless again. Total personality change.

I also learned that sometimes spicy foods and definitely pizza eaten too late in the day would send me straight into a panic attack within a half hour of ingestion. Allergic to pizza. Can there be a worse fate?

When you’re fighting bipolar you must track anything and everything that enters your body. If you are new to your illness or a family member trying to figure out what sets off your loved one, then start writing down all that you eat or drink. If there are issues in this area, the patterns will show themselves quite clearly. You have to be smart in your fight. The enemy is crafty and can sneak up on you unawares. You must outthink it and then you can crush it.

Bipolar can’t be cured but it can be managed right out of existence and kept that way with diligence. In the case of really strong presentations it can be reduced in strength. Both can be achieved in an all natural fashion. It’s something to consider if your medications don’t seem to be helping. You have other options. You just need to be shown them.