Daniel’s wife Melanie wrote a blog that goes with this one for our Couples Series, we recommend reading them together. I have known my wife Melanie for over 9 years, and we got married in May of 2015. When we first met I was so happy because I had never been in...
Melanie’s husband, Daniel, wrote an accompanying blog post for our Couples Series. We recommend reading the two posts together. My sister messaged me on Whatsapp the other day and said she liked my profile picture, and that I looked genuinely happy in it....
Beka’s husband wrote an accompanying blog to this post for our Couples Series. We recommend reading the 2 posts together. I previously wrote an article about how I found happiness, or actually contentedness. It was during my search that I said the most...
Beka is one of our bloggers and her husband, Ron, wrote this post for our couples series. Read Beka’s accompanying post here.I read somewhere recently that the divorce rate when one marriage partner has bipolar disorder is 90%. While it seems kind of high to me,...
It was January 2013 when I started dating my first boyfriend, and it was under precarious circumstances. We had met five months earlier in a speech course during the first semester of my college career, and we sat next to each other on the first day. We casually...
It’s classic, Shakespearean even. (Romeo and Juliet). Boy Meets Girl in rehab, AA or group therapy and they fall ‘in love.’ Warnings fall on deaf ears. Their focus shifts from recovery to each other while they float off on a pink cloud. Then the...
Don’t let others negativity bring you down. Being diagnosed with and dealing with bipolar disorder on a daily basis is already a lot to handle. It’s hard enough to keep your moods in check and on an even level. It’s already difficult to have to take...
Valentine’s Day is all about the romantic, idealistic side of love. While it can be fun and meaningful to celebrate your relationship with your spouse or partner (if you have one), the reality is that relationships can be hard. The Hollywood, happily-ever-after ideal...
Mentally ill persons increasingly receive care provided by correctional agencies. In 1959, nearly 559,000 mentally ill patients were housed in state mental hospitals (Lamb, 1998). A shift to “deinstitutionalize” mentally ill persons had, by the late...
Being diagnosed with bipolar disorder was one of the most traumatic events of my life. The illness presented itself in my teens and at the time I was unaware of the possibility that my experiences had a diagnosis and that things could get better. By the time I began...
After my husband and I had been married for 16 years, his liver became damaged from Hepatitis B. A year later he had a liver transplant which he survived for five and a half years. At the end of that period, the Hepatitis destroyed his new liver and he...
It seems that my last blog post was somewhat prophetic. I am currently sitting on a bed, in a psychiatric hospital, recovering from my second psychotic manic episode. This episode evolved much like the last did, with me becoming so elevated that I lost insight...
Many people that Ive met who are diagnosed with bipolar disorder are very intelligent and creative individuals. Sometimes those same people have very high expectations of themselves due to being smart. Another potential tie-in for some is that when manic...
Youre right, Im a terrible mother, Im a horrible wife, I just cant do anything right! I confessed as I faced my husband following his recital of my shortcomings after coming home to a messy house and 2 unkept daughters. That night I decided that my husband...
Life with bipolar has a lot of ups and downs…and not just for moods. I think relationships, romantic ones, become one of the hardest parts of your life to manage and to keep balanced when you have a mental disorder. Romantic relationships include allowing...
When my husband and I first started our relationship, we weren’t ready to be in one. I had just received my bipolar diagnosis a year before we started dating so I was still learning about how to function in life with a Bipolar diagnosis and he was trying to figure out...
My version of love has changed from the past several years. When I was younger, love to me was an infatuation. When I was in my 20’s, love was lust – yes, there is a difference, but the label of love was used. Now, in my late 30’s, love is completely...
It’s hard being in a relationship and having bipolar disorder. My disorder played a key factor into why I had a few relationships fail. Sure, we weren’t meant to be, but what I put them through didn’t help. I will say that I honestly didn’t know about my mental...
I am writing this blog after an awful fight on the phone I picked with my mom. She ended up telling me that she finally understood why I want to become a psychiatrist and that there is indeed no other career that would suit me better because only such a crazy person...
Society likes to group everyone with bipolar together. They insist we are all alike. We are all violent. Every time something violent is done in this country it is blamed on bipolar. The person must certainly have bipolar. I can’t speak for others, but for me,...
This is the first in a series of 26 posts covering a variety of stress management tools and techniques. For some background information on stress and bipolar disorder, the blogger recommends reading her three-part series, “Getting a Handle on Stress When You Have...
If stigma didn’t exist, we would discuss mental illness more openly. I had a recent unpleasant experience on Twitter where someone posted a tweet that essentially said “Bipolar is not an illness. You simply have not trained yourself to control your thoughts and...
International Bipolar Foundation is participating in the 2016 Bell Lets Talk Initiative, which is taking place on January 27, 2016. How does it work? Bell Lets Talk is a Canadian mental health initiative that encourages participants to have an open...
Trigger Warning. This article talks explicitly about self-harm and different types. If you feel as though you may be triggered but still want the tips, read with a supportive person present. We feel out of control and in control at the same time. We hurt...
It’s January, a time of the year when people make the resolution to throw on their workout gear and make a healthier version of themselves. Usually, this doesn’t last very long. I know, because I was one of them. But a new body shouldn’t be your only reason for...
Bipolar Disorder is a disorder seen throughout the aging process. It can start in childhood and continue on through into senior citizens. It is not just a disorder for young adults, criminals and the rich and famous. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic...
Its the first month of the year and most people are posting about their New Years resolutions. There are plenty of articles with ideas and theyre almost all the same: work out, save more money for retirement, remove toxic friendships, eliminate processed foods, and...
I do not say much about my parents. There is nothing to be said about my folks outside my therapy sessions. Out of a need for privacy I usually keep my family members out of any advice I give on this blog. This Christmas I decided not to visit my parents in their new...
At work the other day I heard someone say something disrespectful about people who live with bipolar disorder. I think they felt comfortable saying this in front of me because they did not know I have a mental illness. I was surprised and offended when I heard it, but...
When tormented musicians perish I overrelate. It becomes more about me than the departed. This is about him. David Bowie. The King of Sound and Vision, crossed divides of age, fame, race, sexuality, politics, and style with theatrical flair and...
I have only been hospitalised for mania once (you can read about my experience here). My memory of that time is hazy and distorted by the manic lenses I was wearing but to say that it was dramatic is putting it lightly. I had just turned 23, was newly diagnosed with...
This is the third article in a 3-part series. The blogger recommends reading the first article and second article before reading this one. When I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder over 15 years ago, everything I read suggested that people with bipolar...
As 2015 is drawing to a close I often find myself reflecting on the things bipolar disorder has taught me over the past 12 months. This year, like the last few years, has been a steep learning curve. However unlike last year where I became fully acquainted with my...
Alcoholism is well known in my family, on both of my parents sides. This doesnt mean I do not drink because of this, but I have never been drunk. I have will power and know my limits. I dont find the attraction in getting to the point where things are blurry and...
Every year like millions of others I create a New Year’s resolution. Most of the time, I don’t see it through and by the following New Year reflect on the failure of yet another resolution. This year I’m going to focus on positive change. A couple of my friends have...
The New Year is a great time to take a look at how you would like the next year to go, to plan, to see what you can do differently to make it a better year. I used to spend previous New Years (and most days in between) looking for changes that would bring me...
Have you seen the movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation? Every year, our family settles in to watch it at least once between Thanksgiving and New Years. Its a huge tradition with us. Weve been quoting it for years. Save the neck for me, Clark, is a...
Not too long ago, I wrote about Thanksgiving and about how it can be a difficult time. As I’m sure a lot of us know, Christmas can be just as hard to get through, if not harder. This is during a point of time in the year where we’re supposed to be reflective and put...
From my childhood until approximately five years ago, I never really thought about what I ate for breakfast. Like everyone else I had heard many times that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”. A common breakfast for me was orange juice...
Sarah describes what mania feels like for her and how she has learned to manage it. Sarah regularly blogs for IBPF and has done some YouTube Videos for their channel. She now writes on a regular basis for the Dallas Morning Post as...
It is that time of year again. The holidays. People often think that they should be a happy time of year, what with the music and the lights and the gatherings. But, actually, they can be a difficult time of the year for many people, and I don’t just mean people who...
I went back to school in August 2015 to City College of San Francisco feeling confident that I would do well with my studies. It was like a breath of fresh air as I passed test after test and scored A’s on my psychology papers. Then my life seemed to go down a road...
I don’t know if it’s because I’m the middle child with a large age gap between both my older and younger siblings, but I’ve always struggled with my place in my family. My older siblings always had each other, they were two years apart and my younger siblings had each...
Everyone deals with anxiety at some point in their lives. When you’re getting ready to argue or fight, it is that exact emotion that causes your hands to shake. It can cause you to start to feel warm or even for you to start sweating a little. Those are our bodies’...
Kenya is a country on the East side of the African continent. Mental illness is still a taboo subject here. Even among the elite and educated citizens, witchcraft and curses are still considered the greatest cause of mental illness. It is common to read in the media...
Good evening readers, I hope this entry finds you all doing well. Tonight’s topic is relationships. How do we help those in our lives understand us and communicate in a gentle way with an understanding heart? Those who know me best know that I’m very people oriented;...
To my knowledge, Ive never been without at least one animal in my life. That ranges from rabbits and hamsters to kittens and 100 pound dogs. Ive always felt connected to animals. One of my pets is Baron, a German Shepherd close to 100 pounds. I trained my dog...
This week we’re celebrating Thanksgiving in the United States. Family, food, and gratitude mark this special time of year. It’s a time when I check in with myself, with my mind and my spirituality. It’s a time when I ask what I’m grateful for, and most importantly,...
I was once a high-valued corporate spy, investigating customer service everywhere I went by working as a mystery shopper. After a year of luxury brand espionage, I went inactive. Why would I forgo hitting posh hair salons on the house, free smells, scrubs, and...
Creativity in bipolar disorder is more often than not associated with hypomania/mania instead of depression. However, I wrote this description of depression eighteen months ago while I was in hospital and psychotically depressed: My dog has returned to me. Not my...
