Author: Thiago Genaro There is no storm outside. The marriage is at a cool stage. The children are doing well at school. The Labrador puppy brings joy to the house. At work, you were recently promoted. The company’s environment is healthy, constructive...
Author: Tori Bryl With bipolar disorder, every depressive episode varies in length and intensity, with a fleeting epiphany that holds the key to breaking free. This past summer, I was in a four-month depressive episode— the longest I’ve ever experienced....
By: Margaret Fitzgerald I was a moody, undiagnosed, anxious bipolar child that self-soothed with food. I was always ten pounds overweight, and my parents catastrophized it. So many weight loss tactics were tried. One diet included eating only carbs until noon and then...
By Natalia A. Beiser Please note: These are Natalia’s experiences with Lithium and Dialysis. Not every patient will share the same experiences. I have now been on dialysis for one year and two months. The psychiatrist and I have had the Lithium dosage at a level that...
Actors, Institutions, and Networks My recovery could not happen without myriad actors, institutions, and networks among those actors and institutions. When I wasn’t enough, my family saved me. When family wasn’t enough, friends helped out. When friends did all they...
By Melinda Goedeke I laugh sarcastically every time I watch a commercial about medication for the treatment of bipolar disorder. Unkempt young men and women are shown in dark, depressing places with vacuous eyes and downtrodden faces until they take the miracle...
Formerly known as “manic depressive illness,” bipolar disorder is a term that, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), comprises a cluster of related disorders that are characterized by distinctive and extreme shifts, or...
by Melinda Goedeke I’m often asked whether or not I saw the signs. What I hear in that question is blame and responsibility; assignment of fault. I didn’t see the signs because there weren’t many to see; I saw Laura – my delightful, radiant, and complicated...
Author: Catalina Bellizzi-Itiola Sometimes I look back at the timeline of my life’s volatile mood fluctuations, and it makes me worry about what on earth my future will look like. Will I hold a job? Will I have a child? Will I be able to survive more episodes? Even...
Author: Margaret Fitzgerald My family knew little about serious mental illness when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Hindsight is 20/20. What follows are what would have best helped me be successful in life before and after my diagnoses. Many...
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...
Authors: Major General Gregg Martin, PhD, US Army Retired, and David Bartley May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a month in which we shine a light on mental health. I have chosen to focus on one of the most misunderstood and stigmatized of human experiences –...
Author: Phil Cibicki Dedicated to Ian & Annie, who would most understand what I’m talking about here. Thanks for the time I had with both of you and for showing me how to listen, to be kind, and to have an open mind. I can’t tell which drops come from my tears...
Author: Natalia A. Besier Therapy has benefitted my mental wellness journey by teaching me to reclaim my mental health “toolbox” by rethinking and restructuring my negative thoughts. I find that I benefit most from cognitive behavioral therapy and this focus causes...
Author: Sophia Falco These letters cannot spell what has been cast on me to that magnitude, they ask: “Where do you feel this in your body?” and with each breath my chest feels heavier these legs those stairs too much. I’m scared to write to you directly, to...
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: Ambika Paul Mania is your favorite song on repeat, an explosion of energy that brews in your mind with saturated ideas all coming at you in a single shot. Gradually consuming your whole body. Mania always feels like a creative journey for me but also...
Author: Abigail Lehman A question that I have asked myself and have struggled to answer for most of my life. Why don’t I fit in? Why don’t they feel the same way I do? Am I being dramatic? Am I the problem? I would ask myself these questions as I found myself in yet...
Author: General Gregg F. Martin, Phd, General Major, US Army Retired From my teenage years on, I benefitted from what was a positive personality: high levels of energy, enthusiasm, drive, extroversion, positivity, happiness, and optimism. This was the...
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: Valéry Brosseau It took me years to learn that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. I refused to be a burden on people or a drain on resources. I’ve now learned to fight this way of thinking and remember that I deserve support and I can reach...
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: 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: Christina Chambers I distinctly remember the moment my perspective on accepting Bipolar Disorder shifted. It was three years ago, in the midst of a severe depressive episode. I was seriously considering if giving up forever was the best option, which is...
Author: Gregg F. Martin, PhD, US Army (Retired) My oldest son Phillip insists that a major difference between my own case of bipolar disorder and many millions of others’ cases is that I was fortunate enough to recover. Indeed, I was alive and recovered with my...
“For those traversing, through darkness, may the light be strengthened from within.” – Sophia Falco Blogger Bio Sophia Falco Sophia Falco is a faithful poet since she finds poetry essential to her understanding of the universe. She is...
Author: Major General Gregg F. Martin, PhD, US Army Retired I gradually spiraled then crashed into depression after my resignation from the National Defense University (NDU.) My depression was increasingly characterized by diminished energy, hopelessness, anxiety and...
Author: Sophia Falco Call it an act of defiance against the self, but not self-inflicted more like by something opposite to a God. Darkness embezzled my words yet to be born. Each letter was stuck in no man’s land, and I was left staring at this sheet of blank paper....
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...
Author: Sophia Falco These raindrops resemble teardrops that I believed were almost falling in slow motion, but with the blink of an eye, they hit the pavement despite—what once was 3-D now 2-D is now just an imprint on the sidewalk. A darker shade of gray than 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: George Hofmann Last summer, with people crying out in the streets, I learned about the need to pause and listen to each other in the midst of uncertainty and upset. As we begin 2021, with Covid-19 shutdowns dragging on and polarizing political unrest, people...
Author: Cory Anderson As a therapist, I thought I would be well equipped to handle anything marriage threw my way, including my wife’s bipolar II diagnosis. Well, I was wrong. Even our journey of getting this diagnosis was long and fraught with potholes. I imagine a...
Author: Claire Gault Those diagnosed with bipolar disorder can be more susceptible to loneliness, as our condition feels isolating from the world around us. With the government issuing restrictions on socializing, loneliness can be intensified more than ever before,...
Author: Melissa Anderson I’ve been stable for nearly a year. There was a time when I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to say that. Stability. And for a whole year! Wow! I can hardly believe it. It feels good, I must say. It was just before Thanksgiving...
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...
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...
Author: Melissa Anderson I started waking up at 2:00 AM. By 4:30, I was completely awake, unable to will my eyes closed anymore. The day before, I began noticing the beginning signs of the excess energy, so it was no surprise to me that I had difficulty sleeping. It...
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...
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...
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...
Author: Keyoka Kinzy When Anne Lamott wrote about the phenomena of wanting to jump off a cliff or drive your car into oncoming traffic in her book, Almost Everything, I felt seen. So, it isn’t just me? I thought. I’m not the only person in the world who contemplates...
Author: Dr. Margaret Rutherford I’m honored to be asked to join you on March 18th, 2020 for a live video discussion of a syndrome I call “perfectly hidden depression.” I’ve written a new book, Perfectly Hidden Depression: How to Break Free from the Perfectionism that...
