A few weeks ago, I had a sharp reminder of how looking after my mental health is a constant battle and that staying well is not a set-and-forget task. After years of relative stability, it's all too easy to take good mental health for granted. I'd been doing too much and wasn't able to stick to my normal routine. Add together a few business...
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Mania
Managing School While Feeling Depressed or Manic
February 8, 2019
By: Sydney Batt
Students living with Bipolar disorder have challenges not many people see or understand. Features of bipolar disorder make it tough to thrive in school, so it may feel like a lonely battle in the classroom. School stressors can contribute to triggering episodes of depression or mania. What happens when you are having a serious mood swing and still...
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Letter to an Old Friend
January 8, 2019
By: Natalia Beiser
Dear Chad,In the early 1990’s, we were such good friends. Outside of my family, I have never cherished anyone more. You supported me through a chilling hypomania and a catastrophic mania. You watched me deteriorate during medication trials and supported me. When I was alienated by many, you remained by my side. You assisted me in coping with a...
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Reporting From the Edge
November 5, 2018
By: Liz Wilson
Without breadcrumbs to find my way back depression often leaves me lost in the abyss.Kay Redfield Jamison described holding death as close as dungarees… And I wear you my friend like a battle scar, a gentle reminder of where I’ve been…And I know that moment that Separates Me from those who have lost the battle is a very very fine one. For death...
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An Apology To My Dead Dad - A Letter From The Psych Ward
September 18, 2018
By: Ryan Heffernan
Dear Dad,Can you hear me? You don’t have to answer that. I can feel your spirit every day, moving as a battlefield wraith through my wartorn life. Sometimes you’re my blooming, purple Jacaranda tree, sometimes you’re a star constellation gently moving over me on my broken renter deck, and sometimes you’re the condensation on my wine glass.Bad, or...
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Why Come Out From 9 Years in Hiding to Bring My Story To You?
August 29, 2018
By: Ryan Heffernan
Mental health is hell of a thing. Changes a man, truth be told. Kills some too. I have done serious time at the mercy of my bipolar moods. But mercy is probably the wrong word. Because mercy is noticeable mostly for its absence. But then that’s not fair either. Because mercy has given me sweet home Alabama hugs and kisses, that’s for sure and...
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Dietician Peri Gershoni of Psynergy Shares Healthy Recipes and Other Thoughts on Nutrition
August 23, 2018
By: Alexis Zinkerman
Part One of my post on nutrition interviewed Dr. Drew Ramsey about the medical nature of eating healthy. Part two interviews Peri Gershoni, a dietician for Psynergy Programs who is working on her Master’s degree in Dietetics in the UK and writes a blog for Psynergy at http://psynergy.org/blog. Psynergy is a residential treatment program for people...
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A Thank You Letter to a Supportive Friend
July 26, 2018
By: Natalia Beiser
Dear Mrs. Martin: I was insecure when entering your College Prep English class in the year of 1989. I worked really hard and earned an “A” each quarter. You fostered my love of writing, one that I never had nurtured.We had a huge research paper due the final quarter, the one where I analyzed Anne Frank’s work. During that...
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By: Julie A. Fast
People with bipolar disorder live on the edge of mood swings. This means that what we do in our every day lives affects how we wake up the next morning. The internet, constant access to binge watching on Netflix and other channels, 24 hour stores and a lifestyle that never seems to slow down affects our brains just as much as it affects our...
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Aren’t You Jealous?
April 2, 2018
By: Sabrina Ruediger
This series is exploring the mania, including psychosis, in manic episodes of Bipolar I and my experience with that in a psychiatric hospital. I was inspired by a poem I wrote during my stay at Aurora Behavioral Health Psychiatric Unit in 2016, “Aren’t You Jealous”. I had been coming down from a manic episode in my Bipolar and was getting sick of...
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By Michelle Vasiliu, Author of My Happy Sad Mummy.
In 2007, when I was 40 years old, I experienced my first manic episode. I was duly diagnosed with bipolar one. Knowing what I now know about my condition, it is highly likely those sporadic periods of frenzied activity, little sleep and incredible optimism I’d experienced in between debilitating depressive episodes during my teen years, were...
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Seeds of Hope
February 1, 2018
By: Liz Wilson
I often wonder if everyone has experienced the miracle of a well-spoken or well-meaning word during times of crisis or need? I grew up in a home fraught with poverty, but my Mother was constantly trying to make small things go a long way---both physically and emotionally. I can remember the day I finally realized I was poor: I was 15....
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