Living with depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder
Home Articles Resources About us Quick Tips Educational materials

Find us again!
Click here, then add the page to your Favorites or Bookmarks.

Over 250 articles on:

  • Mood, anxiety
  • Treatments
  • Medications
  • Lifestyles
  • Personal stories
Moodletter provides information, hope and help to people living with depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder and those who care for them.

©2006-2011 Deborah Wiig
All rights reserved


HONcode accreditation seal.We comply with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information:
verify here.

 		  
Moods and misunderstandings
Communicating with someone living with depression or bipolar disorder
 

Have you read these?

Interpersonal communication can be a challenge for people with bipolar disorder, a neurobiological genetic disorder. They may have real trouble focusing on a conversation because the prefrontal cortex of the brain is a “bit off-line,” according to William Shryer, DCSW, LCSW, Clinical Director of Diablo Behavioral Healthcare in Danville, California. Medications, he says, can make that even worse.

And if conversations get heated, anger ‘turns on,’ or stimulates, this important part of the brain, he says, resulting in communication problems. That’s why someone with bipolar disorder may sometimes be irritable.

These techniques can help to improve communication and reduce conflict between someone with bipolar disorder or depression (the other end of the bipolar spectrum) and a partner or family member.

  • Check in. Before beginning an important conversation, get a mood rating from one to ten to find out if they’re in a good place to be receptive. Then give them permission to postpone the conversation, if necessary. Pressuring will only create anxiety and make things worse.
  • Establish in advance a non-verbal cue, such as a gesture, or a verbal cue, a word such as “popcorn,” says Shryer, that will alert your partner to focus on what you’re saying.
 
  • Although people with bipolar disorder usually test as highly intelligent, they may have a co-occurring auditory processing disorder typical of bipolar disorder, says Shyer.
  • Sometimes people with bipolar disorder misinterpret verbal and non-verbal cues, such as voice pitch and volume, variations in tone, eye contact and body language, which can interfere with the information being communicated. Sometimes, he says, e-mail or written communication can be more effective.  
  • Work together as a family or couple with a therapist or counselor who will teach communication skills. If you are the partner, friend or family member, become educated about his/her disorder. 
  • Be patient. Remember that people with bipolar disorder have “busy brains” and are easily distracted, says Shryer.


Read Moods and misunderstandings Part 1

Related articles
Couples therapy
More articles

Source
William Shryer, DCSW, LCSW, Clinical Director, Diablo Behavioral Healthcare, Danville, CA

Page updated March 1, 2011