Author: Matthew Palmieri Accepting a Bipolar diagnosis can take many years. Some may never come to terms with the illness, living in denial while it wreaks havoc on everything held dear. I know that was me for about 9 years after I was diagnosed.I wouldn’t even...
Author: Vasavi Kumar Living with bipolar disorder has been a tumultuous and unpredictable journey, filled with highs of mania and lows of depression that have left me feeling as though I’m on a rollercoaster ride that I can’t get off. The intense...
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...
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...
By: Trevor Simonson If you are anything like me, you struggle for consistency. My life runs in peaks and valleys. So many valleys. A never-ending game flirting with progress, but always feeling like I am back at square one. Square one. It isn’t real. We are always...
By: Cassandra Stout It seems everyone and their mother is traveling these days. And that includes those of us with mental illnesses. For those of us living with mental health conditions, especially bipolar disorder, breaking from our usual routine can have disastrous...
How to Make a Dopamenu to Give Your Brain the Stimulation it Needs Have you ever found yourself doom scrolling the internet, desperately seeking stimulation for your depressed brain but being too tired to think of a healthy way to do that? When we’re depressed, our...
Author: Cassandra Stout Running out of meds is the worst. If you’re regularly taking medication and you run out of pills and stop suddenly, this is terrible for your body and your mind. If you’re bipolar, you may end up tripping into a mood episode that...
Author: Christina Chambers I firmly believe lifestyle factors are just as important as medication for living well with Bipolar Disorder. Sunlight, alcohol or drugs, nutrition, social connection, nature, repetitive thoughts, meditation and exercise are just a few of...
Author: Neil McCarthy Life experiences, including a regular meditation practice, have shown me that all life predicaments and mental states will pass in time. But more than just meditation has seen me through tough times; music has served as a constant,...
Author: Sarah Ross I find strength to persevere through challenging times by simplifying tasks as much as possible and through communication. If I keep my thoughts to myself, I will just end up spiraling. Once I reflect my thoughts to someone I trust, I feel a...
Author: Cassandra Stout Trigger Warning: This post contains a discussions of suicide. If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide, please: Call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 Text TALK to 741741 Or go to...
Author: Angela McCrimmon Read Part I here In laying down my resilience, I found a new “normal”. I developed new routines and I learned what feels right for me in my body, mind and soul. 2021 was an awful year in many ways, but it was profound in the lessons it...
Author: Angela McCrimmon Anyone who shares a diagnosis of Bipolar, regardless of what “type” resides in your brain, is going to share a lot of similar traits and experiences. For example, our high and low moods are way more extreme than those...
Author: Cassandra Stout When you’re depressed, forget about thriving – you’re in survival mode. Which means you need to be especially gentle with yourself. If you’re telling yourself that you should get everything done on your impossibly...
Author: Ann Marie Elpa Like many others, when I first heard the word, ‘bipolar’, I associated it with rapid mood swings and instability. I didn’t have a proper understanding of what the disorder encompassed as someone who grew up in a household that seldom discussed...
Author: Neil McCarthy Living with bipolar disorder often means I keep a layer of separation between others and me. Some close friends and family might know details of my illness, but not even my eight-year-old daughter knows why I spend 15 minutes every...
Author: Christina Chambers Writing down a wellness plan upped my Bipolar Disorder management game exponentially. I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type I in 2008. I had rapid cycling, so I had at least four episodes each year for twelve years before even...
Author: Trevor Simonson Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Some days they are all the same. Infiltrated by the fog. That haze that sets life in slow motion, leaves your thoughts in a jumble, and gives you that familiar blank stare. Some days you just can’t...
Author: Christina Chambers For many years, the first warning sign of impending mania that I could recognize was the repetitive thought that I could fly, a convincing feeling this thought was true, and strong urges to leap off balconies. Thankfully, I knew that I had...
Author: Dayna J. In full disclosure it has been years since I struggled with aggressive depression. I was so depressed in 2007 that I attempted suicide. I have also fought off suicidal ideation, suicidal thoughts, for three decades. The darkness can...
Author: Jeffrey Johanishing Please note: This blog is based upon and includes Jeffrey’s experiences with psychosis and recovery, and therefore, are informed by his own personal account and coping strategies. No two individuals have an identical experiences, so...
Author: Claire Gault For many people with bipolar around the world (and even those without), winter can bring shifts in moods. As someone who lives in Michigan, I definitely notice a change in my energy levels when the winter months arrive. I take special care to...
Author: Cassandra Stout If you have bipolar disorder, it’s likely you’ve experienced some symptoms of mania while you’ve suffered depression, or vice versa, and believe me: it’s miserable. This awful set of feelings is colloquially...
Author: Claire Gault Esmé Weijun Wang, one of my favorite mental wellness advocates, has a workshop called “Dream Hunting with Limitations.” To me, that title encapsulates everything I’ve been wanting to do since my diagnosis four years ago: actualize what I...
Author: Dayna J. Living with bipolar disorder since 2006 has presented challenges to accomplishing New Year’s resolutions year after year. The fluctuations in my moods – especially crippling depressive episodes – puts a huge burden on the discipline it...
Author: Natalia A. Beiser “Bipolar is not a disability. They can take a pill and be okay. Those people just need to go out and get a job.” The ignorance displayed in the above sentence is unreeling to me. That person does not know of the financial devastation of a...
Author: Allison Hatch Disclaimer: The experiences and techniques described in this blog are based off the authors’ personal experiences and successes. These tips may not work for everyone. If you are struggling with negative thoughts or have any questions, we...
Author: Yuval Dinary Some people’s need to create beauty is as fundamental as their need to eat. It’s an instinctual hunger for creation that carries great mysteries and awe along with it. The link between creativity and madness is one that’s been discussed since the...
Mariko Hewer The other day, I looked out my living-room window around 7:30 p.m. and was surprised to see how dim it had gotten outside. The vibrant goldenrod of the late-afternoon sun had already deepened into the burnt sienna, indigo, and magenta glow of sunset, and...
Author: Lisa MacDonald I was diagnosed as a young teen with a mental illness but I hid it from others. I was so ashamed and embarrassed about it. Even my best friends didn’t know how badly I was suffering. I didn’t realize this until much later, but...
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: 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: 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: 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 Scarpello 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...
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: 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: 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: 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: 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...