Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Bipolar”
Here, we share material from the World Bipolar Day website. We encourage everyone to visit the website and get involved in education, research and advocacy for the 60 million people worldwide who are affected by bipolar disorder. WORLD BIPOLAR DAY 2024 The vision of World Bipolar Day (WBD) is to bring world awareness to bipolar disorders and to eliminate social …
The Adult Psychiatry Clinic at UCSF has released the schedules of their Group Psycho-Education for Bipolar Disorder for January 2024. This activity under the Bipolar Disorder Program of the Department of Psychiatry is aimed at providing a community resource for individuals with bipolar disorder, mental health professionals and psychiatrists. Headed by Dr. Descartes Li, the program director, it is designed …
If you have an episode of depression, how can you tell if it is bipolar or unipolar depression? The simple answer is, you have bipolar depression if you have ever experienced an energized (not necessarily pleasant) state that qualified as a hypomanic or manic episode. And if you only have had depressed episodes, you are considered to have unipolar depression. …
Marijuana and Bipolar-Yes or No? The use of marijuana in treating many and various illnesses is a hot topic among many of our San Francisco-area patients. Since legalization for medical uses, and even for recreation, seems to be spreading throughout the country, more and more people are looking into helpful uses for this ancient but little-understood plant. However, medical advice …
Bipolar Disorder II is less well understood than BP I, even though the rate of prevalence in the wider population seems to be about equal. Previously considered a “lesser form” of bipolar, doctors note that rates of illness severity and suicide risk are very comparable in the two forms of bipolar. Less research has been done on BP II, with …
New smartphone app shows promise in control of bipolar Apps, apps everywhere! There are hundreds of apps you can download to your phone or computer that are supposed to help you live a healthier lifestyle. But, sadly, we know that many of them are just money-makers, with no clinical research or experience backing them up. We’ve been following the field …
Is it true that people with mental illness, particularly mood disorders, are more creative? Or do creative people more often develop mental illness? Does the medication given for mood swings dampen creativity? Are there different types of creativity that manifest themselves during heightened, depressed and normal moods? What is creativity, anyway? These are hotly debated questions but clear guidance is …
The actress and singer Selena Gomez has just released a documentary: “My mind and me”, available on Apple+ TV. In the documentary, Gomez describes her struggle with the autoimmune disease, lupus, in parallel with severe bipolar disorder. For several years, she suffered from extreme mood swings and dangerous manic episodes followed by depressive episodes when she couldn’t get out of …
Abundant evidence shows that exercise is helpful in depression and anxiety, in fact, some specialists suggest that exercise should be the first intervention attempted in cases of mild to moderate depression. However, research into the relationship of exercise and bipolar has been spotty, at best. The available studies have used very small study groups, and have not considered different types …
People seeking treatment for major depression and bipolar tend to do well if they have two related characteristics. The first is persistence: the ability to keep doing what needs to be done, no matter the mood. The second is willingness to do whatever it takes, even if that means giving up control over which treatments are acceptable and which are …
“I was losing hope that I would ever feel like myself again… but I finally got my full self back.” In an open-hearted and moving op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Dr. Devika Bhushan, who has been serving as Acting Surgeon General of the State of California, told her personal story of bipolar disorder, which was diagnosed …
Too Busy? Not Busy Enough? A recent consultation with a patient got us thinking about activities and depression. The patient was saying that she was not looking forward to the long 4th of July weekend because she had to plan some activities to keep busy, because this is not a holiday that has a lot of actions to take, other …
Learning to stop a manic episode in its tracks is an important skill for living creatively with moods. Mania is a dangerous state, and failing to control it leads to worse and deeper depressive moods afterwards. In order to gain more stability in the midst of mood swings, it is important not to give in to the call of the …
Bipolar and sleep disruption People with bipolar can have as much sleep disruption in a week that those without mood disorders will experience in a much longer time frame. Mood swings can cause major changes in sleep patterns and disrupted sleep makes it much more difficult to maintain mood stability. That’s why MoodSurfing offers so many resources about sleep and …
Seasonal Mood Changes Spring is coming, a season that some call “mania season”. Even those without mood disorders often feel a rush of energy and hopefulness as the days finally start to get longer, and the temperatures go up. Many of our bipolar patients find that their mood swings follow a predictable pattern: for the majority, “up” in the spring …
Holiday stress is a reality of life for many people, but for those struggling to manage chronic illnesses like bipolar, the holidays can be a real trial. Each year, MoodSurfing encourages readers to spend some time before the holidays reflecting on how they want to face up to, and hopefully get some fun out of, the winter holidays. Here are …
The International Bipolar Federation, a frequent mention in this blog (See our sidebar “Outside Blogs”), is again hosting its annual Starry, Starry Night event online. You can view the one-hour video of the event on Oct. 24, any time between 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm Pacific time. The event promises to be a packed hour of motivational speakers and real-life …
Hypomania also needs management Of all the different mood states that people working through bipolar I or II have to deal with, hypomania may be the most difficult to understand. Often misdiagnosed, or left untreated for a variety of reasons, hypomania can also have its own stigma attached, as a post in BPHope reminds us. Friends, family members and other …
Bipolar disorder usually begins during adolescence or early adulthood, but it takes on average 10 years between the onset of symptoms and correct diagnosis and treatment. A recent article in the New York Times looks more deeply into the issues and controversies surrounding early diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder. Dr. Boris Birmaher, professor of psychiatry at the University of …
March 30 is the day! There will be some great events, including an Ask Me Anything panel on Reddit resourced by CrestBD. The Collaborative RESearch Team to study psychosocial issues in Bipolar Disorder (CREST.BD) is a multidisciplinary collaborative network of researchers, people living with bipolar disorder, healthcare providers, and family members and supporters. They are offering a great lineup of …
