After reviewing our January posts, IBPF is excited about the increasing participation in our mental health Facebook chats! Every time somebody shares their experiences or advice, another person dealing with the same issue is being helped. This month we even had a few people message us with requests for the weekly question. Here is what you had to...
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How Therapy Plays a Role in my Mental Health Recovery
February 8, 2018
By: Jess Lader
I’ve had the same psychotherapist for thirteen years. I chose my psychiatric practice from an insurance book of providers and got lucky on the first try. I know this is not common – but I implore anyone reading this to keep attempting until you find the right practitioner for you. Once you find a good fit and commit to the process of therapy, it...
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Jess Lader
February 8, 2018
Jess Lader worked in healthcare administration for 14 years before deciding to pursue her lifelong love of writing full time. She enjoys writing personal essays and is currently working on a memoir. She specializes in writing about mental illness and is devoted to presenting it from a positive and realistic perspective to eradicate the stigma...
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Maternal Fetal Mental Health Choices - My Story
February 5, 2018
By: Danielle Workman
“It’s not complicated. It’s easy. You just have to make a decision. Are you going to hurt your unborn child because you are going to kill yourself?”Those words rocked me to my core. Those words sat like a ton of bricks on my mind as I left and drove home from that pharmacy. Those were the words that numbed me and caused me to sit back and feel...
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Seeds of Hope
February 1, 2018
By: Liz Wilson
I often wonder if everyone has experienced the miracle of a well-spoken or well-meaning word during times of crisis or need? I grew up in a home fraught with poverty, but my Mother was constantly trying to make small things go a long way---both physically and emotionally. I can remember the day I finally realized I was poor: I was 15....
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Meditation: Good for Overall Sense of Well-being
January 29, 2018
By: Alexis Zinkerman
I try to sit on my yoga mat for 20 minutes in meditation a few days a week. I feel mentally and physically balanced. But I am no expert in meditation. I had some questions about my practice and my meditation teacher at the zendo was half a country away in Chicago. So I talked to meditation instructor Susan Piver on the benefits and detriments of...
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Where Bipolar Meets My Imagination
January 25, 2018
By: Nic Fleming
My thoughts turn to the whimsical ideas I have when I’m elevated, or in fact when I’m depressed or perhaps even relatively level.All my life I have always had an active imagination and a type of acute sensory capacity in the context of so many things: the musical journeys I can take in my solitude, the beauty of the ocean and nature, the concept...
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The ORBIT Project
January 24, 2018
Quality of life in bipolar disorderMaintaining good quality of life is an important goal for people with bipolar disorder. Beyond managing the symptoms of bipolar disorder, people naturally want to maximise satisfaction in important life areas, such as the social, leisure, sleep, and identity domains. The goal of good quality of life...
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How Xena: Warrior Princess Saved My Life
January 22, 2018
By: Kam
Every year in January I have a ritual, I re-watch the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess, all six seasons of it. Xena was a TV show that aired between 1995 – 2001 about a warrior woman of ancient Greece who used to be a warlord but turned to the side of good though was constantly fighting her demons. I would have been 10 years old when it...
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Kam
January 22, 2018
Hi, my name is Kam, I'm from Manchester, England and I live with bipolar. I started blogging on the topic of mental health officially in 2015 but I have been writing my whole life. I was diagnosed at age 27 and at the time I couldn't find any support or literature that helped me or even told me that I could live a happy and fulfilling life; ...
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