Today we’re sending some love to the terrific blog, Speaking Bipolar, by Scott Ninneman. It’s a super-positive and uplifting blog from somebody who’s been living with bipolar for thirty years. And what a well-examined journey this is. Scott is celebrating 7 years of blogging, and those seven years of posts are packed with practical tips, personal stories, and encouragement. Whether he’s writing about stress at work, the death of a beloved pet, facing down stigma, or being a writer, he brings insight and humor to the topic, all the while sharing what he’s found that works and what doesn’t work. While Scott’s writing always aims to be encouraging, he has some serious passions, too, especially men and suicide. 70% of ...
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Surviving the time changes from Standard to Daylight Savings and back again, can be a challenge, and in our practice at Gateway Psychiatric, we always see an uptick in the numbers of people reporting sleep disruption and/or hypomania during the Northern Hemisphere spring. At the beginning of Spring and Fall, in higher latitudes both North and South, the length of daylight changes rapidly. Some days, it’s a perceptible difference from one day to the next, which poses challenges, especially for people who need to work to keep daily routines and circadian rhythm cycles to maintain mood stability. Now is a time to do a quick inventory of your daily routines to keep them in good shape and stave off the ...
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There is no such thing as an illness that is “all in your head”. Just because the current level of medical science can’t understand what’s happening in the brain-body connection doesn’t mean your symptoms don’t exist. Research is beginning to find more and more ways that “mental” illnesses are caused by “physical” stimuli, and vice versa. This insight leads to more and better ways to understand how our illnesses can be treated by a combination of what we think of as “physical” interventions, such as, for example, fish oil supplementation for depression, and what we think of as “mental” interventions, such as mindfulness practices to address heart disease, and metabolic syndrome. Inflammation, the body’s normal response to attack by germs ...
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Is it a mental illness? Is it a physical illness? How will you tell the difference? The concepts underlying our whole approach to medical care and treatment are coming under increasing critical scrutiny. Dr. Camilla Nord of the Mental Health Neuroscience Lab at the University of Cambridge writes in her new book The Balanced Brain that: “there is no separate category of illness, one that is confined to the mind and does not involve biological changes.” Conversely, there is no physical illness that does not have corresponding effects on the brain and consciousness of the patient. At first glance, she says, this seems obvious. Any kind of suffering affects both mind and body simultaneously, and the effects continually interact. But ...
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What is catastrophism? Even if it’s realistic to know that there are forces able to wipe out your home, job, possessions, and community in a single stroke, worrying about the catastrophe maybe coming today or tomorrow can harm your health without improving your chances of escape. Anybody going in for medical checks and tests knows the feeling, but now, if you are a homeowner in a fire- or hurricane-prone area, or the parent of a transgender child, or if you have somebody undocumented in your family circle, you are worrying. However, allowing your mind to go over and over the worst possible events until you are unable to stop thinking about the danger doesn’t help you prepare. The goal here ...
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A client writes to say the hot new trend in breathing exercises has proven “effective” in controlling his panic attacks. So what is a breathing necklace? In simple terms, it’s a small tube, about 2 inches long. The inner diameter can vary from about one-tenth to one-third of an inch. When you feel an anxiety or panic attack coming on, you take a deeper breath and exhale through the tube. The smaller dimension will require a longer exhale, but the usual recommendation for anxiety is a 5-second inhale followed by a 10-second exhale. Users will need to experiment with different sized tubes to find the best size for their needs. The tube is hung on a chain around the neck ...
Read More About MoodSurfing
Welcome to MoodSurfing.com, the site that highlights strategies for living creatively with moods and coping with depression. This site is for people with bipolar, depression, cyclothymia, and others who experience powerful moods and want to figure out how to integrate these experiences into successful lives.
Although most of us are mental health clinicians of one kind or another, this site is not about providing people with medical or clinical advice (see below). We hope that we can help you cope with depression, maybe even allow you to live well with moods.
If you like what you see here, be sure to sign up to get updated with new posts.
We have done a series of interviews with people who have interesting things to say about different aspects of living creatively with moods. You can find those under the heading “Conversations.”
DISCLAIMER
This site is not designed to and does not provide medical advice, professional diagnosis, opinion, treatment or services to you or to any other individual. Through this site and linkages to other sites, Moodsurfing provides general information for educational purposes only. The information provided in this site, or through linkages to other sites, is not a substitute for medical or professional care, and you should not use the information in place of a visit, call consultation or the advice of your physician or other healthcare provider. Moodsurfing is not liable or responsible for any advice, course of treatment, diagnosis or any other information, services or product you obtain through this site.
IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY, YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY CALL 911 OR YOUR PHYSICIAN. If you believe you have any other health problem, or if you have any questions regarding your health or a medical condition, you should promptly consult your physician or other healthcare provider. Never disregard medical or professional advice, or delay seeking it, because of something you read on this site or a linked website. Never rely on information on this website in place of seeking professional medical advice. You should also ask your physician or other healthcare provider to assist you in interpreting any information in this site or in the linked websites, or in applying the information to your individual case.
Medical information changes constantly. Therefore the information on this site or on the linked websites should not be considered current, complete or exhaustive, nor should you rely on such information to recommend a course of treatment for you or any other individual. Reliance on any information provided on this site or any linked websites is solely at your own risk.
Moodsurfing does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, products, procedures, opinions or other information that may be provided on the linked websites. The linked websites may contain text, graphics, images or information that you find offensive (e.g., sexually explicit), Moodsurfing has no control over and accepts no responsibility for such materials.
