Category: Bipolar Disorder

How to Know if You Have Bipolar Disorder, ADHD, or Borderline Personality Disorder

How to Know if You Have Bipolar Disorder, ADHD, or Borderline Personality Disorder

Author: Stanley Clark An estimated 46 million people around the world are affected by bipolar disorder. In the U.S. alone, around 2.3% of the adult population has this condition. Unfortunately, many patients with bipolar disorder are still misdiagnosed. Bipolar...

Gathering the Light from the Stars: A Guided Imagery

Gathering the Light from the Stars: A Guided Imagery

Author: Sophia Falco Find a comfortable position where you can either sit or lay down for about 10 minutes. If you feel it’s appropriate to close your eyes, then please do so, and if not keep your gaze downwards—this is totally fine too. First, get in tune with your...

A Bipolar Story

A Bipolar Story

Author: Elizabeth Horner I debated on whether or not to share my story for a very long time. I’d swing back and forth like a pendulum; feeling like I should just own who I am and throw myself out there one day and then revert back to the very private person I usually...

The Power of Just

The Power of Just

Author: Melinda Goedeke When my beautiful daughter was 23,  she was asked to be in one of her best friend’s wedding. Running towards me with her infectious smile, she shared the news with me talking so quickly I barely understood. What I did understand is that she was...

5 common misconceptions about bipolar and how to dismantle them

5 common misconceptions about bipolar and how to dismantle them

Author: Madeleine Russell Stigma around bipolar disorder can be gradual and subtle, but with very harmful effects. Bipolar affects 1 in 50 Australians and tends to run in families. Stigma is a well-known driver of poor health outcomes, yet continues to permeate...

How Bipolar Disorder Has Prepared Me for Unpredictability

How Bipolar Disorder Has Prepared Me for Unpredictability

Author: Christina Chambers Lately, I have noticed a pattern emerging and re-emerging. It weaves itself through my life like vines climbing a lattice. That pattern is chaos. There is a consistent inconsistency, predictable unpredictability, and almost an order to the...

Ignorance Is Not Bliss: The Importance of Screening

Ignorance Is Not Bliss: The Importance of Screening

Author: Willa Goodfellow I didn’t want to find out I had bipolar disorder. I was on a plane. The person in the seat next to me saw the Journal of American Psychiatry in my lap. He was curious, he said, because he was a doctor and worked on a psych ward. Why was I...

Comforting Affirmations for Bipolar Disorder

Comforting Affirmations for Bipolar Disorder

Author: Rebecca James The bipolar mind is often a chaotic place. It can be scary, lonely, sad, or wild. In the center of it, we all need some moments of peace. I’ve found that affirmations, or easy, reassuring sentences, help me navigate the bipolar mind. Here are a...

The Bipolar Creative Genius

The Bipolar Creative Genius

Author: Jasper James “No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness” – Aristotle It has long been said that those with bipolar disorder are more creative than average. Famous bipolar individuals of the past include Ernest Hemingway, Frank Sinatra, and...

Mania and Psychosis

Mania and Psychosis

Author: Kim Barnett I have Bipolar I Disorder, which causes manic and depressive episodes cyclically. I’d like to share with you some of my experience with Bipolar Mania, in hopes to explain the difference between insomnia and a Manic Episode, and how this topic has...

Embracing Gratitude

Embracing Gratitude

Author: Sophia Falco I delve deep into the dreamland of my imagination. I embrace envisioning light flowing throughout my body, and soothing my mind edging out the darkness that has taken up residency for far too long. The beauty of the natural world speaks to me in...

Cheers!

Cheers!

Author: Melissa Anderson Can we just take a moment out of our busy lives to congratulate ourselves? Bipolar disorder can be a beast. We are either living with it or supporting someone who does, and that deserves some recognition. Every day that we get up and face the...

Bipolar Depression

Bipolar Depression

Author: Valéry Brosseau Bipolar depression is like an old faded blanket that’s worn out in just the right spots. The one I can’t bear to throw away. Once in a while it falls out of the closet and I pick it up, wrap myself in it and hide from the world. It’s...

Bipolar Disorder Book Recommendations

Bipolar Disorder Book Recommendations

Author: Claire Gault As someone with bipolar disorder, I have a fascination with reading about and researching the illness itself. I believe that the more information I learn, the better equipped I can be to manage the illness. My favorite way to learn is through...

Change Can Begin With You

Change Can Begin With You

Author: Natalia Beiser I became angry when overhearing someone saying that people with bipolar disorder should not receive disability accommodations because “…all that they need it to take a pill.” As most individuals with bipolar disorder know, it is not usually that...

My Experience With Behavioral Health Units

My Experience With Behavioral Health Units

Author: Kim Barnett I’ve had my share of stays in various Psych Wards over the past 17 years.  In California, where I live, they are now called Behavioral Health Units. The things I’ve experienced and the people I have come across in my stays have changed me, mostly...

How I Get Through The School Year While Managing My Bipolar Disorder

How I Get Through The School Year While Managing My Bipolar Disorder

Author: Jasper James Naturally, when I think of the first day of school, I experience anxiety and extreme nervousness. One of the tricks I like to use is mindfulness to get me through my anxiety. I simply take the “butterflies in my stomach” feeling and ramp it up to...

10 Self-Care Ideas for People Suffering from Bipolar Disorder

10 Self-Care Ideas for People Suffering from Bipolar Disorder

Author: Cassandra Stout Self-care. It seems self-explanatory; after all, the term indicates caring for the self. But why is self-care so hard to accomplish, especially for people who suffer from bipolar disorder? The answer is easy. When we’re manic or...

It’s Going to be Okay

It’s Going to be Okay

Author: Fatima It felt as though a trap door had opened under me and I was free falling. “What you experienced was a manic episode” the doctor said. “You have type 1 bipolar disorder”.  My world was rocked. Bipolar disorder? What did that mean? What did that entail? I...

Advice for Someone Newly Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder

Advice for Someone Newly Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder

Author: Rosebuds and Thorns Through my experience with Bipolar Disorder, I have learned many things. To tell someone newly diagnosed with bipolar everything I have learned would take more pages than one could bear to read. So, I will focus on three things: time,...

LBGTQI + Bipolar is… Complicated

LBGTQI + Bipolar is… Complicated

Author: Willa Goodfellow It goes back to Freud. You could call him a liberal for his day. He did not believe that homosexuality was a character flaw or degeneracy. He viewed it as a kind of arrested development. Does arrested development sound better than the later...

High Hopes, Not High Expectations

High Hopes, Not High Expectations

Author: Claire At the beginning of my college career, my expectations for post grad life were through the roof. I was going to graduate early, balance a million extracurriculars, and somehow make time to travel the world. Without time to prepare, mania arrived without...

Journaling through Bipolar Cycles

Journaling through Bipolar Cycles

Author: Rebecca James I’ve been keeping a journal since I was fifteen. That was twenty years ago! But journaling has never been as important to me as it has been in the last seven years, since I’ve been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. For me, journaling makes sense...

Big Red and Ocean

Big Red and Ocean

Author: Lauren Meredith When I first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I found it difficult to identify how I felt a lot of the time.  Giving my emotions, especially ones that I encounter more often than others, a nickname has helped me to identify my emotions in the...

The Gift of Friendship

The Gift of Friendship

Author: Natalia Beiser I had a dear friend that could not understand my mood disorder; particularly the depression.  I tried diligently to explain it to her.  She could tell when I was down by the tone in my voice over the telephone. My friend was a senior citizen and...

Living with Comorbid Diagnosis’

Living with Comorbid Diagnosis’

Author: Lauren Meredith I was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) when I was 21 years old. I was a senior in college.  I had testing problems and lo and behold it was due to testing anxiety which was also manifested in various other aspects of my life.  My...

The Stories of Men with Mental Illness

The Stories of Men with Mental Illness

Author: George Hofmann It seems that today a man with a mental illness in his middle age is without a voice. So many of the stories told about the struggle with an incoherent mind are from the point of view of the young and mostly female. For so many older men the...

Bipolar Disorder, Stigma and Suicide

Bipolar Disorder, Stigma and Suicide

Author: Valéry Brosseau  The gym smelled a bit like a warehouse would smell, but mostly like sweat. I came to this gym 5 times a week to practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but tonight I was not feeling it. I struggled through the warm up. My anxiety was making me irritable...

Newly Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorder? Here’s My Advice…

Newly Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorder? Here’s My Advice…

Author: Jessica Kaushik I was diagnosed in 2004 and have been largely living hospital-free for the last thirteen years. So, I do have a few coping strategies for living with Bipolar Disorder that I’d like to share with the newly diagnosed. …I wouldn’t say the list is...

The Intersection of Toxic Masculinity and Mental Illness

The Intersection of Toxic Masculinity and Mental Illness

Author: Zachary Burton The California hills were quickly turning to gold. Our weekends were filled with barbecues, swimming, and late nights around our fire pit. Life couldn’t be better. I certainly thought so, as I hurtled toward my PhD qualifying exams in the late...

Grandiosity vs Self-Love

Grandiosity vs Self-Love

Author: Violette Kay “Grandiosity”. That’s the word that convinced me I actually had bipolar disorder. The sleep disruptions, increased energy, racing thoughts and flight of ideas – not to mention the recurring depressive episodes – all these other textbook...

Rising Above While Living with Bipolar Disorder: A Dream Come True

Rising Above While Living with Bipolar Disorder: A Dream Come True

Author: Sophia Falco It has been a challenge living with bipolar disorder 1 for nearly a decade (diagnosed at age 16) yet I have risen above this to have made my dream come true—a college graduate that has excelled! I have achieved the Highest Honors in the Literature...

Coping With Psychosis

Coping With Psychosis

Author: Christina Chambers Have you ever had a dream that was so vivid when you awoke it was hard to believe it didn’t actually happen? You had that surreal feeling of not being certain what was a dream and what happened in your waking life. What about a dream where...

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...

Reflecting Back on My Initial Diagnosis: Part 2

Reflecting Back on My Initial Diagnosis: Part 2

Author: Scott Walker A continuation from Reflecting Back on My Initial Diagnosis… I ended up being in the psychiatric hospital for three weeks after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. At the time I was in New Zealand visiting family and seeing my Mom and brother....

How I Learned To Prevent My Episodes

How I Learned To Prevent My Episodes

Author: Katie Barber When I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder my therapist was optimistic. The disorder can be easily managed, I was told, with lifestyle changes and medication. Simple small changes to my life can make a big difference to my episodes and can...

What Mood Disorder Is It, Anyway?

What Mood Disorder Is It, Anyway?

Author: George Hofmann It takes a while to diagnose someone with bipolar disorder. In fact, the average delay between the first appearance of symptoms and a correct diagnosis is six years. I remember when I first recognized that something unusual was occurring in my...

How and When It’s Time to Reach Out to a Professional

How and When It’s Time to Reach Out to a Professional

By Allison Clemmons Hatch Recently there has been no shortage of advice regarding techniques for self-care in light of the COVID-19 pandemic with regard to not only our physical, but our mental health care as well.  And thank goodness for that! You have may have...

Releasing Resentment

Releasing Resentment

Author: Claire As someone living with bipolar 1 disorder, I sometimes feel resentful towards others that don’t share my struggles. The vast majority of people cannot truly comprehend mania, nor spend much time contemplating it. In daily experiences and in social...

Why I Won’t Hide My Diagnosis From My Little Sister

Why I Won’t Hide My Diagnosis From My Little Sister

Author: Violette Kay I used to feel a lot of pressure to be discreet about my bipolar disorder. When asked what my plans were for the day, I wouldn’t mention therapy appointments if that’s what was on the agenda. I wouldn’t take my medication in front of people. I...

Why We Need To Talk About Mental Health

Why We Need To Talk About Mental Health

Author: Caoimhe Mercer This month (May) is Mental Health Awareness Month 2020. There are many differences this year, however, due to the concerns surrounding Covid19. With the need for social distancing and isolation, people’s mental health will likely suffer as a...

Stress: Taming the Beast

Stress: Taming the Beast

A recent headline reads: Cortisol: Why the “Stress Hormone” is Public Enemy No. 1. But here’s an idea. Maybe we don’t want to eliminate stress from our lives. Here is a three-part alternative: Understand it. Manage it. Modulate it. Understand it. Definition: Stress is...

“Do You Recommend Cannabis Use For Teens With Bipolar Disorder?”

“Do You Recommend Cannabis Use For Teens With Bipolar Disorder?”

Alysha Sultan, BSc, PhD student1,2 Benjamin I. Goldstein, MD, PhD, FRCPC1,2,3   1 Centre for Youth Bipolar Disorder, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada. 2 Department of Pharmacology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. 3 Department of Psychiatry,...

I Feel Less Shame Since COVID-19…

I Feel Less Shame Since COVID-19…

Author: Natalia Beiser I have always carried various degrees of shame over having bipolar I disorder and receiving income through Social Security Disability.  I worked really hard to shine in spite of my diagnosis. I obtained a bachelor’s degree and was very proud...

Bipolar Boxing Match

Bipolar Boxing Match

“Bipolar is like a Boxing match- and we’ve got to keep fighting.” My name is Caoimhe (pronounced Keeva for those unfamiliar with Irish names!) and I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder six years ago aged 21, whilst studying for an MA in Modern History at University....

You Are Not Bipolar

You Are Not Bipolar

Author: George Hofmann How do you relate to bipolar disorder, and how do you describe yourself? Language can have a powerful influence over self-definition, revelation, and healing.  The way we describe ourselves and our condition speaks volumes about our outlook and...

What Do You Do When You’re Triggered?

What Do You Do When You’re Triggered?

In life, experiencing stress and tension is normal. But what happens when a certain thought becomes too overwhelming that it ends up taking over your entire headspace? As you walk through this journey, certain triggers are likely to happen every now and then. While...

How Poetry Frees Me From Suffering

How Poetry Frees Me From Suffering

Author: Sophia Falco Poetry is what grounds me. I believe in this realm of poetry that I have complete control which is ever so important for me as an individual affected by bipolar disorder for nearly a decade. I have control over my pen and paper (or my laptop and...

Channeling Feelings Through Art

Channeling Feelings Through Art

Author: Susann Brox Nilsen My mother, who is an artist, taught me early on to draw and to be creative. I drew and wrote stories my whole childhood, my imagination had no end. This gradually stopped during my teenage years though, and for many years I wasn’t...

#BipolarBrave, Today and Always

#BipolarBrave, Today and Always

Author: Violette Kay This World Bipolar Day, I look back at all the ways bipolar disorder has impacted my life, and the variety of these experiences is so vast I don’t know whether I should mourn or celebrate. Bipolar disorder has ruined my life a million times over,...

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