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

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...

Positively Changing My Own World

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

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

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

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....

Self-Stigma

Self-Stigma

by Kelly C. Kirby, MS, LPCC I oscillate between thinking of my bipolar disorder diagnosis as my enemy and my partner in life. When I reflect on this ideological difference, I wish I could blame external events or influential people for my shifting perspective;...

Who Can Get Through To You?

Who Can Get Through To You?

By Jen Teh In a recent conversation with a good friend, we talked about a mutual friend who appeared to be showing signs of bipolar disorder but who was quite closed to the possibility of a problem. The conversation meandered to what it was like when I was first...

The Unseen

The Unseen

#TheUnseen is when mental and/or emotional fatigue leads to withdrawing, and depressed thought loops. It is when "I'm tired or "I don't feel good" mean so much more. It is when you can't even handle being around the people you love. It is when you wish you could...

Finding My Purpose

Finding My Purpose

I’ve always been extremely hard on myself. I think those of us who struggle with depression frequently are. I know that I have a tendency to compare myself to others who don’t have to deal with mental illness. Are they more successful than I am? Do they have a better...

Journey to Recovery

Journey to Recovery

Like many people, my bipolar disorder was misdiagnosed for years. On average, people wait six years for a proper diagnosis. For me, it was decades. In hindsight, my new diagnosis made so much sense and explained so much of what I had been through over the years. It...

Love, Marriage, And Bipolar Q&A Series: Part 2 Of 4

Love, Marriage, And Bipolar Q&A Series: Part 2 Of 4

Q: How do you support your partner when, in the midst of a hypomanic episode, they tell you that they want to end the relationship and move out on their own? How can you tell if that’s what they’re truly feeling, or if it’s a result of their episode? Beka: From a...

Moods Like The Weather

Moods Like The Weather

By: Ros Limbo Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is the first thing that came to mind on the 2nd of April, when Namibia officially changed to winter time. The change in time signals the transition from summer to fall; nights begin to get longer while days are limited...

My 7 Year Old Has Bipolar – Now What?

My 7 Year Old Has Bipolar – Now What?

By: Farida Raj “My son needs help. He has bipolar disorder. Bipolar! How can a seven year old child have bipolar?” I, a Remedial Educator, was sitting with a parent who had recently relocated from Canada to Hyderabad, India. A pediatric psychiatrist had diagnosed her...

Love, Marriage, And Bipolar Q&A Series: Part 2 Of 4

Love, Marriage, And Bipolar Q&A Series: Part 1 Of 4

Long time married couple Ron and Beka Owens answer your questions about relationships and bipolar disorder. Do arguments about issues in your relationship with your husband ever trigger manic or depressive episodes? How do you deal with any issues you may have if you...

Dr. Heaton’s Message Of Hope

Dr. Heaton’s Message Of Hope

My only brother received a gift two days after his birthday, and ten days before Christmas. It was a gift that every person who suffers from mental illness wants. He carried a cross throughout his life called bipolar disorder. Many people - including me, our mother,...

Three Concentric Circles

Three Concentric Circles

By: Karen Meadows In retrospect, during my daughter’s battle with mental illness, I wasted a lot of energy worrying about things I couldn’t control. When I learned about a framework called Three Concentric Circles at work, I realized this was a powerful approach I...

Author Melody Moezzi Talks About Mental Health And Muslims

Author Melody Moezzi Talks About Mental Health And Muslims

By: Alexis Zinkerman I interviewed Melody Moezzi, an Iranian-American bipolar Muslim feminist activist, an attorney, a writer and author of the award-winning books War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims and Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life. She blogs...

EmmaLou

EmmaLou

Hi, I go by the name of EmmaLou. I live in the state of Virginia in the United States. I am a survivor of mental illness. I am 61 years old and although I was not diagnosed with bipolar until more recently, I know that I have been dealing with its symptoms for quite...

Tardive Dyskinesia: A Decade Later

Tardive Dyskinesia: A Decade Later

By: Allison Strong This is an update on an IBPF blog that I wrote a few years ago, “Move Over, Movement Disorder,” about my Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) and all the hoops I had to jump through to attain symptom control. I also did two TD videos you can view on our YouTube...

Inspired To Stabilize

Inspired To Stabilize

Inspired to Stabilize By: Kryss Jobes So, this year I want to make changes in how I live my life. For the past few years, I have told myself I will do this, but it never lasts. It is all too easy to get distracted and put off important tasks, or to miss one day and...

Trust In Your Medication Changes

Trust In Your Medication Changes

There are a large variety of medications to help treat bipolar disorder including mood stabilizers, anti-depressants, and anti-psychotics, just to name a few. Some people take only one medication or treatment, while others take multiple medication and treatments;...

Stigma…

Stigma…

Stigma a small six letter word, But blocks the way; Too unconfident to be heard. You beastly biased blighted word, You block the light you’re so absurd.   Stigma stands blocking our path, Scared alone or scared they'll laugh. You disgust me with your devilish...

Poem: BEAT LIFE

Poem: BEAT LIFE

Life is like a treasure hunt. We keep searching for the answers to unlock mysteries presented to us by life. We are always on a wild goose chase thinking we are nearing the key that will unravel the mystery, and we end up with another puzzle on our hands. A few lucky...

Pets: Helping or Hindering?

Pets: Helping or Hindering?

Ever since our twenty-something daughter was diagnosed as suffering with bipolar depression accompanied by manic episodes and anxiety, I’ve learned volumes about this disease. Some of this knowledge comes from personal experiences, talking with parents, or information...

All About Support Animals

All About Support Animals

Support animals can be incredibly helpful for those that need them. Although they are widely used, many are still ignorant to them. While there are many laws and other tidbits I don’t mention in this post, here’s a general overview of support animals. What is a...

Student Unraveled: Bipolar On Campus

Student Unraveled: Bipolar On Campus

I pace frantically while I talk raucously into the telephone outside the college newspaper office. What began as a routine phone call to find out some more information for a story ends up turning into a diatribe about how I plan to take over the Massachusetts...

A New Beginning

A New Beginning

We all will rise with the burning sun, one day's ended, the next one begun. As sure as time the light will prevail, breathe out stresses, let go, exhale.   Each step you take feel the warmth all around, as the dew disappears from the warming ground. This healing...

A Day in the Life of Depression

A Day in the Life of Depression

In my last blog post ‘A Day in the Life of Hypomania,’ I posted a journal entry highlighting what it’s like to be hypomanic. In contrast, this blog post is a journal entry I wrote following that episode when I was moderately depressed. 6/6/2015. WINTER I wake up late...

Stigma Society

Stigma Society

“Oh Wow! So this whole time I was actually just stupid?!” Well hell, had I known that, I wouldn’t have needed to take my meds. What a relief. So I’ll go speak to my psychiatrist and ask them how to get “un-stupid” and then I’ll be cured! Said no-one ever. So I was...

The Thrill of Shopping While Hypomanic

The Thrill of Shopping While Hypomanic

First, let me say that I hate shopping. Not just grocery shopping, which I assume pretty much everyone hates, but all the kinds of shopping that women are stereo-typically supposed to love: clothing shopping, shoe shopping, makeup shopping, and furniture shopping. I...

Mysterious Days With Bipolar Disorder

Mysterious Days With Bipolar Disorder

(This is my digital painting illustrating my psychosis during the year of 2009.) “I am going to rule the world. I am the queen of Rome. Everybody here on Earth will be destroyed by God and I will be the only one left…” After I gave birth, I became the queen of Rome...

Staying Afloat During Depression

Staying Afloat During Depression

I have tried to write this blog countless times over the course of the past few weeks, but the words would not come. Come to think of it, I’ve tried to do a lot of things over the past few weeks, until eventually I just gave up, sinking into my own private despair....

Finding Your Purpose And Giving Back

Finding Your Purpose And Giving Back

Finding purpose in a life with bipolar disorder and various other mental diseases is not easy. I had no aim in life. I was born, grew up under the shelter of my parents like every other normal kid, and then was suddenly pushed into the real world when my mother passed...

Running is Part of My Therapy

Running is Part of My Therapy

When I get depressed, I suffer from severe pain deep in my muscles and not many things help it. During a particularly rough few months, two different massage therapists asked me if I had considered trying running as an outlet. They each told me that my muscles felt...

A Day In The Life Of Hypomania

A Day In The Life Of Hypomania

(A picture from the mural I drew on my wall during that hypomanic episode.) A while ago while cleaning out my room I found diary entries of a hypomanic episode that I had at the start of 2015. The fact that I had written a diary entry is unusual because I don’t...

Help Us Win Healthline’s Best Health Blog Contest!

Help Us Win Healthline’s Best Health Blog Contest!

We've been nominated for Healthline's Best Health Blog Contest! We need your vote to win! The contest lasts from November 22 - December 12, 2016. You can vote once per day, every day, during that time. Please take a minute to vote for us: 1. Go...

Learning To Be Present

Learning To Be Present

It’s been months since my last full scale manic episode. However, the road to today has been paved with mixed episodes, depression, and frustrating medication changes. Some days I despair that life is passing me by whilst I wrestle with the utter exhaustion of having...

Fear For How Divided My Country Has Become

Fear For How Divided My Country Has Become

Editor’s Note: The views and opinions in this blog are the author’s and do not represent those of International Bipolar Foundation. The 2016 US election has been stressful for many people, and our bloggers often write about stressful events in their lives and how they...

Bipolar Disorder And Work

Bipolar Disorder And Work

Help us win Healthline's Best Health Blog of the Year! Vote for International Bipolar Foundation here.  Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the year 2009, I have struggled with coping, not only with my mood and personal life, but also with my professional...

Tips For Traveling Easier When You Have Bipolar Disorder

Tips For Traveling Easier When You Have Bipolar Disorder

Help us win Healthline's Best Health Blog of the Year! Vote for International Bipolar Foundation here.  Traveling can be difficult for everyone, even more so for those that struggle with mental health conditions. Between packing, leaving your normal schedule, the...

Questions About Bipolar My Friends Always Wanted To Ask

Questions About Bipolar My Friends Always Wanted To Ask

I have been very open about my diagnosis and journey to recovery and acceptance. I started my blog to chronicle the ups and downs that I experience during my journey. Recently my friends were open enough to ask me questions they have always wanted to know about living...

Up? Down? How About Both At Once?

Up? Down? How About Both At Once?

People who live with bipolar disorder grow used to – or at least familiar with – the cycle of manic highs and depressive lows. But what happens when the highs and lows come closer and closer together? What happens when they both occur at the same time? There are...

Coping With The Election Outcome: My Story

Coping With The Election Outcome: My Story

Author’s note: This post has political content, though my intent in publishing the article is to share what was for me a very big stressor (and how I dealt with it). I couldn’t figure out a way to tell the story effectively without including some of my political...

How To Stay In Touch With Reality During Psychosis

How To Stay In Touch With Reality During Psychosis

If you have experienced psychosis, you know that it’s a very hard thing to explain to someone who has never experienced it before. When you are in a state of psychosis, it’s extremely hard to be able to tell yourself what is happening to you, and it can be even more...

Glorious You

Glorious You

Trigger Warning: Rape Mention  I was sitting in the room, a computer, a plant, and two chairs beside me. I was crying so hard; I didn’t want to tell anyone. I refused to. I knew it would break this person’s heart and I could not watch that happen. My psychiatrist has...

Diagnosis And Self-Identity

Diagnosis And Self-Identity

What does it mean to me, in terms of self-identity, to have a dual-diagnosis of bipolar type II disorder (classified as a “mood” disorder) and borderline personality disorder (classified as a “personality” disorder)? I looked up the (psychology) definition of the word...

Prioritizing Veterans’ Mental Health

Prioritizing Veterans’ Mental Health

Veteran support is an important aspect of mental health. Many veterans come back from serving their country and suffer from both physical and mental issues. Some don't understand what is happening to them or don't want to admit what is happening. This means that many...

Staying In-Patient In A Psychiatric Ward

Staying In-Patient In A Psychiatric Ward

My bedroom was full of figures. I knew I wasn’t dreaming – I was wide awake and had the light on. The noises were extra loud. I thought the hourly trains were blowing their horns over and over. The airport was louder than ever as well, with planes taking off...

PTSD: Feeling Like I’m Trapped In A Nightmare

PTSD: Feeling Like I’m Trapped In A Nightmare

I’m a girl who has been trapped in a nightmare for the last twelve years. I have bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). My drowning in despair started when my mother passed away in 2004. The diseases were...

Poem: Admission Into Hospital

Poem: Admission Into Hospital

The bangs of my head felt somewhat hollow against the cold hospital walls, for some odd reason, everything feels cold here. The cold grasp of the nurses hands as she tried to comfort me back to sanity. But dear God, what IS sanity in it’s most organic form? Is it like...

Poem: Madness

Poem: Madness

The vile potion of madness struck her like a lightening bolt gone astray. For what are we more than but a misty cloud roaming the night sky in the search for a shining star to give us the light and hope we are forever searching for. She walks the streets alone, every...

Poem: An Open Letter To The Hurting Souls

Poem: An Open Letter To The Hurting Souls

To all the hurting souls, My leaps and twirls; do they travel to you? That enduring energy flowing through the crisp air; do you eat it? When it rains, my dear, I dance in it. I laugh as the rain drops fall upon my nose. Do you feel the rhythm transcend through my...

No Time For You

No Time For You

Living with mental illness is hard enough without outside interference, but no one can avoid the outside interference of everyday life. Whether you work full time, go to school, have hectic family lives, or any combination of these things; they all add more weight to...

It’s All Good

It’s All Good

I am a mom of three kids – four if you count my bipolar disorder, which can act just as (if not more) juvenile than my kids sometimes. I also take care of my two aging in-laws; they are both 73 years old. Then, of course, I am a wife. I take two medications for my...

Journalists Should Be Educated About Mental Health

Journalists Should Be Educated About Mental Health

The year is 2000. I’m working as a journalist in a small Connecticut shoreline town. I’m barely hanging on. My brain is shorting out. No one on or off staff knows how to help me. During this time, I would stay up all night working on stories, then come into work the...

Parenting With Bipolar

Parenting With Bipolar

Being a parent and having a bipolar diagnosis is hard. Before I was diagnosed with bipolar, my world revolved around parenting. As a stay at home mom, that was my job. I would have to say I was a really good parent at that time. My son was my pride and joy. He always...

Poem: The Warrior

Poem: The Warrior

She rubbed her pretty little eyes with cold clenched fists, and collapsed to her knees in angst and defeat on the cold and dust plagued cement. There was dust everywhere, it seemed, in every fraction of the air there was at least 10 million dust particles filling the...

How I Built My Support System

How I Built My Support System

“Get a support system.” That seems to be the number one thing I have heard since being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I would look at doctors and therapists and tell them I didn’t have anyone. What about family? No. Spouse? No. Friends? They wouldn’t understand. I...

Meth’s Misery And Mental Illness: A Deadly Combination

Meth’s Misery And Mental Illness: A Deadly Combination

This is a painfully personal blog post. I considered writing the sub-title as “Meth and Madness” to balance two one-word nouns, but “madness” is a stigmatizing word, in my opinion. This is a personal blog post because six members of my family (immediate and extended)...

Accepting My Bipolar Diagnosis

Accepting My Bipolar Diagnosis

A year and a half ago, I submitted myself to a series of psychological assessments. It wasn’t my first experience with the mental health field. I’d been to treatment facilities and therapy in the past because of anorexia. But I knew something was going on, something...

Dear Future Manic Self

Dear Future Manic Self

This is Part 5 in a 5-Part Series: "When the World is Too Bright: An Intensive View of Mania from On the Ground"  (Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 here)  Dear Future Manic Krystal, Mania and you go together like peanut butter and jelly. After five manias in...

Pet Therapy and Mania

Pet Therapy and Mania

This is Part 4 in a 5-Part Series: "When the World is Too Bright: An Intensive View of Mania from On the Ground" (Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 5 here) I moved back home with my mother a few years ago for financial reasons. Now that I’m back in graduate...

Mania Haikus: Using The Heightened Creativity To Process My Episode

Mania Haikus: Using The Heightened Creativity To Process My Episode

This is Part 2 in a 5-Part Series: "When the World is Too Bright: An Intensive View of Mania from On the Ground" (Read Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 here) I recently came across the poetry of Nayyirah Waheed. I follow her on Instagram and she posts beautiful,...

Mania #5: What, How, Why

Mania #5: What, How, Why

This is Part 1 in a 5-Part Series: "When the World is Too Bright: An Intensive View of Mania from On the Ground" (Read Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 here) This is my fifth mania in the nine years since I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. However, just...

Bipolar Disorder And Financial Burden

Bipolar Disorder And Financial Burden

Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I have not only been feeling physically, emotionally, and mentally ill, but financially as well. The cost of medicine is sickening considering that I need to buy it for maintenance. I work as a teacher in the Philippines,...

Know Your Triggers

Know Your Triggers

Episodes can occur in patients with bipolar disorder for numerous reasons; sometimes episodes occur for no known reason at all. I have learned to pay attention to my triggers so I can try to stay ahead of my episodes; sometimes it’s helpful, sometimes it’s not. I also...

How It All Began

How It All Began

If I could tell myself anything when it all started, it would be the following: ‘Reach out to your parents and tell them what’s going on with you emotionally. Lean on your family for help. They will be very understanding and supportive; they only want what’s best for...

You’re Beautiful, What Do You Have To Be Depressed About?

You’re Beautiful, What Do You Have To Be Depressed About?

To the girl who told me I was beautiful, so what do I have to be depressed about? I remember one time that I shared a personal story about depression on my Facebook page. This was one girl’s comment on the story: “Please don't share such things on Facebook. You are...

Fatherhood With Bipolar Disorder

Fatherhood With Bipolar Disorder

There has been no greater motivation for my recovery than fatherhood. Alone, I could go for long stretches of mood dysregulation. Even married, I was afforded the opportunity to sleep excessively and spend large amounts of time devoted to my self-care. Such privileges...

What Is A Good Parent?

What Is A Good Parent?

Have you ever been out shopping and witnessed a child have one of those nuclear meltdown kind of tantrums? The parent is obviously embarrassed and frustrated and they must take action. They can reprimand the child, they can snatch them up by the arm and hurry away or...

Stigma: The Societal Beast

By Jennifer Peterson Like a shadow, it cannot be shaken. It hides in corners and feasts in the dark, preying on its victims from afar. It alters their minds, forever distorting the way in which they view their own self worth. It devours confidence, crumbling it into...

Why Did I Have A Block On My Spirituality?

Why Did I Have A Block On My Spirituality?

“The only true joy on earth is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life Who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls…” - Thomas Merton To say that I grew up in a very...

Allison Clemmons

Allison Clemmons

Allison Clemmons was born and raised in the South. Allison likes to refer to herself as "a southern lady, raised by a far better southern lady." She is an only child to two very attentive and loving parents who loved her very much, but never really understood her...

The Wooden Heart

The Wooden Heart

Our hearts are packed with medicine, our eyes are blinded of dismay and anguished distance between life itself and the voices in our minds that tell us not to try, not to live, not to survive. The doctors tattoo a label upon our head that feeds itself into our blood...

Reclaiming Recovery After A Crisis

Reclaiming Recovery After A Crisis

It’s inevitable at times for something to happen that will shatter the beautiful recovery we’ve worked so hard to maintain. This is life. Reclaiming that recovery after a crisis will happen, but it may take some time. I recently had to deal with a few crises that...

Let’s Talk Psychosis

Let’s Talk Psychosis

Why don’t we talk more about psychosis from bipolar disorder?  I am an avid reader. I read a ton of articles and blogs written by bipolar mental health advocates. What I’ve recently realized is that there is a lot written about mania and depression, but not much...

#DearTeenageMe, Remember Where You’ve Been And How Far You’ve Come

#DearTeenageMe, Remember Where You’ve Been And How Far You’ve Come

Learn more about #DearTeenageMe at http://sayitforwardcampaign.org/  I graduated from high school 14 years ago. It seems like a lifetime ago. I was a good student, I had friends, I experienced “teenage angst”, moments where I thought “my life was over” because I had a...

Running Free

Running Free

Pound! Pound! Pound! Her heart beat echoing throughout her body; she’s running to meet amends. Her arms sway quickly beside her knocking the leaves from the trees on the side of the path, they fall briefly from the tree, up into the air and onto the earth’s ground...

Wake-Up Call To Society

Wake-Up Call To Society

In the year 2009, I gave birth to my son. After this event in my life, my suffering began. I started to find it hard to sleep at night. I often would stay awake each night staring at the ceiling of my room. It lasted for about a week and I began to have hallucinations...

Into The Abyss

Into The Abyss

My name is Roger and I have Bipolar. This was written a week ago, just after the painting was completed. There are times when I am in the “high” of a mania and there are times when I am in the “low” of depression. This painting depicts that frightening time when I am...

Memory Loss And My Plan Of Action

Memory Loss And My Plan Of Action

I have no memory. Alright, I'm being a little tongue in cheek here. But, most days I really do feel like I have no memory. Who knows when it began. I've always had some memory retention issues growing up. It drove everyone around me batty. I can't say as I liked it...

#DearTeenageMe, Tell Your Story

#DearTeenageMe, Tell Your Story

Learn more about #DearTeenageMe at http://sayitforwardcampaign.org/  My journey through bipolar disorder started genetically, but wasn’t kicked off symptomatically until the major traumatic event that could shatter any teenager’s life. My mother died suddenly of a...

3 Misconceptions About Bipolar I Wish Someone Had Corrected For Me

3 Misconceptions About Bipolar I Wish Someone Had Corrected For Me

Help us win Healthline's Best Health Blog of the Year! Vote for International Bipolar Foundation here.  I was diagnosed with bipolar type I disorder when I was twenty-three after experiencing nine years of symptoms, a diagnosis of depression, and then a diagnosis of...

#DearTeenageMe, Break The Sound Of Silence

#DearTeenageMe, Break The Sound Of Silence

Learn more about #DearTeenageMe at http://sayitforwardcampaign.org/ Do you remember the song “Sound of Silence”? The one we used to sing with Dad? Remember how we always thought it was about being quiet and not making any noise no matter what we were feeling? That's...

#DearTeenageMe, Don’t Be Ashamed

#DearTeenageMe, Don’t Be Ashamed

Learn more about #DearTeenageMe at http://sayitforwardcampaign.org/  Dear scared Ros, I know you tried it again last night, like you try every week. You spend hours crying and pouring your emotions into your little black book hoping that someone will finally hear your...

What I Wish I Knew Before I Was Diagnosed With Bipolar

What I Wish I Knew Before I Was Diagnosed With Bipolar

I was born in the mid 1950’s when mental illness just wasn’t talked about. I wish that I could have had advice about the bipolar disorder I struggled with prior to my diagnosis. Perhaps it would have brought some ease to the fear I was experiencing. If my parents had...

#DearTeenageMe, This Is Not Your Fault

#DearTeenageMe, This Is Not Your Fault

If the teenage Sarah knew what 27 year old Sarah knows now, I believe this bipolar journey could have been a lot less painful.  But when I’m tempted to dwell on how much farther ahead I could be had I been more prepared to live life with a mental illness, I remind...

Do I Have To Take Meds Forever?

Do I Have To Take Meds Forever?

I can't give you the answer you want, because the real answer is "Probably. You will most likely require psychotropic medication for the rest of your life." (I'll get to that "most likely” in a bit.) Personally, I don't see what's so bad about taking meds. Is it our...

Discerning Differences In Displays Of Love

Discerning Differences In Displays Of Love

My father was a man of very few words. The only exceptions were hilarious dad jokes and long conversations with my mother -- conversations that looked so pretty that I wished to have some like them in my life. Since he didn’t talk much, I can't start with a quote of...

#DearTeenageMe, You’re A Stronger Person Than You Think

#DearTeenageMe, You’re A Stronger Person Than You Think

Carrie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 28, though she experienced clinical depression for the first time as a teenager. She knew something was seriously wrong but wasn’t able to get help at that time. Carrie wrote the following letter to her 17-year-old...

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