Uncategorized « Straight Talk on Managing Bipolar Disorder

Here are my New Year’s Truisms for 2011

What are your plans for tomorrow night? I hope that you can be with people, have fun and know that you are important to the world. I certainly want that for myself. Depression doesn’t want that for me – so I have come up with 2011 trusims that I am going to repeat to myself for the next few weeks- because of the pressures of the new year- because I turn 47 in a week and because I want 2011 to be better than any other year of my life.

1. Dates don’t matter. 2010 and 2011 are the same thing. We just label them differently.

2. Age doesn’t matter. I am the age I am. Nothing will ever change that.

3. What happened last year is done- [ Read More ]

How do you make a bad situation into a good situation when bipolar takes over?

Julie powers all of New York with her bipolar tears!

These are the signs I’m in a situation that’s bad for my bipolar:

1. Trouble sleeping. I actually always have trouble sleeping, but in these situations I can’t sleep at all without sleep meds.

2. Crying and crying and crying. The waterfall I wrote about before. Crying a river. My eyes are all red today from crying all day yesterday. It’s not that I want to cry- and it’s not that the situation even warrants that much crying- it’s just what my depression does in stressful situations.

3. Feel hopeless and trapped. My brain starts to say terrible things about my past and my future and then I feel I have to get out of my present situation and just run away. I used to do that!

I’m in Michigan visiting [ Read More ]

Waterfall Depression

There are many kinds of depression. (There are also many kinds of mania!) I categorize my depression in two ways: negative or weepy. This is pretty simple. I often get mad, irritated, anxious and worried when I get depressed, but more often I get weepy. Of course there are other types of depression, silent depression for example where a person just stays in bed all day. But today I’m experiencing weepy depression and I hate it sdo much.

Bipolar is chemical- so it’s natural it would also control our physical actions in certain ways. If I get depressed and can’t stop crying, it’s just the kind of depression I’m experiencing. I have friends with bipolar who never cry. They just get angry! And sometimes mean!! I can be like that as well, though I don’t take it out on others like I used to. My challenge these days is to not take it out on [ Read More ]

Reader question- why did it take so long for me to get diagnosed?

Julie, I was wondering..why did it take me 35 years for drs to see I have bipolar type 2..I have been on meds for a week and it feels like I am getting worse. I am back in a deep depression..don’t want to be around anyone other than my son who is one..I am afraid..what can I do where can I go other than my drs to get help..I am scared n feel lost. Jennifer

Hi Jennifer. I know how you feel. It took a very long time for me to finally get a bipolar II diagnosis. It’s really easy for hypomania to be missed- people with bipolar I have full blown mania- and that is never missed! But for us, it can always be seen as depression only. Especially if you are someone like myself who basically picked up and traveled when I got manic. So no one really saw me manic more [ Read More ]

I need help with a book chapter!

My coauthor Dr. John Preston and I are writing a new chapter to be added to our book Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder. It’s on the topic of medications as I didn’t cover it in depth in the first edition of the book. I spent more time on medications in Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder.

I really could use your help with this new chapter in two ways. I need to hear some medication success stories from partners of people with bipolar.

How do medications help your partner and your relationship?

Then, I need people to finish this sentence:

I’m thankful for my medications because…….

I have plenty of stories in the chapter about the difficulties of taking bipolar illness medications, but I want some positive as well!

I will [ Read More ]

Guest blogger: Allison Johnson

Ally Johnson wrote the book Waking Up in the Middle of Nowhere about how she and her husband have created a relationship that works around his bipolar disorder. As we all know, it’s not easy. She has a strong spiritual faith, so I asked her for a post that explains how this helps their relationship and especially how it helps her be a partner of someone with the ilness.

Here is her post:

Bipolar and the Holidays

The holidays are upon us… some of us find ourselves rejoicing right along with the Christmas Carols we hear on the radio, others completely relate to Mr. Scrooge and want to slam our doors and count the days until the season is finished. Because I am married to someone who is bipolar I can relate to the joy and the sadness that the holiday [ Read More ]