Our Blog

Being Bipolar Brave

I will gulp. I will take a deep breath. I will remember the people I am trying to help by telling my story.

And I will be bipolar brave.

Mental Illness and the Workplace

Author: Natalia Beiser When I resigned my full time job in 2005 due to bipolar depression, I subsequently went on disability.  I spent countless years allowing my bipolar diagnosis to define how I should be treated in the workplace. Prior to going on disability, I had...

Managing my Mental Health During COVID-19

Author: Aubrey Good In December I uprooted everything I had known in my adult life to move across the country to start fresh in a new location. By uprooting everything, I mean everything: my living situation, career, relationships, social activities, routine, weather…...

Reflecting Back on My Initial Diagnosis

Author: Scott Walker On January 1, 2000, I checked myself into a psychiatric hospital in New Zealand. My Mom, my brother and I had met in NZ to celebrate Christmas with relatives and bring in the new millennium. I was living in Japan at the time and hadn't seen my Mom...

Perfectly Hidden Depression

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...

Celebrate World Bipolar Day by Taking Control of Your Mental Illness

Are you bipolar? There is a day on the calendar to celebrate your struggles with the disorder.

When Reckless Spending Doesn’t Seem All That Reckless

Author: Violette Kay My grandma’s neighbor was the first person with bipolar disorder that I ever met. I was a child- I didn’t really know what bipolar disorder was, much less that I would go on to learn that I had it too. My first encounters with the illness took...

My Small Victories

Life is really a string of small victories. These victories gradually lead to more inward and outward growth. Do not overlook small victories. They deserve to be celebrated. 

Navigating Work Relationships and Mental Illness

Author: Violette Kay There are many reasons one might choose not to disclose their mental illness at work such as the fear of being judged and seen as a liability or the fear of losing your job. But you might not want to disclose it because you feel it is on a...

Dating and Mental Illness: For Better or Worse

Author: Eliora Mae Baker Dating is not always pretty, and love is hard at times. The difficulties of being in a relationship with someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder are many. Is a relationship with someone with bipolar completely out of the question?...

Tips For Managing Romantic Relationships If You Have Bipolar Disorder

If you suffer from bipolar disorder, then you may already know how difficult managing romantic relationships can be. Even being a partner with a bipolar disorder sufferer is difficult. The manic and hypomanic phases of the disease can include lapses in judgment,...

How Stigma In The African American Faith Community Has Impacted Me

I have been a “church girl” all of my life and have been shaped by the traditions and cultural importance of the African American church community.  I grew up with a common belief that you can “pray away” illness, but there was a contrast in how physical illness and...

Communication And Trust: How Do I Convince A Loved One To Seek Help?

Both in my profession and as a mother of a 22 year-old daughter who has been living with bipolar disorder since age 12, I have personally seen the difficulties experienced by both the loved one and those who care about him/her, particularly at the outset. My hope is...

How IBPF Inspired Essay Contest Winner To Do More For Mental Health Awareness

By Petra Dujmic Petra pictured with members of her school newspaper. “Neuro nada”—“Neuro hope” in Croatian. I put the two words together when I was a child, sitting on the concrete steps of our family’s sweltering summer house in Croatia. My crocs had started to feel...

Hallucinations

By: Greg Walshaw I first experienced psychosis as a child. I would see ghostly apparitions that would show up at night. Not believing in ghosts, I would try to convince myself that they were simply a visual effect from a streetlight, except that they would move around...

The Relief Of An Accurate Diagnosis

By: Natalia Beiser When I was eighteen, I was finishing the last semester of high school and attempting to concentrate on the scenes of a teenager: attending dances, performing in musicals and band, and picking out a prom dress. I knew that something was terribly...

An Alternative Christmas

By: Sophie Prosolek Christmas is a time of festive joy, of giving and receiving - ‘it's the most wonderful time of the year’, or so the song goes. But several years ago I decided to make a change to the way I celebrate Christmas - I decided to abstain from receiving...

Do You Have Bipolar Disorder? You Can Still Thrive This Holiday Season

By: Cassandra Stout The holidays strike fear into many hearts, especially those of us with mental illness. But they don't have to. People with mental health conditions, including bipolar disorder, can thrive during the holiday season. Don't Neglect Basic Self-Care You...

How Mental Illness Affects Police Shooting Fatalities

By: Cassandra Stout In 2015, the Washington Post conducted the first ongoing tally of officer-involved shooting deaths of the mentally ill. Nationwide, at least 25% of people who are shot and killed by police officers suffer from acute mental illness at the time of...

Holding on to Hope

By: Thea Madeline Porter I grew up in a typical middle class neighborhood in southern California. During my childhood I enjoyed being creative, playing sports, taking Irish dancing, listening to music, watching movies and hanging out with friends and family. I was...

Vigilance

By: Malcolm Kerec A few weeks ago, I had a sharp reminder of how looking after my mental health is a constant battle and that staying well is not a set-and-forget task. After years of relative stability, it's all too easy to take good mental health for granted. I'd...

The Weight Gain Roller Coaster

By: Ivory Smith Have you ever gone to a restaurant and had a big meal only to feel hungry 2 hours later? Do you eat that 4th meal of the day at 3:00 am at night standing in the kitchen? Have you watched your clothes get tight and hope that it is because the dryer that...

October 21st: National Check Your Meds Day

By: Cassandra Stout Medication interactions are serious business. You could take two medications which counteract each other, which could make you sick enough to end up in the emergency room, or even die. October 21st is National Check Your Meds Day in the US. Making...

University and Accessibility

By: Greg Walshaw I was finishing my first year of a Master’s program when things started to change. The first time I stayed up all night to work on a paper, I thought nothing of it: the paper had to get done, and this was the cost of getting it done. I remember...

Where’s My Lasagna?

By: Natalia Beiser When one is undergoing mental health treatment, it often feels as if no one cares. It is rare that one will receive a greeting card or flowers, nor a covered dish when arriving home from the hospital. In my experience, most are standoffish....

How To Start Seeing A Therapist

By: Cassandra Stout Seeing a therapist can be enormously helpful in sorting out issues you may have in your life. You can also develop coping skills in therapy to deal with serious problems, or just the less-serious issues of everyday life. But how do you start...

Supporting a Friend in a Bipolar Depressive Episode

By: Allan G. Cooper When I am experiencing a Depressive Episode it feels like I am walking in a dark haze of sadness and fatigue. My limbs feel like they are twice as heavy and it takes a tremendous amount of will power to complete the simplest of tasks. Social...

America the Ill – 9 Ways American Culture Promotes Mental Illness

By: Sasha Kildare *The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the speaker, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of International Bipolar Foundation* Although there is still a long way to go, research has revealed...

Self-Discovery: Looking Back on My Diagnosis with Bipolar Disorder

By: Cassandra Stout Trigger warning: This post contains a brief mention 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 refer to our list of International...

Where Are The Hidden Words?

By: Sarah Fader I wrote a book with hidden words. You can read them, but I’ve been hiding how I feel from many people. It’s a book about level 37, cheese and donuts. I know that doesn’t make sense to you right now. These are words that I wish I could say to people I...

My Childhood with Bipolar Disorder

By: Natalia Beiser My mother knew at an early age that I suffered from depression. What she did not know was what to do about it. My remembrance of the 1970’s is that no one discussed mental health unless an acquaintance went to the state hospital. Then it was...

The Third Piece of the Bipolar Puzzle: A Perspective on Self-Discovery

By: Sophie Prosolek Self-discovery is an important part of learning to be an individual, but in my opinion it’s all the more important when that individual has Bipolar disorder. Bipolar, in its many guises, can be a really two-faced friend; it occasionally allows you...

Hyde & Hyde…. no Jekkyll

By: Laura Sanscartier From the time I was a little girl, I have always had horrible thoughts. Thoughts of hurting people, thoughts of people dying. Thoughts of car crashes and horrible accidents around the house. I always thought that I was just a strange person, and...

Managing Postpartum Depression

By: Liz Wilson My children were born 6 years apart. My son and daughter are two very different children with two very different mothers; who happened to be in the same body. That is largely because of my changing attitude toward education and self-advocacy. Thomas was...

Accepting My Diagnosis

By: Sydney Batt I felt slightly relieved the day I was diagnosed with having bipolar disorder-- it felt good to have an explanation for my actions, however the days to come were very difficult. I was very emotional the first couple months after my diagnosis--any time...

Is It My Bipolar… Or Just Being a Jerk?

By: Paul Carey (The short story of a bipolar professional and a personal jerk) Sometimes the line between bipolar and jerk isn’t as transparent as I’d like it to be. To be clear, they are not one in the same. Bipolar is a non-optional mental illness. Being a jerk is a...

My Catch-22 with Medication

By: Natalia Beiser Most days I feel grateful and blessed. I have a good life. I have friends and people that love me. I am employed part time, even with chronic mental illness. I have a home, and even two great cats. My car is almost paid off. I have much of the...

Ward 19 North

By: Sasha Kildare My biggest claim to fame is that I had the same dance teacher as JLo. Actually, I have an even bigger claim to fame. But it is not something that you brag about. At the age of 26, I was on my sixth college major, journalism. Summer vacation arrived....

How to Shield Your Children from the Effects of Your Bipolar Disorder

By: Cassandra Stout As a parent with bipolar disorder, you might worry about the effects of your unchecked mental illness on your loved ones, especially your children. The devastating mood swings of bipolar disorder can cause instability for your kids. One example, a...

Positive Impact of Therapy

By: Sydney Batt When I was younger, I had been to a few sessions of therapy but had never committed to it until three years ago, when I decided to take my mental health seriously. Going to therapy for the first time can be scary or awkward for some, and having to...

Hold On

By: Laura Sanscartier (Trigger warning for sexual assault) There's a song by Sarah MacLachlan called "Hold On". The first line is "Hold on, hold on to yourself, for this is gonna hurt like hell." I often think of it when it comes to hard things in my life. Not because...

Can Marijuana Make You Psychotic?

By: Conor Bezane Marijuana makes me paranoid. Irritable. I can’t leave the house if I am high or I will panic. I used to smoke it mostly at home (there’s delivery service in New York) and occasionally at parties. I did enjoy it for a time, but I have concluded that...

Bipolar Depression vs. Situational Depression

By: Allan G. Cooper If you have 2 broken legs, climbing a hill would be extremely difficult. Even if you were a motivated person with an exceptional level of discipline, the physical damage to your legs would prevent you from making any progress. Bipolar Depressive...

Becoming a Psychologist with Bipolar II Disorder

By: Lauren Yang Springtime tends to make me reflective on the transitions I’ve had in life. I’ll notice how time has passed when I see high school graduation photos and hear about acceptances into graduate or professional school programs. While friends were moving...

How Managing My Nutrition Improved my Mental Health

By: Sydney Batt After three months of my diagnosis of having Bipolar II disorder I decided to join a group therapy that was specifically for people that have mood disorders. In the first session of this therapy we learned the importance of nutrition and diet. I was...

World Sleep Day

By: Brandy Higgins, RN,BSN National Sleep Awareness Week is March 10-16, 2019 this year! I love to sleep. Unfortunately, I have battled all of my life to sleep normally. My mental illnesses make it really hard for me to sleep like an average person. I have insomnia....

Life After Psychosis

By: Allan G. Cooper Do you know what it feels like to help NASA calculate the speed of light? Or, maybe you know what it's like to find a formula that makes nuclear fusion possible. How about being the sole person responsible for averting a disaster that would crash...

Lay Our Burden Down

By: Jayson Blair When I first went to a therapist office, a little more than 15 years ago, there was an intake form that included a long list of conditions under a question about family medical history. Diabetes? Check. Heart disease? Check. Auto-immune diseases?...

When It Rains…

By: Laura Sanscartier ...it pours. Or at least it does in my case.  I bet it does in a lot of cases out there. I wish I could meet each and every one of you and give you the biggest hug. What am I talking about? Multiple diagnoses, often called comorbidities. It's...

Wellness & My Mood Disorder

By: Liz Wilson “Mindfully focusing on wellness in our lives builds resilience and enables us to thrive amidst life’s challenges.” National Wellness Institute Wellness is a relatively new construct that encompasses our level of connectedness to the world around us. It...

The Power of Peer Support

By: Allan G. Cooper “Psychiatrists can tell you about the ocean by reading about it and seeing it in their practice but we know what it's like to be in the water”. This is how my co-worker Ray explains peer support. We work for an agency called OBAD, the Organization...

Managing School While Feeling Depressed or Manic

By: Sydney Batt Students living with Bipolar disorder have challenges not many people see or understand. Features of bipolar disorder make it tough to thrive in school, so it may feel like a lonely battle in the classroom. School stressors can contribute to triggering...

No Two Wellness Journeys Are the Same

By: Laura Sanscartier "I feel fantastic!" "Life is so good!" "Look at how well I'm doing!" Have you seen a status like this on Facebook or Instagram and felt revulsion toward the person who wrote it? Believe me, I've been there. For many people, wellness means that...

Finding The Correct Psychiatric Treatment

By: Carissa Martos For the first time in a decade, I’m on a new mental-health medication. This is a huge event for me, as I have navigated most of my life as someone with anxiety, bipolar, PTSD, and chronic pain with…close to nothing, chemically. I’ve been on daily...

Maintaining My Mental Illness Is A Lifestyle

By: Andrienne Kennedy If someone had asked me five years ago how do I manage a mental illness, I would have not been able to give an answer. For years, I was uneducated about mental illnesses or mental health all together. That changed back in 2014 when I was...

Working Toward Mental Wellness

By: Tosha Maaks Remaining balanced when you live life with bipolar disorder isn’t some magical trick and it isn’t some tricky formula that only those who have super powers have figured out. However, stability I can say is a magical place to be after years of living in...

Letter To An Old Friend

By: Natalia Beiser Dear Chad, In the early 1990’s, we were such good friends. Outside of my family, I have never cherished anyone more. You supported me through a chilling hypomania and a catastrophic mania. You watched me deteriorate during medication trials and...

A Helping Hand: An Essay On The Importance Of Mental Health Parity

By: Sydney Waltner More than half of all Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness in their lifetime. But not everyone will receive the help they need. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, only forty percent of adults and fifty percent of...

An Appeal For Mental Health Equity To South Korea’s Minister Of Health And Welfare

By: Jamie Park Dear Minister of Health and Welfare, I am writing to express my grave concerns over how the nature of mental illness is generally perceived in my country, and how such perception, in turn, has directly penetrated the legislative process in enacting or...

A Letter To Congress Advocating For The Mental Health Parity And Addiction Equity Act

By: Elena Hirsch Dear Congressman, Illness of any kind can be devastating, causing pain and suffering not just for the affected individual, but for family, friends, and all of those around him. But while insurance companies are quick to provide a treatment route for...

Navigating Communication During The Holidays

By: Courtney Davey, MA, LMFT The holidays are a wonderful time: family, friends, feelings of good will etc. However, these additions to your schedule also can create high levels of stress. Holiday movies are notorious for making gags out of the difficulties with...

How To Stress Less Even When The Holidays Are Hard

By: Andrienne Kennedy This is the most wonderful time of the year! For many people the holidays signifies happiness, family and fun. But what about those who struggle when holiday time comes around? While the meaning of the holidays is beautiful, it can be a rough...

Last Christmas And The People Who Made It Okay

By Allison Clemmons Hatch One of the most difficult seasons for many is upon us. Those of us who celebrate Christmas, not just those of us who grapple with the symptoms of bipolar disorder, have a tough time maintaining any sort of cheerful disposition, for a...

Hello Panic, Still Surprising After All These Years

By: Lori Lane-Murphy Halloween is long over. Tell that to the demon climbing up my ribcage. I’m not sure even the Exorcist himself stood a chance against the terror that clutched at me last night with determined fingers and the express purpose to bring me down. I...

International Day Of Persons With Disability

By: Liz Wilson “International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3) is an international observance promoted by the United Nations since 1992. It has been celebrated with varying degrees of success around the planet. The observance of the Day aims to promote an...

The Masks We Wear: Being Honest About Our Feelings

By: Conor Bezane I feel a lot of pressure. Pressure to take my meds and stay on them. Pressure to be a good son, brother, and uncle. Pressure to be a man. Pressure to conform and lead a healthy, happy life. It’s tough, but I’ve learned to maintain composure and grace...

Why I Stay

We must push past the stinking black curtain of illness and find the things that can keep us going.

Wife, Mother, And Survivor

I am a lucky suicide survivor. In 2008 I tried to end my life after a hard day at my job. I came home, and I said good-bye to my children, and I climbed into bed to snuggle with my middle child and say my good-byes to him.

It’s Cool To Be Kind

By: Andrienne Kennedy “As you get older, you will discover that you have two hands.  One for helping yourself, one for helping others.” - Audrey Hepburn Last year was a pivotal year for me. I was 39, and really started thinking about my 40th birthday which would be...

A Holiday Message And Resource List From IBPF

Although the holiday season is known to be the most wonderful time of the year, the truth is that it can also be very difficult for many of us who are suffering from hardships and/or mental illness. It is important that we take care of our own mental health and also...

Nobodysangel7775 Bio

I am a Writer/Author/Blogger. I am a twice divorced single Mother raising Two beautiful young girls. We also have two lovable puppy dogs who are very spoiled. I am also a recovering drug addict (Meth & Cocaine) and I used to have a pretty bad drinking habit too...

Margaret Trudeau And Her Struggle With Bipolar Disorder

By Nathan Gagné People with mental illness often feel as if they matter less than the rest of the population or that their illness is an impenetrable handicap. Margaret Trudeau has struggled with bipolar disorder in the duration of her adult life and speaks openly...

Turning The Worst Into Success: Ted Turner

By Eric Corona Fiercely, vigorously, and ingeniously Ted Turner made a name for himself in the television industry with all odds stacked against him. Mr. Turner has bipolar disorder, which has caused periods of depression and suicidal thoughts; his father struggled...

Seizing The Darkness: An Essay On Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s Bipolar Disorder

By Angela Li As Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “One must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star.” Considered to be Germany’s greatest literary mind of the modern era, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe certainly was a whirlwind of chaotic creativity. With such a...

Join IBPF + The Youth Mental Health Project For #SIF2017 On October 8th!

By Wendy Ward, Executive Director, The Youth Mental Health Project My first experiences with mental health conditions are the reasons that I co-founded The Youth Mental Health Project. I believe that by changing the way we talk about and how we act with regard to our...

Redefining Success: Part 2

By: Megan Malfi  

What Do You Mean It’s Forever?

By: Laura Sanscartier I am 37 years old.  I have battled symptoms of bipolar disorder since I was a child, and was diagnosed when I was in my early 20s.  Essentially, I have endured and tried to “fix” this disease, even cure it, for 30 years. I have gone to many,...

“Bipolar” Is The Wrong Word

By: James Phelps, M.D. “Bipolar” is the wrong word. Worse than inaccurate -- it’s directly misleading: 1. Depression is the main problem for most folks. Bipolar should be called “Depression Plus." 2. Depression and manic symptoms frequently occur together, in “mixed...

5 Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me When I Was Diagnosed

By: Danielle Workman I’ve said it in many other posts and even in my book, but the day I received my diagnosis and was told I had Bipolar Disorder, I truly felt alone. The days that followed, the feeling remained. The more I searched online and the more I dug, the...

Finding Solace In Art Therapy

By: Emily McGuigan “If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” ~ Edward Hopper As an artist with Generalized Anxiety Disorder(GAD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), I have primarily used drawing and painting to help me cope with and explain...

New To Dual Diagnosis? – Five Critical Life Hacks

By: Conor Bezane There are 5.7 million bipolar people in the US, and 60 percent of them are addicts, according to the Epidemiologic Catchment Area study. Co-occurring addiction is more common in bipolar people than in any other psychiatric group. We drink and use...

Parenting With Mental Illness: Part 1

By: Michelle Vasiliu In 2015, my first picture book, My Happy Sad Mummy, was published. My Happy Sad Mummy is a Picture Book for 3-8 year olds. It is a story that portrays the emotional response of a young girl living with a mother who has bipolar disorder. The book...

Finding Strength in my Story

By: Danielle Workman The day I received my diagnosis for Bipolar Disorder, I felt so alone. I remember it vividly, because it was so incredibly painful. I didn’t know anyone with Bipolar Disorder I could talk to about it. The people I knew that had anxiety and...

My Thoughts On Stigma And Having A Bipolar Diagnosis

By: Serena Goldsmith As a peer counselor, speaker, and mental health clinician, many people have shared with me that they feel stigmatized by having a mental health diagnosis and they feel reluctant to tell others about it. I felt that way too for many years after I...

Hiding In Plain Sight

By: Aubrey Good I am an intern at the International Bipolar Foundation. I spend a few hours a week at the office finding articles, writers, resources, etc. that I believe are beneficial to educating the public on bipolar disorder and also offer hope and understanding....

My Journey With DBT: Part 3

By: Allison Strong I’m in a year-long Dialectical Behavioral Therapy program.  Many people repeat the course. More than once! They say in their first year they felt more like passengers than patients because there’s so much material to cover.  I agree. Now that we’re...

My Journey With DBT: Part 2

By: Allison Strong When I first did intake for group dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), I sorta ‘flunked.’ Temporarily. It was determined that I’d been traumatized and I was transferred to their Trauma Resolution and Integration Program (T.R.I.P.) for individual...

A Step Back From The Edge

By: Nic Fleming It has been almost 8 months since my last blog. It is hard to believe how much time has passed. I literally could not write- or read for that matter. So yes, I have been exceptionally unwell but I would like to share some aspects of my experience over...

Guys: 5 Reasons Why We Are Selling Ourselves Short

By special guest: Chris Worfolk of Worfolk Anxiety Management Embed Video: Special guest, Chris Worfolk from Worfolk Anxiety Management, shares 5 suggestions for overcoming mental health stigma and taking care of mental health. For more information and resources on...

Combating Stigma With Compassion In South Africa

By Mamotladi Ivy Matloga My name is Ivy Matloga and I am a public servant and an author. My brother lives and copes with a mental illness. I just released a novel, a work of fiction, inspired by my brother’s illness and the observations I have made, as well as...

Redefining Success

By: Megan Malfi Check out Redefining Success Part 2, here! For more vlogs from Megan Malfi, check out the playlist here.

How DBT Helps Me Deal With Bipolar Disorder

By: Allison Strong A year ago, I wrote about Zen, Mindfulness and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). DBT is an update on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy—both written by Marsha M Linehan, Ph D. Originally, DBT was strictly for the treatment of borderline personality...

When Will I Feel Normal?

By: Scott Walker  

What Happens If You Let Anxiety Get The Best Of You?

By Melanie Luxenberg You don’t want anxiety to win, but let’s face it; sometimes it happens. I say don’t be hard on yourself when it does. Anxiety and bipolar disorder seem to really like each other- a lot. Or at least that's what my experience has been. Anxiety came...

The #1 Rule For Living With Bipolar Disorder

By Megan Malfi

Video Blog: Asking For Help When You’re High Functioning

By Megan Malfi

Positively Changing My Own World

By Allison Clemmons I have been very excited about sharing my recent remission story with the world. I have bipolar disorder, PTSD, and ADHD. I have struggled all of my life to some degree. Traumatic events involving my family a few years ago sent me into a tailspin,...

My Pharmacy And Me

By Janet Coburn You may think that your psychiatrist and your psychotherapist constitute your treatment team. You can add your caregiver, your bipolar friends, and your online groups and call them your support system. But there's one person you've left out. One who...

I Moved Overseas When I Was Manic

By Megan Shultz I have Bipolar Disorder.  At the end of January 2016 I finished a course of 15 ECT treatments for a severe episode of depression.  A couple of weeks after I finished the ECT I started to become very angry and irritable. The mania was setting in. You...

My Steps To Hope And Wellness

By Pieter Steyn I want to ask you, how are you? What heaviness are you carrying? What tears are you holding back? What pain and what fears are you keeping inside? People often ask you how you are and you reply “fine”, but you are not fine. They will never know that....