Manic depressive disorder is a very serious condition and it has a major impact on the remaining of your life if you diagnosed with this condition. But if you take the right approach than there is certainly a chance to live a normal life. Coping with bipolar disorder is very well possible as long as you are able to create a proper treatment plan for yourself. The main difficulty with this disorder is that when you feel depressed you don’t have the energy to take action and when you are in a state of mania or hypomania than you feel to food to be sick. However, you will eventually become some kind of professional yourself and with experience you are able to feel a new episode coming. If you know it is coming than you are also able to prevent it with the right treatment.
If you want to take control back of your life than you need to write down what to do when you feel depressed and what to do when you feel really good. You need to be very strict on your medication when to take it and keep taking it. You will also need close contact to your doctor and psychologist and tell them about how you feel and if the medication works sufficiently. With your psychologist you are able to talk about how you feel and how you can handle certain situations. It is very important to recognize the symptoms that come with bipolar disorder and your psychologist is very well able to help you recognize them.
You can make that process a little bit less difficult by keeping your own diary. Write down how you feel every day and what you did that day. Eventually you can read it back and recognize certain feelings and mood changes that are related to a new episode of depression or mania/hypomania.
A successful treatment plan is not something that you have to make by yourself. You doctor and psychologist are willingly to help you by this and might give you some good advice on that matter.