Author: Aubrey Good I woke up this morning well before noon after going to bed well before midnight. I greeted my husband and baby, ate a well-balanced breakfast, and glanced at the headlines before shutting down the app and heading out the door for a run. As I ran,...
Author: Natalia A. Beiser My need for dialysis started largely because of long term Lithium use. I began taking Lithium in 1994 at the age of twenty two and have what is described as lithium induced nephropathy. This means that I have small cysts all over my...
Author: Sophia Falco I once wrote, sorrow strikes as lightning, but really the bright flash is nonexistent, but really strikes is an understatement. Darkness has permeated into my world like a heavy cloak that I am unable to shake off. If only sorrow really did strike...
Author: Sasha Kildare My manic episodes arose out of severe depression and were mixed episodes—euphoria and boundless energy interspersed with despair. Although I found myself bursting with ideas, they never led to anything. Today, I’m still bursting with ideas, but I...
Author: Natalia Beiser Please note: These are the experiences of this writer and do not reflect the outcomes of every patient taking Lithium Carbonate. I have taken Lithium Carbonate since I was twenty two years old. I am now approaching my fiftieth birthday and have...
Author: Mariko Hewer Trigger warning: Brief discussion of suicide The past 18 months (and counting) have been remarkable by any standard — we’ve battled a worldwide pandemic, faced natural disasters dramatically heightened by climate change, and begun the hard yet...
Author: Angela McCrimmon Someone stated something that startled me recently. It also left me in a state of reflection and eventually led me to a feeling of encouragement so it might surprise you when I share what their words of wisdom were to brighten up my day. They...
Author: Lesly Garcia I want to remind others that there are millions of us with bipolar disorder. I was diagnosed in 2019, at the age of 22 when I had my first episode. I think part of me knew a long time ago that I was bipolar. But I didn’t know what bipolar disorder...
Author: Melinda Goedeke Recently, I went on an incredible rafting trip down the Colorado River in Moab, Utah. If I fell out of the raft, I was told to put my hand on my head signaling I was okay. The guide said that okay meant I was alive. I might be bleeding,...
Author: Violette Kay It has been two years since my last major episode, and although I will always push back against the notions that mania/depression/suffering in general magically makes people creative and that taking medication (or any other steps towards...
Author: George Hofmann Meditation can be a key practice toward coping with or avoiding episodes of mania and depression, but I’ve become increasingly troubled by proponents of mindfulness as therapy. From companies touting meditation as a means to help workers deal...
Author: Maria Jacobs Hello, I’m Maria Eva Jacobs, and I have lived with Bipolar Disorder my entire adult life. The dark details of my struggle with bipolar mania include paranoia, suicidal ideation, subsequent inpatient treatment. That is all in my past. I am in...
Author: Ivory Smith Causey Janet* a first year college student has just found out that she is pregnant. She had inclination that she might be was not for sure. She has no idea who the father is nor can remember the name of one of the potential fathers. She is...
Author: Sophia Falco I stole the wand of that magician to try to fix this embodiment of the feeling of brokenness. How can it be possible to embody something not whole? Unlike shards of glass that litters the ground, he hit his autographed baseball (the autographer...
Author: Grace Oh, what I’d say to 24-year-old Grace now. I’d tell her that her body is perfectly fine and wonderful as it is. I’d tell her that movement makes her brain and heart feel better. I’d say that she doesn’t have to work three jobs to “make up” for her time...
Author: Curtis Hier Great success and great misery come with the bipolar life, and the Adamses had their share of both. John Adams is believed by many to have had bipolar II disorder. Thomas Jefferson described him as “sometime absolutely mad.” But Jefferson had a...
Author: Claire Gault For me, self-stigma comes from the what if? questions I ask myself. What if my manic episode never happened? What if it happened, but I decided to remain at my college instead of transferring to another school? What if I made different choices,...
Author: George Zou As a 30 year old single man, I can tell you Bipolar Disorder affects men in a special way. Having a Bipolar Disorder diagnosis means staying away from the lively parties and concerts. During this Covid pandemic, Bipolar Disorder has prepared me for...
Author: Melinda Goedeke Every time I drive home, I have to decide exactly when to turn onto my street as that split second decision could be the difference between making it safely home or not. My timing has to be perfect. I am sometimes forced (in my mind) to cut...
Author: Stacey Isaacson Trust your gut. That’s what they say, right? But what if your gut sometimes leads you in the wrong direction? What if, in a spurt of creativity, you come up with a fantastic idea, only to find it less than fantastic when you carry it out in a...
Author: Emily Ellison “Please don’t be bipolar” I thought to myself as I sat in the waiting room for my first psychiatrist appointment. I feared this diagnosis. Having done my degree in psychology I understood bipolar clinically and I believed that this diagnosis...
Author: Natalia Beiser At the age of eighteen, I experienced my first full blown manic episode. I was not diagnosed with bipolar disorder at that time; it is not uncommon for bipolar patients to be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. In 1990, there were few treatment...
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...
Author: Bryson Hays Sometimes… I forget. I lose my memory of what it is like. I have forgotten what drowning feels like. Afloat on a lifeboat of medications, I forget what my world used to be. I barely remember the thrill of adrenaline that comes with inhaling...
Author: Sophia Falco There were no lightbulbs in his house only candles. I tiptoed around each room, and one by one blew them out until darkness engulfed it like a demon, and I exited the back door, but immediately regretted this. He did not deserve to be in the dark...
Author: Curtis Hier Kay Redfield Jameson, one of the leading experts on bipolar disorder and a sufferer herself, has described Theodore Roosevelt as “hypomanic on a mild day.” Mark Twain warned that “we ought to keep in mind that Theodore, as statesman and politician,...
Author: Stacey Isaacson It’s a recurrent theme in my life that I come late to popular tv shows. I had no idea why we were talking about couture choices in the town of Schitt’s Creek, how Don Draper smoked too much or what’s up with the girls in “Girls.” And I still...
Author: Nikta Niazi I have very much faced mental health stigma as a female. Actually I have come to the consclusion that each gender has their own obstacles when it comes to mental health issues. I was reading one of the blog post on the website; a psychiatrist...
Author: Melinda Goedeke Enraptured in a riveting discussion about The Crucible in my junior lit. class, I vaguely hear a threatening buzzing. And then I spot it – a killer bee swiftly flying around the room darting over heads and under desks, coyly, without...
Author: Ivory Smith Causey It is shortly, after Thanksgiving 2017. I notice I can’t feel the Christmas spirit like the previous. I start my Motown Christmas music which includes “Santa Clause Go Straight to the Ghetto” by James Brown. I play it on my phone at work in...
Author: Angela McCrimmon I have often reflected on the question “If someone could completely cure me of bipolar disorder tomorrow, would I accept the treatment?” Anyone who is reading this in the middle of a depressive episode will believe with all their heart...
Author: MB When it comes to being bipolar, the word strength takes on a whole other meaning. After over 10 years of experience with bipolar type 1, I can finally say that bipolar in itself is my strength. You may be thinking, why has it taken you so long to figure...
Author: Sophia Falco I created a tragic collage of a vicious wolf cut out from an old National Geographic Magazine, and I juxtaposed it with hopeful words I deliberately found. I arranged these words just so that the lone wolf (sometimes I feel so lonely) could devour...
Author: Kassy Nguyen When was the last time you have practiced self-kindness? Often more than I am sure most of us would like to admit, we are quite self-deprecating and harsh on ourselves. Although, it is often time normalized by the media to be self-deprecating and...
Author: Alexis Crase Nobody ever said having a mental illness is easy. But when people talk about mental health, they talk about just that – mental health. They focus on self-care and exclude the real-life aspects of having a mental illness like bipolar disorder, such...
Author: Elizabeth Horner When we think of discrimination, images such as being turned down for a job or even cruel remarks from an unknowing stranger may come into our minds, but oftentimes discrimination can land much closer to home. Sometimes it is the people...
Author: Natalia Beiser It is my genetic propensity to be heavy. My fraternal grandparents both had notable weight problems, as do most of the persons on that side of the family. I learned early on, as my descendants likely did, that food not only sustains the body,...
Author: John Budin As a psychiatrist living with bipolar disorder, I have been both a care receiver and a care giver. Over the span of my career, I have treated many men with bipolar disorder having the luxury of viewing them through the lens of being both a clinician...
Author: Nikta Niazi Imagine a watering can being empty while the garden, the plants and flowers life all depend on this can; but ridiculously the can is empty. It refuses to contain water inside and nourish the plants. Or the sun, getting dark and gloomy one day and...
Author: Stacey Isaacson When I was a kid, long before my bipolar II diagnosis, I was known to be emotional. Over-emotional, as it was termed. Many a time was I given the sage advice “don’t jump in with both feet,” as I was known to fall instantly into new friendships...
Author: Jayson Blair, IBPF Honorary Board Member Forgive me for thinking I had fallen backwards into a time machine. It was June 2020, but it could have just as easily been June 1865. In a hearing on the higher incidence of COVID-19 among black Americans, an Ohio...
Author: Valery Brosseau I used to wonder if I’d ever get “better”. I used to wonder what “better” even really meant. I assumed it meant the emotional pain would stop, the debilitating lows would disappear and the dangerous highs would be tempered. As someone diagnosed...
Author: Kim Barnett I have been struggling with Hypomania for over two months now, and I’m extremely irritated, frustrated and exhausted. For those who do not know, hypomania is defined as a mild form of mania, marked by elation and hyperactivity. Thank God, I’ve...
Author: Alyssa Renee Hardy I weighed myself at my doctor’s office last week and realized something that would have been horrific to me in the past. I’ve gained forty pounds since my days doing freelance modeling in college. The crazy part is: I’m okay. Not terrific,...
Author: Sophia Falco Those lovely fireflies are prisoners in a glass jar on her kitchen table. Their trapped light on display like the diminishing light within my being. Depression is trying to extinguish my light, but I hid the fire extinguisher under my bed whereas...
Author: Joe Landers Greetings readers my name is Joe Landers and I am the author of The Methods of Genius and Madness. My book is on amazon but I used the name Maverick Hunting because although all of the events are true, I changed everyone’s names. I have bipolar...
Author: Nikta Niazi Do you have a plan for how you’re going to work on mental wellness this month? I do. And I am motivated to set a goal for my mental health every month. It is actually what I considered as my 2021’s resolution. I thought it is the best if I develop...
Author: Cassandra Miasnikov Tips to Cultivate Inner Strengths and Lessen The Risk of Relapse Pessimism can sneak up on any of us. But if you’re someone living with bipolar disorder, there’s a higher chance that you see the glass as half empty. Positive...
Author: Scott Walker During my final five months living in Japan I definitely had varying degrees of depression for most of that time. Different mental health professionals in the psychiatric hospital in New Zealand told me there was a good chance of this...
Author: Claire Gault Receiving a bipolar diagnosis is difficult in any stage of life, but as a senior in college, I can testify to the challenges of balancing priorities between mental health and school. College culture often encourages unhealthy habits, and...
