Films and Documentaries about Mental Illness

Films and documentaries about mental illness, gay and lesbian issues, mental illness and creativity, and hidden and untold histories are coming out of the metaphorical closet in 2021.  MoodSurfing has received notice of several important new contributions in the film and mental illness field, and we are looking forward to more in the future. Mysteries of Mental Illness The Public …

World Bipolar Day 2021

Seeking Local Events for World Bipolar Day Sadly, many of us are still isolated from big events this year, but there are still lots of ways we can connect and participate.  The World Bipolar Day website now has a sign-up form available for those planning events to coordinate with WBD in your local area. World Bipolar Day is celebrated each …

Alexi Pappas

How do you recognize the symptoms of depression?  Isn’t that something everyone should know?  We’ve all learned how to recognize the symptoms of Covid 19, right?  And other diseases have organizations that do public education about them, like cancer, heart disease, etc. Alexi Pappas, writing in the New York Times, says that everyone should be taught to recognize the symptoms …

Black Lives Matter

It seems appropriate today to notice the fact that the largest civil rights movement ever is responding to the shame of ongoing racism not only in the United States, but in communities around the world. On June 19, 1865 the Emancipation Proclamation was read out publicly in Texas, the last state to surrender in the American Civil War. The states …

A Lonely Disease: Stigma and Bipolar

Stigma about mental illness is found everywhere, so why not in the intensely macho world of college football?  Brent Guy, a college football coach for 30 years can tell you all about stigma.  He hid his bipolar diagnosis and regular medication from everyone but his wife and doctors.  I’ve written quite a few of these “famous people with bipolar” profiles …

Insurance Coverage of TMS for Bipolar Depression

A patient represented by an attorney obtained AETNA health insurance coverage for rTMS treatment of bipolar depression.  The patient satisfied the insurer’s policy guidelines for rTMS treatment of major depression by demonstrating failed trials of 4 different medications.  Reimbursement was based on the plan’s allowed percentage of the “covered amount”.  The AETNA Appeals Decision stated: “TMS treatment is being authorized for …

Demi Lovato March for Our Lives

Demi Lovato Encourages Us to Be Vocal – Nancy

Recording artist Demi Lovato is supporting a project called Be Vocal that enables and encourages people living with mental illness to speak out and make their stories heard in the wider world.  Lovato, a platinum-selling artist who has been performing and recording since the age of ten, received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in 2010. “When I finally got diagnosed …

Touched with Fire

I am so happy to see that bipolar is coming out of the closet. One dramatic example of that is the movie Touched with Fire. In it, filmmaker Paul Dalio tries to share the lived experience of bipolar with the world. He strives to share the beauty as well as the pain of bipolar, relying heavily on the imagery of Vincent …

World Bipolar Day 2016

World Bipolar Day 2016 World Bipolar Day is celebrated each year every 30th of March, the birthday of the well known post­ impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh, who was posthumously diagnosed as probably having bipolar disorder. The World Bipolar Day is the fruit of the initiative of the Asian Network of Bipolar Disorder (ANBD) in collaboration with the International Bipolar Foundation (IBPF) and International …

Mental Health Awareness Week

It is Mental Health Awareness Week in the US. The National Alliance on Mental Illness has announced a “Go Green for Mental Health” campaign (although I am still pretty fond of the sliver ribbon campaign to fight stigma). Meanwhile, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance has just put out a video called “I’m Here” that makes the point that there …

Parity is What We Want

An overwhelming majority of Americans want parity. A large study found that almost 90% of Americans reported that mental health and non-mental health care were equally important to them in terms of their overall well-being. At the same time nearly a third of those Americans surveyed felt that mental health care was inaccessible and 40% felt that it was something that …

Parity Website

We ran across information about a new website that is drawing attention to the issue of mental health parity and that is dedicated to helping people get the behavioral health treatment they need – Paritytrack.org. The essence of the federal law that requires mental health parity in insurance coverage is not that mental health needs to have a certain level of …

Bipolar Story in New York Times

I ran across a fascinating article in The New York Times magazine this past week entitled “I Don’t Believe in God but I Believe in Lithium” by Jaime Lowe dated June 25th 2015. It is a remarkable story, most particularly remarkable because it deals with some of the most charged issues connected with bipolar – inpatient and involuntary treatment, medications …

Mental Health Problems and Physical Health

An incredibly well researched article in the journal JAMA Psychiatry summarized a body of research on the impact of mental health conditions on overall mortality in the world population and concluded that roughly 10% of all mortality was related to mental health problems. As I’ve recently been wrestling with problems helping people get access to treatment I thought it might …

World Bipolar Day

Today, March 30, is World Bipolar Day. World Bipolar Day is a collaborative initiative of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, the International Bipolar Foundation, and the Asian Network of Bipolar Disorders. I took advantage of the opportunity to do some web surfing and found an incredibly rich array of Twitter sites devoted to this topic. Bipolar World. Bipolar Blogs. Julie …

Keith O’Neil Fights Stigma

Keith O’Neil is a former Super Bowl champion and the founder of the Forever Foundation, an organization whose mission is to educate the public about bipolar disorder and to de-stigmatize the illness. In September he spoke at the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (formerly NARSAD) meeting in Washington, DC. From time to time I like to share information about people …