Category: Tips and Advice

Bipolar 2024 Resolutions— Do the New You or the Tried & True?

Bipolar 2024 Resolutions— Do the New You or the Tried & True?

Author: Matthew Palmieri   For many, January is THE time to take an honest look at our habits, routines, and other frequent choices that force us to take stock of what works and doesn’t work for our physical, mental, and emotional health. However, for those of us...

Fighting Through Depression – Getting Back to the Basics

Fighting Through Depression – Getting Back to the Basics

Author: Tori Bryl   With bipolar disorder, every depressive episode varies in length and intensity, with a fleeting epiphany that holds the key to breaking free. This past summer, I was in a four-month depressive episode— the longest I’ve ever experienced....

Handling Professional Conflicts With Bipolar Disorder

Handling Professional Conflicts With Bipolar Disorder

Author: Sam Bowman   Experiencing a professional conflict is never enjoyable. However, it is bound to happen from time to time. A staggering 85% of people experience workplace conflict to some degree. As someone living and working with bipolar disorder, you have...

My Life-Changing Vegan Ketogenic Diet for Bipolar Disorder

My Life-Changing Vegan Ketogenic Diet for Bipolar Disorder

Dyane Harwood At the age of fifty-two, I didn’t expect I’d make one of the best decisions of my life. I began a well-formulated (i.e., carefully planned) vegan ketogenic diet specifically for bipolar disorder. I discovered this option serendipitously through a simple...

Navigating the Challenges: Living a Full Life With Bipolar Disorder and Depression

Navigating the Challenges: Living a Full Life With Bipolar Disorder and Depression

Sam Bowman Everyone wants to live a full life — and everyone also has their own definition of what that means. Everyone also has their own obstacles that they must face throughout life. But overcoming life’s hurdles can add richness and fulfillment to your life that...

Bipolar – A Life Less Ordinary

Bipolar – A Life Less Ordinary

By: Alan Monnelly Bipolar disorder is a complex yet manageable condition. It is a condition that affects moods, emotions, and energies and can be challenging in many ways.  A person with bipolar can lead a normal and healthy life but it takes work and knowledge to...

How Seeking Hobbies Can Help Manage Bipolar Disorder

How Seeking Hobbies Can Help Manage Bipolar Disorder

By: Sam Bowman For many, living with bipolar disorder can feel like a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, ins and outs. People who have the disorder experience extreme mood shifts, taking them from extreme highs down to extreme lows. These changes in mood can greatly...

Your 12-month Self-care Calendar Plan

Your 12-month Self-care Calendar Plan

By: Cassandra Stout There’s something about a fresh start that creates the desire to tweak your life. And a new year is a fresh start. Why not resolve to practice more self-care each month in the coming year? Here’s my 12-month calendar of self-care tips to try. Most...

How to Prevent Manic Spending

How to Prevent Manic Spending

By: Sam Bowman Mania is challenging to deal with on its own. Add impulsive spending to those manic episodes, and you’ve got an additional layer of difficulty to overcome. Grounding yourself after an episode and finding out you’ve spent all of your savings on trinkets...

Navigating the Work World as a Person With Bipolar Disorder

Navigating the Work World as a Person With Bipolar Disorder

By: Sam Bowman Living with bipolar disorder can negatively impact many areas of life. It can be especially problematic, however, when you’re trying to hold down a traditional job or expand your professional network. However, as long as you’re willing to put in the...

Why I Choose to Abstain from Alcohol as a Woman with Bipolar Disorder

Why I Choose to Abstain from Alcohol as a Woman with Bipolar Disorder

By: Cassandra Stout As a social lubricant, alcohol takes top billing. But if you have a mental illness like bipolar disorder, alcohol and other substances tend to tank your mental health. I’m not going to lie: alcohol temporarily helps decrease the suffering that...

Managing the Challenges of Bipolar Parenting

Managing the Challenges of Bipolar Parenting

By: Sam Bowman Struggling With Time, Energy, and Relationships The most prominent symptoms of bipolar disorder are the highs and lows you can feel at any given time. Going through episodes of mania and depression can take a toll on your mental, emotional, and physical...

3 Tips for Traveling with a Mental Illness

3 Tips for Traveling with a Mental Illness

By: Cassandra Stout It seems everyone and their mother is traveling these days. And that includes those of us with mental illnesses. For those of us living with mental health conditions, especially bipolar disorder, breaking from our usual routine can have disastrous...

Conditional

Conditional

By: Neil Mccarthy The brief—but fictional—scenes in this piece show the bias with which people with bipolar (or any mental illness) can be treated. With some luck, maybe we can evolve into a new way of treating people who are already suffering. — The Director of the...

How to Make a Dopamenu to Give Your Brain the Stimulation it Desperately Needs

How to Make a Dopamenu to Give Your Brain the Stimulation it Desperately Needs

How to Make a Dopamenu to Give Your Brain the Stimulation it Needs Have you ever found yourself doom scrolling the internet, desperately seeking stimulation for your depressed brain but being too tired to think of a healthy way to do that? When we’re depressed, our...

How to Ensure You Never Run out of Meds Again

How to Ensure You Never Run out of Meds Again

Author: Cassandra Stout Running out of meds is the worst. If you’re regularly taking medication and you run out of pills and stop suddenly, this is terrible for your body and your mind. If you’re bipolar, you may end up tripping into a mood episode that...

Lifestyle Alters Brain Chemistry Too

Lifestyle Alters Brain Chemistry Too

 Author: Christina Chambers I firmly believe lifestyle factors are just as important as medication for living well with Bipolar Disorder. Sunlight, alcohol or drugs, nutrition, social connection, nature, repetitive thoughts, meditation and exercise are just a few of...

I Can Help Myself (You Can Too)

I Can Help Myself (You Can Too)

Author: Neil McCarthy   Life experiences, including a regular meditation practice, have shown me that all life predicaments and mental states will pass in time.  But more than just meditation has seen me through tough times; music has served as a constant,...

Simplifying and Communicating

Simplifying and Communicating

Author: Sarah Ross   I find strength to persevere through challenging times by simplifying tasks as much as possible and through communication. If I keep my thoughts to myself, I will just end up spiraling. Once I reflect my thoughts to someone I trust, I feel a...

The Road to Healing

The Road to Healing

Author: Ambika Paul The road to healing has been like walking on a tightrope with no flashlight or map; and I don’t know if there’s an actual finish point. From my experiences with Bipolar disorder, I’ve learnt to not suffocate myself with expectations of what...

Therapizing

Therapizing

Author: Melinda Goedeke Dedicated, thanks and praise to my therapist.   I used to have a stabbing searing pain in my right shoulder. You couldn’t tell by looking at me as I winced silently until I simply could not.  At that point, I sought medical help and now go...

Finding Therapy That Fits Me

Finding Therapy That Fits Me

Author: Natalia A. Besier Therapy has benefitted my mental wellness journey by teaching me to reclaim my mental health “toolbox” by rethinking and restructuring my negative thoughts.  I find that I benefit most from cognitive behavioral therapy and this focus causes...

How To Stop Should-ing Yourself

How To Stop Should-ing Yourself

Author: Cassandra Stout   When you’re depressed, forget about thriving – you’re in survival mode. Which means you need to be especially gentle with yourself. If you’re telling yourself that you should get everything done on your impossibly...

Why Write a Wellness Plan

Why Write a Wellness Plan

Author: Christina Chambers Writing down a wellness plan upped my Bipolar Disorder management game exponentially. I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type I in 2008. I had rapid cycling, so I had at least four episodes each year for twelve years before even...

Why I No Longer Feel Alone

Why I No Longer Feel Alone

Author: Ana Gimber In a 2022 survey, respondents reported that living with Bipolar l Disorder can be a difficult and isolating experience that impacts many aspects of their lives. Approximately four of five respondents (81%) agreed** that they felt like no one...

Depressed Decision Making

Depressed Decision Making

Author: Dayna J.   In full disclosure it has been years since I struggled with aggressive depression. I was so depressed in 2007 that I attempted suicide. I have also fought off suicidal ideation, suicidal thoughts, for three decades.   The darkness can...

My Successful Spending Techniques with Bipolar Disorder

My Successful Spending Techniques with Bipolar Disorder

Author: Margaret Fitzgerald As a youth, I was proud to earn and save money.  I recall being so excited when I had saved $1,000 for the first time.  I was seventeen and I felt as if I was on my way to having a great fund for college.   When I had my first mania,...

What To Expect After Surviving Psychosis

What To Expect After Surviving Psychosis

Author: Jeffrey Johanishing Please note: This blog is based upon and includes Jeffrey’s experiences with psychosis and recovery, and therefore, are informed by his own personal account and coping strategies. No two individuals have an identical experiences, so...

Chasing Mental Wellness During Winter

Chasing Mental Wellness During Winter

Author: Claire Gault For many people with bipolar around the world (and even those without), winter can bring shifts in moods. As someone who lives in Michigan, I definitely notice a change in my energy levels when the winter months arrive. I take special care to...

My Experiences with Mixed Mood States and How I Handle Them

My Experiences with Mixed Mood States and How I Handle Them

Author: Cassandra Stout If you have bipolar disorder, it’s likely you’ve experienced some symptoms of mania while you’ve suffered depression, or vice versa, and believe me: it’s miserable.   This awful set of feelings is colloquially...

New Year, New Me, New Ways to Manage My Bipolar Disorder

New Year, New Me, New Ways to Manage My Bipolar Disorder

Author: Cassandra Stout   I used to look at the new year, especially the month of January, with trepidation.   When I was but a young college student dating my then-boyfriend–and now husband of several years–I had not yet been diagnosed with bipolar I...

Resolving to make Morning – Me Time – a Priority

Resolving to make Morning – Me Time – a Priority

Author: Dayna J.  Living with bipolar disorder since 2006 has presented challenges to accomplishing New Year’s resolutions year after year. The fluctuations in my moods – especially crippling depressive episodes – puts a huge burden on the discipline it...

An 18-Year Bipolar Romance

An 18-Year Bipolar Romance

Author: Dayna J. It’s common knowledge that fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. Psychology Today cites that statistic as high as ninety percent when at least one partner lives with bipolar disorder! I am grateful to be beating those odds and celebrating my...

To Climb an Endless Mountain

To Climb an Endless Mountain

Author: Trevor Simonson   For years I’ve been fighting. Climbing this beast of a mountain called bipolar disorder. I’ve scaled steep cliff faces and walked through blinding storms. I’ve been buried by avalanches and I’ve fallen into crevasses. But through it all...

How Much Honesty Is Too Much Honesty?

How Much Honesty Is Too Much Honesty?

Author: Maria Eva Jacobs My name is Maria Eva Jacobs and I have lived with Bipolar Disorder my entire adult life. I’m here to tell you, there is life after diagnosis! Though still on medication, I live today in remission and while that is not a perfect walk, it is...

Feeling Sad in Winter

Feeling Sad in Winter

Mariko Hewer The other day, I looked out my living-room window around 7:30 p.m. and was surprised to see how dim it had gotten outside. The vibrant goldenrod of the late-afternoon sun had already deepened into the burnt sienna, indigo, and magenta glow of sunset, and...

The Importance of Peer Support

The Importance of Peer Support

Author: Lisa MacDonald I was diagnosed as a young teen with a mental illness but I hid it from others. I was so ashamed and embarrassed about it. Even my best friends didn’t know how badly I was suffering. I didn’t realize this until much later, but...

Self-Stigma and What If’s

Self-Stigma and What If’s

Author: Claire Gault For me, self-stigma comes from the what if? questions I ask myself. What if my manic episode never happened? What if it happened, but I decided to remain at my college instead of transferring to another school? What if I made different choices,...

I Am Bipolar Strong

I Am Bipolar Strong

Author: MB When it comes to being bipolar, the word strength takes on a whole other meaning. After over 10 years of experience with bipolar type 1, I can finally say that bipolar in itself is my strength. You may be thinking, why has it taken you so long to figure...

How Does Social Media Impact Bipolar Disorder?

How Does Social Media Impact Bipolar Disorder?

Author: Stan Clark As physical distancing measures are continuously implemented, social media has become a crutch for many people. However, social media may also serve as a double-edged sword, especially for people with bipolar disorder(1). The Good: Making Meaningful...

Bipolar Depression

Bipolar Depression

Author: Valéry Brosseau Bipolar depression is like an old faded blanket that’s worn out in just the right spots. The one I can’t bear to throw away. Once in a while it falls out of the closet and I pick it up, wrap myself in it and hide from the world. It’s...

Bipolar Disorder Book Recommendations

Bipolar Disorder Book Recommendations

Author: Claire Gault As someone with bipolar disorder, I have a fascination with reading about and researching the illness itself. I believe that the more information I learn, the better equipped I can be to manage the illness. My favorite way to learn is through...

How Other People Can Support Me If I’m Feeling Suicidal

How Other People Can Support Me If I’m Feeling Suicidal

Author: Cassandra Stout Trigger warning: This post discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide, please call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text TALK to 741741 or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for...

Change Can Begin With You

Change Can Begin With You

Author: Natalia Beiser I became angry when overhearing someone saying that people with bipolar disorder should not receive disability accommodations because “…all that they need it to take a pill.” As most individuals with bipolar disorder know, it is not usually that...

How to Talk to a Loved One with Bipolar Disorder

How to Talk to a Loved One with Bipolar Disorder

Author: Rebecca James Talking to someone with bipolar disorder can be confusing and overwhelming, particularly if the person is in crisis. Here are some key words to use to connect with your loved one. Tell me. Tell me what you’re feeling. This gentle command can be...

Bipolar Impulses | How to Deal With Them

Bipolar Impulses | How to Deal With Them

Author: Rebecca James Bipolar disorder has always made me impulsive, whether I’m manic or depressed. One sure way to know that I’m either manic or I’ve missed my medication is to observe an impulse to break up with my best friend. He has been here for me before,...

10 Self-Care Ideas for People Suffering from Bipolar Disorder

10 Self-Care Ideas for People Suffering from Bipolar Disorder

Author: Cassandra Stout Self-care. It seems self-explanatory; after all, the term indicates caring for the self. But why is self-care so hard to accomplish, especially for people who suffer from bipolar disorder? The answer is easy. When we’re manic or...

Advice for Someone Newly Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder

Advice for Someone Newly Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder

Author: Rosebuds and Thorns Through my experience with Bipolar Disorder, I have learned many things. To tell someone newly diagnosed with bipolar everything I have learned would take more pages than one could bear to read. So, I will focus on three things: time,...

My Self-Care Regimens to Stay Balanced

My Self-Care Regimens to Stay Balanced

Author: Natalia Beiser In the past, it was difficult to acknowledge that I needed to acknowledge self-care; in fact, when my therapist brought up that term four years ago, it was foreign to me.   I determined that some of the self- care tasks cost too much money, were...

Journaling through Bipolar Cycles

Journaling through Bipolar Cycles

Author: Rebecca James I’ve been keeping a journal since I was fifteen. That was twenty years ago! But journaling has never been as important to me as it has been in the last seven years, since I’ve been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. For me, journaling makes sense...

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