Category: Parenting

Parenting and Bipolar Disorder

Parenting and Bipolar Disorder

Author: Che’ Lang   Caring for a child comes with many responsibilities. Being emotionally and mentally stable is essential when teaching a little human the ropes to this complex life. It requires immense amounts of patience, and the ability to stay calm...

Triggers

Triggers

Author: Melinda Goedeke   Unfortunately, like many, I have experienced trauma in my life. So much so that I often see life as just a series of traumatic events. Some wounds are bored so deeply that they are firmly lodged within my soul. Those are my private...

Diving into Bipolar

Diving into Bipolar

By: Melinda Goedeke Spying on a lobster the size of my leg while gently swaying back and forth 70 ft. below the sea is both exhilarating and meditative for me. I even secretly like the anxiety of knowing that with each breath my oxygen is depleting. I swim swiftly...

Managing the Challenges of Bipolar Parenting

Managing the Challenges of Bipolar Parenting

By: Sam Bowman Struggling With Time, Energy, and Relationships The most prominent symptoms of bipolar disorder are the highs and lows you can feel at any given time. Going through episodes of mania and depression can take a toll on your mental, emotional, and physical...

A Father’s Love

A Father’s Love

June 19, 2022 Dear Dad, This Father’s Day I want to celebrate your role in my life. Especially how you helped me through my bipolar diagnosis and functional recovery.   Three years before I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, you shared some wisdom with me that...

It Ain’t Easy – Meds and Bipolar Disorder

It Ain’t Easy – Meds and Bipolar Disorder

By Melinda Goedeke I laugh sarcastically every time I watch a commercial about medication for the treatment of bipolar disorder. Unkempt young men and women are shown in dark, depressing places with vacuous eyes and downtrodden faces until they take the miracle...

Complicated Simplicity

Complicated Simplicity

By: Christina Broderick My childhood was what I considered entirely normal. As a kid I had a great family, nice friends, performed well at school and participated in extra-curricular activities, becoming highly involved in sports during my teenage years. College began...

What I Wish My Family Knew

What I Wish My Family Knew

Author: Margaret Fitzgerald   My family knew little about serious mental illness when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  Hindsight is 20/20.  What follows are what would have best helped me be successful in life before and after my diagnoses.   Many...

Bipolar: the Impact on Me and Others

Bipolar: the Impact on Me and Others

Author: Major General Gregg F. Martin, US Army Retired My brain burst into full-blown mania in 2014, at age 58.  This “late onset bipolar disorder” is rare, with only about five percent of diagnosed cases occurring this late in life.  I may have had undiagnosed...

I See You

I See You

Author: Melinda Goedeke I have two children. One is low key, mild-mannered, and has a half tooth. The other is high-key, wild-mannered and has a double tooth. Both are brilliant, beautiful and better than me, but one is living, and one is dead. Laura died from bipolar...

Sit Close to the Fire

Sit Close to the Fire

Author: Melinda Goedeke We don’t have bonfires. We have scorching, searing conflagrations that silently raise our internal boiling points until we are nearly cooked and charred.   We scoot back only an inch as we don’t really want to leave the warmth despite the fear...

Eternal Sleep 

Eternal Sleep 

Author: Melinda Goedeke  Sleeping is an event for me. 8:30 p.m. comes around, and I start thinking about sleep. I put on my oversized jammies and crawl into bed ready…..ready to shut down. To stop. To rest. My husband doesn’t do any “readying” and is asleep the moment...

Crystal Clear

Crystal Clear

Author: Melinda Goedeke Contingency plans rule my world because I see the glass as half empty. My kids used to sarcastically call me the beam of optimism because I was always preparing for the impending disaster. It’s one of those special gifts I learned in...

I Was Told I Shouldn’t Have Children, and I Listened…

I Was Told I Shouldn’t Have Children, and I Listened…

Author: Natalia Beiser Like most girls, I dreamed of being a mother. Planned were baby names, thoughts of how I would parent and nurture a child, and the locality where I wanted to do so. As a teenager, I was a sought out babysitter. My fantasy was of a family of five...

Managing Postpartum Depression

Managing Postpartum Depression

By: Liz Wilson My children were born 6 years apart. My son and daughter are two very different children with two very different mothers; who happened to be in the same body. That is largely because of my changing attitude toward education and self-advocacy. Thomas was...

How to Shield Your Children from the Effects of Your Bipolar Disorder

How to Shield Your Children from the Effects of Your Bipolar Disorder

By: Cassandra Stout As a parent with bipolar disorder, you might worry about the effects of your unchecked mental illness on your loved ones, especially your children. The devastating mood swings of bipolar disorder can cause instability for your kids. One example, a...

Wife, Mother, And Survivor

Wife, Mother, And Survivor

By: Tosha Maaks I am a lucky suicide survivor. In 2008 I tried to end my life after a hard day at my job. I came home, and I said good-bye to my children, and I climbed into bed to snuggle with my middle child and say my good-byes to him. My husband knew something...

Join IBPF + The Youth Mental Health Project For #SIF2017 On October 8th!

Join IBPF + The Youth Mental Health Project For #SIF2017 On October 8th!

By Wendy Ward, Executive Director, The Youth Mental Health Project My first experiences with mental health conditions are the reasons that I co-founded The Youth Mental Health Project. I believe that by changing the way we talk about and how we act with regard to our...

Parenting With Mental Illness: Part 1

Parenting With Mental Illness: Part 1

By: Michelle Vasiliu In 2015, my first picture book, My Happy Sad Mummy, was published. My Happy Sad Mummy is a Picture Book for 3-8 year olds. It is a story that portrays the emotional response of a young girl living with a mother who has bipolar disorder. The book...

My 7 Year Old Has Bipolar – Now What?

My 7 Year Old Has Bipolar – Now What?

By: Farida Raj “My son needs help. He has bipolar disorder. Bipolar! How can a seven year old child have bipolar?” I, a Remedial Educator, was sitting with a parent who had recently relocated from Canada to Hyderabad, India. A pediatric psychiatrist had diagnosed her...

Three Concentric Circles

Three Concentric Circles

By: Karen Meadows In retrospect, during my daughter’s battle with mental illness, I wasted a lot of energy worrying about things I couldn’t control. When I learned about a framework called Three Concentric Circles at work, I realized this was a powerful approach I...

Parenting With Bipolar

Parenting With Bipolar

Being a parent and having a bipolar diagnosis is hard. Before I was diagnosed with bipolar, my world revolved around parenting. As a stay at home mom, that was my job. I would have to say I was a really good parent at that time. My son was my pride and joy. He always...

Fatherhood With Bipolar Disorder

Fatherhood With Bipolar Disorder

There has been no greater motivation for my recovery than fatherhood. Alone, I could go for long stretches of mood dysregulation. Even married, I was afforded the opportunity to sleep excessively and spend large amounts of time devoted to my self-care. Such privileges...

What Is A Good Parent?

What Is A Good Parent?

Have you ever been out shopping and witnessed a child have one of those nuclear meltdown kind of tantrums? The parent is obviously embarrassed and frustrated and they must take action. They can reprimand the child, they can snatch them up by the arm and hurry away or...

Facing a Psychiatric Hospitalization

Facing a Psychiatric Hospitalization

I was sitting in my psychiatrist’s office recently in a large, oversized chair staring at the slightly crooked pictures on the wall. A boat. A beach. African figures. I could hear the ticking of the clock as I scanned the piles of books and patient records underneath,...

The Guilt I Felt When My Daughter Was Diagnosed With Bipolar

The Guilt I Felt When My Daughter Was Diagnosed With Bipolar

I have bipolar disorder, anxiety, PTSD and OCD. It’s not easy living with me sometimes, especially if I forget to take my meds. I also have a history of drug and alcohol abuse. I am 41 years old, and I have spent most of the first 40 years stretching my body and mind...

Parenting Made Interesting

Parenting Made Interesting

For parents taking care of a child who has autism, life is an everyday challenge. Sometimes, it’s good. Other times, not so much. But what if you’re a single parent? What if you’re a single parent who has bipolar disorder? What would it be like then?...

Family: My Circle of Support

Family: My Circle of Support

A good support system can mean the difference between living a possibly comfortable life and suffering alone without help. We who suffer know that support is important, but so many people just don’t have access to acceptable support or even a partial support...

Never Give Up Hope: 6 Lessons I Learned in My 10 Year Quest for Treatment

Never Give Up Hope: 6 Lessons I Learned in My 10 Year Quest for Treatment

In December 2012, after a tragic school shooting in Newtown, I thought I was the only mother in America who asked myself, “What if that’s my son someday?” It turns out I was far from alone. Every single day since I shared my family’s struggle in a blog post, “I Am...

Explaining Bipolar Disorder to My Son

Explaining Bipolar Disorder to My Son

I was standing at the kitchen sink crying. I had just screamed at my 7 year old again. Albeit he was being really annoying, and he talked back to me for the umpteenth time, but it was no reason to scream at him. I just couldn’t control my anger. I was in...

Pregnancy Part 1 of 3 – I Didn’t Think I Would Make It This Far

Pregnancy Part 1 of 3 – I Didn’t Think I Would Make It This Far

“I didn’t think I’d make it this far.” This thought has been a constant on the minds of many, at least at one time or another. It is a blatant cry of lost hope, but the courageous steps of something to look forward to. It’s all about finding that ‘one thing’ that...

She Sees Herself in Me

She Sees Herself in Me

I have Bipolar Disorder. That’s not unusual. I also have fibromyalgia. Having both of these diseases makes my life very hard to deal with sometimes, but somehow I always manage.  It takes a lot of endurance and I deal with a lot of pain, but I pull through...

Be The Village

Be The Village

Parenting isn’t easy. Anyone who’s ever parented, or has even just been parented well knows that. Don’t they say, “It takes a village to raise a child”? As if to say raising children well takes more than just one person, it takes a community, right?  Let’s...

He’s Not Crazy, He’s My Dadda!

He’s Not Crazy, He’s My Dadda!

Editor’s Note: This was orginally a book and has been converted to a blog. Each paragraph was a different page in the book. Dedication: This book is dedicated to my dad. My dad has a daily struggle with his mental illnesses. But, he pushes through it, and...

Rearranging Me: Productivity in the Home, Part 2

Rearranging Me: Productivity in the Home, Part 2

Read Part 1 here: Stickers on the Floor: Productivity in the Home, Part II rearrange the items on the kitchen counter 10 times until I get it exactly the way I want it. While doing so, my daughter is watching the last few minutes of a cartoon before her bedtime....

Can’t Turn Back Time

Can’t Turn Back Time

My kids are growing up. I know it’s inevitable, but I want time to stop. I know there are many parents that feel that way, but for me it’s heartbreaking. You see, I missed out on a lot of precious time with my kids while they were growing up. For the...

Stickers on the Floor: Productivity in the Home, Part I

Stickers on the Floor: Productivity in the Home, Part I

Last night after the kids went to bed, I was mopping frantically looking at these spots on the kitchen floor. Why won’t these come up? I set the mop to the side, maneuvered my way – slipping and sliding – to take a closer look. Yep. Stickers. My two kids...

Bipolar Mother, Bipolar Son

Bipolar Mother, Bipolar Son

I dreamed of having a child throughout my formative years.  When asked what I would be when I grew up, I readily answered “A Mommy!”  I doted on baby dolls, babysat throughout my teen years and dressed every cat we ever owned up as a baby.  I deeply...

Managing a Relapse When Your Child is Ill

Managing a Relapse When Your Child is Ill

Recently, my daughter had to have heart surgery to close a hole in her heart that should have closed on its own shortly after she was born. She is 18 months old and is now 7 weeks post surgery, healed quickly and is now considered to be healthy and normal.  But...

Healthy Mind, Healthy Body

Healthy Mind, Healthy Body

For the past 5 ½ years I have concentrated on one thing and one thing only … getting my son’s and my own mental health in tip top shape.  Finding the answer to decades of issues with my diagnosis of bipolar illness in 2009 was just the beginning for me.  At...

Becoming a Mommy with Bipolar Part Three: Returning to Work

Becoming a Mommy with Bipolar Part Three: Returning to Work

This is part three of a three part series: Part One: Planning for a Family When You Have BipolarPart Two: From Pregnant to Mommy Part Three: Returning to Work The next hurdle was returning to work. I’ve been back to work for almost 6 months now, and was...

My Emotional Roller Coaster

I have been on an emotional roller coaster lately.  I was feeling really anxious and depressed, so my psychiatrist upped my meds.  I then felt worse.  Crying every day.  Crying for no reason.  My parents came over one day while I was crying,...

Becoming a Mommy with Bipolar Disorder Part One: Planning for a Family When You Have Bipolar

Becoming a Mommy with Bipolar Disorder Part One: Planning for a Family When You Have Bipolar

This is part one of a three part series: Part One: Planning for a Family When You Have BipolarPart Two: From Pregnant to Mommy Part Three: Returning to Work Before I was pregnant someone said to me that I shouldn’t have kids because I have bipolar. This...

Mommy Has A Bug In Her Brain

Trying to explain Bipolar Disorder to a three year old and a five year old was one of the hardest things I have ever done. How was I going to put this into words that they could understand? Telling them that I was in the hospital because I was tired was more...

A Mother’s Nightmare

I had been expecting the call. Finally, two and a half weeks ago it came. Not that I wanted it to come, but it didn’t surprise me. Over the last couple years, I’ve expected it. And dreaded it too.When I first heard the news, I was remarkably calm. All...

On Motherhood & Mental Illness

 On Motherhood”You’re a really good mother. Your son is very lucky to have such an attentive mom.”These words were said to me yesterday by a pediatrician. Because I’ve been sick for most of my son’s life, I feel insecure about the...

Bipolar Motherhood: What it Means to be “Mom Enough”

They come in threes.1. I spun out over Time Magazine’s controversial article Are You Mom Enough? extolling the virtues of attachment parenting, AKA, baby-centered parenting, which includes breastfeeding well into toddler years, co-sleeping and a strong distain for...

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