Uncategorized « Straight Talk on Managing Bipolar Disorder

Growing Older with Bipolar Disorder

Growing Older with Bipolar Disorder. Hmmm.

I started writing on this topic ten years ago. I’m now 52 and believe me, learning to age gracefully as a woman who has bipolar disorder is a challenge. I will meet this challenge, but it’s taking a lot of fortitude. My pictures on my websites have to be changed. I no longer look like I did 10 years ago. That is life. I want to embrace life instead of fighting to look like I’m 30 again. Bipolar disorder has been with me since age 17. That‘s my age in the picture below. I was diagnosed at 31. No one teaches us how to age with this illness, so I take on the challenge to do it myself and help others of my age do it [ Read More ]

Reading the News and Looking for Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder Mania

Looking for mania in the news. I’m often interviewed when people with mental health symptoms find themselves in the public eye. Reading news stories and looking for the underlying mental health possibilities of someone’s behavior also helps me hone my intuition for working with coaching clients who aren’t sure what is happening with a loved one. I will give you an example. Read the following article and let me know your thoughts on the situation. I will then tell you mine.

Click here to read the article Pictured: The California real estate ‘millionaire’ who was thrown off a flight after bragging about ‘owning six houses’ and ‘having an IQ of 176’ while he was drunk.

I mean this seriously and am [ Read More ]

Bipolar Disorder Medications and Weight Gain: Prader-Willi Syndrome

Weight gain from bipolar disorder medications, especially anti psychotics represents one of the most difficult challenges those of us with bipolar disorder face when we try to manage this illness. I gained 80 pounds my first three years on meds. In the past few years, I gained 35 due to troubles with lithium.

It’s an awful experience to ALWAYS be hungry and NEVER fill full. It’s frustrating and rather scary to see your stomach turn to mush and your once healthy body get bigger and bigger….but it’s also fascinating. I am always on the lookout for why the drugs are doing this to so many of us, while some people can take lithium for example with ZERO weight gain.

There are stories in [ Read More ]

Guest Blogger Tara Rolstad: Parenting Children with Mental Health Disorders. It Gets Better!

(Note from Julie: Tara and Dave’s book, No Really, We Want You to Laugh: Mental Illness and Stand Up Comedy Transforming Lives was just nominated for an independent book award.)

Unique, alone, and never-ending.

When I started my journey seven years ago walking alongside family members who lived with mental illness, I was pretty sure those words would always define my experience.

My husband and I had become foster parents for two nieces, and I became legal guardian of a third, and we helped my parents as they took in a fourth. It wasn’t long before the severity of the girls’ PTSD, Borderline Personality Disorder, depression and anxiety became clear.

We who had known nothing, really, about mental illness would eventually become [ Read More ]

BP Magazine VIDEO: Bipolar Disorder & Travel—How I Use Sleep to Stay Stable

Julie A. Fast checks in from England and explains how she shifted her sleep patterns while still in the United States in order to be on an England schedule before arriving on a new continent. Whether you’re traveling close to home or around the world, regulating sleep is the number one way to keep the mood swings to a minimum in order to enjoy the most benefit from any form of travel. Julie created a plan to change her circadian rhythm slowly in order to keep her bipolar disorder under control once she was in a new country. It’s not always possible to make as big a change as Julie describes, but even a shift of one hour can make a difference. [ Read More ]

Lamictal (lamotrigine) for Bipolar Disorder: Reader Question

Hello Julie,

I was taking 800 mg a day of lomictal. I dropped to 600 for six. Then two weeks ago, I dropped to 400. The dose is still way above “normal”. I just don’t think I need these meds. I totally get and appreciate mental illness. I have been on meds for 28 years. I am a high functioning professional — 12 months ago my life took a huge turn — for the better. I retired and several other external circumstances changed. I want to quit all meds and try it on my own — again, I am not anti meds in any way, nor am I feeling above them. I just wonder if meds have always been the first answer for me and adjusting, increasing and changing them for 28 years has gotten me where I am.

Am I way [ Read More ]