About Julie « Straight Talk on Managing Bipolar Disorder

Positive Ways to Keep Going when You Have Bipolar Disorder

How to keep going when you think you can’t go on. Strategies for living day by day when you have #bipolar disorder or #schizoaffective disorder.

1. I find that reminding myself of the episodic nature of our illness helps. It is very rare for us to stay in one state forever. We will cycle out of a mood swing. If we keep working hard on management, we will cycling out of the mood swing more quickly. So a rough day today, can be a better day tomorrow or the next day. If you are sick today, remind yourself that change is possible.

2. Being drugged from medications is a serious issue that has to be addressed daily and continually until it [ Read More ]

When Bipolar and Psychosis Mess up Friendships We Have to Be Honest About Our Feelings

I love doing guest blogs for helpful website. The Gum on My Shoe website was created by Martin Baker and Fran Houston to highlight the needs of friends who care about someone with bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder. I love their book High Tide, Low Tide: A Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder and I appreciate how they allow me to be brutally honest about my life with bipolar and how it affects friendships.

My latest post, How to Gently and Kindly Talk with a Friend About Difficult Bipolar Symptoms talks about the other side of the bipolar friendship discussion. MY friendships with people who have serious mental illness.

Here is the beginning of the article:

“As friends of people with bipolar and schizoaffective [ Read More ]

I’m Glad that Weekend is OVER!

A blast from the past. I wrote this blog many years ago and just found it in my draft section. I wonder what I will learn about myself by reading something from so long ago! I will report back at the end of this post what has changed for the better!

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There are always good things that happen over the weekend- seeing friends, some sun- reading books with my nephew. I try to focus on the good things first.

But man oh man, the depression was terrible. This word comes to mind: relentless!

It was relentless. But here I am on a Monday ready to face the world again. I made sure I had a lot of plans this week. The publishing world- which is a large part of my business these days is [ Read More ]

Help for When the Bipolar Gets Really, Really Bad

I’ve had mood swings while sleeping where I can tell that my eyes are closed and that I’m dreaming, but the symptoms of the day are still present even though my brain has supposedly gone into a different state. I’ve experienced panic attacks during a nap and have been so suicidal I’ve rolled in a ball promising the people around me that I would NOT kill myself. This is my bipolar reality. I want to be honest about what I experience so that you will not have to feel alone if it happens to you as well. We have a mental illness. This is our reality. It doesn’t [ Read More ]

Bipolar and Overstimulated? Me too!

Signs I have overworked, am overestimated and that my #bipolar is raging. What on this list happens to you?

1. I get very testy and mean. People upset me and I’m a bitch in public.

2. I purse my lips and think that things should be different than they are.

3. I can’t sleep.

4. Traffic is simply impossible for me to deal with. I yell and shout while driving.

5. I feel guilty about my behavior.

6. I have trouble stopping. I will keep working out of guilt and the belief that I’m lazy.

This is when I have to take stock of my current situation and talk with myself about my choices. I literally say this to myself….

Julie, it’s great that [ Read More ]

Tips for Getting Things Done When You’re Depressed

Tips for #GettingThingsDone when you’re depressed. #Bipolar is an illness that doesn’t care if a trigger is a positive or a negative. We can have mood swings from good news in the same way we get sick from bad news.

This is a picture of me holding a sample chapter for my next book. I look AWFUL. I know. It’s from stress. I wish work were easier, but it’s not. It is ok that we get sick while working. We just keep going. It takes more time. It is not fair and it’s not fun. But if we have goals, it is our reality. I want you to get things done!

It is hard to set goals, reach them and then get sick. If you have [ Read More ]