Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 4/26/2004

Question
I have the bipolar disorder.  How can i deal with my anger so i'm not taking it out on my friends?

Answer
Bipolar people have usually wild mood swings going up and down. It may also be prompted by excess adrenaline secretion that causes anger outburst.

This can be overcome by going on a hypoglycemic diet, which is like a sugarless diet. This diet tends to stabilize blood sugar levels and stress hormones levels.

Please read:

"What is Hypoglycemia?"

"The Hypoglycemic Diet"

at our web site.

The above may be the physical causes of anger, but there are also psychological factors here.

If you have a low self-esteem - and who would not, if you have a bipolar disorder - you tend to be very sensitive of what people MAY think of you. In other words if you think not much of yourself, you expect other people to think the same. Your defence is anger in an attempt to be assertive. But to be truly assertive, you should not be angry at all.

If you agree so far, you can improve your self-image by doing our self-help PSYCHOTHERAPY course at our web site, free of charge.

It looks at how we create a self-image and how we can get rid of a negative self-image by mental exercises as explained in the course. There is an Assertiveness Training course which will help you how to defend yourself WITHOUT being angry and WITHOUT making another person angry. It is a kind of conflict resolution course. The first three chapters are the most important!

Most people do this course in eight weeks study and practice at the rate of one chapter a week. You have to do a lot of mental exercises and thinking, but you will find the course interesting.

You can do the course by yourself or with the help of a friend or counsellor.

Have fun doing the course.

Jurriaan Plesman
Free Web Site at:
www.hypoglycemia.asn.au