Uncategorized « Straight Talk on Managing Bipolar Disorder

True Hope EMpowerplus Supplements

I just received the following question from Allan:

Julie, do you or any of your readers have any knowledge or experience of an alternative micronutrient product called EMPowerplus sold by a company called Truehope? I have a 15 year old who has still not been accurately diagnosed by some of the best physicians on both coasts. This has been a 10 year battle costing a fortune. We have tried just about every medication listed in your blog. All of the symptoms overlap. Bipolar, ADD, ADHD, OCD, OCD, etc etc are all a part of this. I just ordered some of these micronutrient vitamin supplements to try as everything else has failed over the years. A family member sent me an article from a newspaper about this stuff. As with everything else, some people claim its a scam while other are having great results. Any feedback would be great.

Thanks

Hello Allan,

I get this question [ Read More ]

Bipolar Happens Poll – Symptoms and Family Members

Take Our Poll (function(d,c,j){if(!d.getElementById(j)){var pd=d.createElement(c),s;pd.id=j;pd.src=’https://www.bipolarhappens.com/bhblog/wp-content/plugins/polldaddy/js/polldaddy-shortcode.js’;s=d.getElementsByTagName(c)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(pd,s);} else if(typeof jQuery !==’undefined’)jQuery(d.body).trigger(‘pd-script-load’);}(document,’script’,’pd-polldaddy-loader’));

Bipolar Mania and Hypomania Test

Mania and Sunshine Test

I live in Portland, Oregon and we are having a spectacular winter. It’s the best I’ve experienced in my seven years here. We are used to very, very dark winters. It’s usually dusk at four and dark at five. It’s depression and very bad for bipolar disorder. I was dreading it once again. And yet this year has been at least double the sun as normal. This got me to thinking about mania and sunlight. If you are newly diagnosed with bipolar or care about someone newly diagnosed- here is a test to see how the sunlight has affected your mania in the past: Give yourself one point for each yes.

1. Do you have more depression in the winter and more mania (or hypomania- the milder mania) in the summer?

2. Have you ever had a summer that was happy and enjoyable after a winter depression- but just thought it [ Read More ]

Bipolar Medication Woes

For an unknown reason, my Lamictal stopped working for a few months. I do have some ideas on why this happened, but to be honest, they are not great explanations:

1. I really got off track with my dosage for a few weeks. It was hard to remember what I had or had not taken. I tried a variety of ways to deal with this. I have special pill boxes and reminders. I did everything that was needed. (I got back on track quickly and it seemed like things were getting better. )

2. I have more stress in my life than normal. This can definitely make it harder for my meds to work effectively. ( I use my Health Cards Treatment Plan for trigger management and dealing with stress.)

3. I had a different bottle of Lamictal. I don’t take generics as they don’t work for me, but the bottle was definitely a new [ Read More ]

Living with Uncertainty is Hard

I just have a phone conversation with my dear friend Gayathri. She has dealt with serious depression for most of her life. I asked her, “Do you have a hard time with your depression when you’re in a situation where you don’t know whats going on?” She laughed and said, ‘YES! I have learned to live with some of it. But I do get stressed. We can’t make other people tell us what they are feeling. It’s up to them. And we can’t control when something will happen.” She is so right. I’m going through this right now and can feel the depression and anxiety boiling inside of me simply becuase I am in a situation where I have almost no control and have no idea of the outcome.

I have two options:

Option #1 Let it eat me up and affect my work and other relationships. I can let it grow and grow inside [ Read More ]

Just plunge in and do it Julie!

I have had a ton of trouble with my meds (Lamictal) for over six weeks. I will write more about that in a future blog. Right now it’s essential that I keep up with work and life to the best of my ability. When a person gets sick due to the illness- it’s sometimes about meds, about life or just the illness itself acting up. For the past ten years my goal has been to work no matter what my brain is doing. It’s hard. Very hard sometimes. But it is possible. Sometimes a person can only work at half capacity- but that is just how it is. It’s interesting- mood swings don’t affect the quality of my work- they just make it difficlut to..

1. Get started.

2. Keep going.

3. Get it done.

That’s all. Ha ha. I have sayings that I use when the day is tough- You can do it Julie! [ Read More ]