Bipolar disorder is one of the most challenging mental health issues to treat due to the combination of ups (mania) and downs (depression). While long-term treatment can be tough, it is certainly not impossible. Work with your doctor for a comprehensive treatment plan and learn these seven best tips for managing your condition.
Jessie Close is an internationally recognized speaker, author, poet, and advocate for mental health reform. She lives with bipolar disorder in the foothills of the Tobacco Root Mountains outside Bozeman, Montana with her service dog, Snitz, and three other dogs. She is the author of The Warping of Al (Harper & Row, 1990), and she writes a regular blog for Bring Change 2 Mind, an anti-stigma organization that her sister, Glenn, created at Jessie's request.
World Diabetes Day, World Cancer Day, and even World Egg Day. And now, drum roll please, World Bipolar Day (WBD). WBD is a day to bring about awareness of bipolar disorder. It is the brainchild of Dr. Pichet Udomratn, a member of the Asian Network of Bipolar Disorder (ANBD), who collaborated with International Bipolar Foundation (IBPF) and International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) to bring his idea to fruition. Now each year, WBD will be celebrated on March 30, the birthday of Vincent Van Gogh, who was posthumously diagnosed as probably having bipolar disorder.
Swan Dive wastes no time diving into murder with a text alerting Elli Lisbon that the Sugar Plum Fairy is dead. Elli is director of the Sea Pine Island Community Theatre's production of The Nutcracker, sponsored by the Ballantyne Foundation, and Elli has become accustomed to handling the often overwrought and exaggerated "emergency" texts from the artistic director.
Fox’s new drama, Empire, tells the rags-to-riches story of the Lyon family, whose patriarch, Lucious, played by Terrance Howard, rises to fame as a hip-hop artist, and starts a record label called Empire with drug money his ex-wife, Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), earned by dealing, for which she spent 17 years in prison. She left behind three children.
Forever Different is the true story of Christine Anderson's struggle with bipolar disorder. Even without mental health issues, Christine's life has never been easy, but this story shows her struggles and her triumphs with brutal honesty.
Millions of people suffer from depression and bipolar disorder, but the treatments we have today, though helpful for some, do not work for everyone. Some treatments can work for a while, but become less effective over time. Others come with problematic side effects. Alternative therapies, like exercise and meditation, are often overlooked.
A turn of events can catapult your life as you know it into a sphere so foreign, so cold, dark, distant and frightening that you barely recognize it. My teen son was diagnosed with Bipolar several years ago. This disorder didn’t arrive subtly so we could slowly get our bearings and adjust to it. But, of course that likely wouldn’t have made a difference.
At a recent summer BBQ, I sat quietly at a picnic table while the other mothers bragged about their children. “Tommy scored the winning goal in the lacrosse playoffs,” beamed Sally. “Jessica was accepted to all five of her top college choices, and is going to Stanford,” boasted Lucinda. “Greg won the debate contest, Carla got perfect SAT’s, Matthew landed a job at Deloitte"…the list of accomplishments was endless.
Bipolar disorder affects 5.7million American adults. For each person with this disorder, or any other malady for that matter, there are millions more who are their caregivers.
