Straight Talk on Managing Bipolar Disorder

Oh yes, the dark weather has started here in Portland, Oregon. It’s easy to experience seasonal affective disorder symptoms when it gets dark at 4:00 PM. I have found that prevention is the best treatment for SAD. The first step is to determine your worst time of the day. When do you feel the most down? It’s around 4-6 PM for me.

Here are some tips for how I manage and prevent seasonal affective disorder :

1. I get natural light in my eyes if there is sun in the morning. Look up at the sky and let the light get into your retina so it can tell your brain to switch on your serotonin. You want to look at blue sky whenever possible- this is the blue light that helps depression. [ Read More ]

Are you having a tough night? Here are a few words of hope from someone who has been there… and back. I’ve spent a large part of my life dealing with severe depression. It was relentless from age 19 on. I also had hypomania during this time but thought it was the REAL ME! But the vast majority of my symptoms were from depression.

I’ve been so depressed I’ve rolled in a ball on the floor saying out loud, “I will not kill myself! I will not kill myself!”

Bipolar disorder filled my head with untrue thoughts and feelings that made me feel like a leaf blown in the wind for more years than I want to remember.

Maybe you are going through something similar as you read this. Here are some words of [ Read More ]

A Response to Julie A. Fast’s Bp Magazine blog post that received over 1000 shares on Facebook. If you have not read the post, click here to read Three Bipolar Disorder Symptoms No One Wants to Talk About.

Violent Behavior and Bipolar Disorder Are Linked. Let’s Talk About it Openly and Deal with the Problem!

by Gabe Howard

Before we dive into this subject, let’s acknowledge some facts. First, I live with bipolar disorder and no, I have never been violent. Secondly, whether we want to admit it or not, violence can be associated with bipolar disorder – typically with bipolar psychosis, but can also manifest when inhibitions are lowered due to dysphoric mania.

When people living with bipolar disorder see in [ Read More ]