I read some place that individuals with the diagnosis of BP2 are at the highest risk of suicide. One of the many things I learned last year in the hospital were Distress Tolerance Skills and how to use them to stay safe during a crisis.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy was developed by Marsha Linehan of the University of Washington and it was developed to help treat individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder. An article about her recently appeared in the New York Time's series on mental illness entitled "Lives Restored".
The distress tolerance skills help you to accept yourself and your situation in an objective manner. The skills aid in tolerating distress, living in the moment, and surviving crisis. I recently wrote about one living in the moment skill where I envision myself watching events as though they were a train passing in front of me.
Today in church I found myself weeping again. Of course, the sermon was positive and the tears seem to always fall in those circumstances. During most of the service I self-soothed by rubbing the smooth surface of my watch and it became semi-automatic. It was when the kind, good, hard to accept things were mentioned, that I could no longer focus on the self-soothing.
I encourage you to learn more about this therapy and the distress tolerance skills.
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