Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “bipolar”
What is Mood Charting, and why do we think it’s so important? In simple terms, mood charting is making notes, either on paper or electronically, about what your mood is at about the same time each day. The chart can include other data points, such as hours of sleep, or type and duration of exercise, but the main idea is …
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. …
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 …
“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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Does bipolar disorder cause problems with memory, attention focus, speed of thinking and cognition? Does depression cause dementia, or does it just feel like it? Are memory problems and cognition issues caused by the medications that control mood episodes? Is there anything one can do about troubles in thinking and memory related to mood issues? “Suddenly becoming demented” is a …
Mixed mania is a type of depression, but it’s very hard to explain it to people I work with. In the view of mental health professionals, it makes a lot of sense to talk about a “mixed” state, which is a state of depression that generates lots of energy and agitation. The lethargy and slow speech of “typical” depression looks …
Circadian rhythms are an important component of mental health. Humans have naturally evolved to live in the 24-hour light-dark cycle that our planet creates for us, and we run into difficulties when this pattern is disrupted. Depression and bipolar are conditions that may create circadian disruptions, or they may stem from an ongoing breakage in the circadian pattern. In either …
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 …
Passive tracking of vocal and behavioral indicators of symptoms via a smartphone app can be an effective way to improve depression in a time-sensitive and accurate fashion. A recent randomized clinical trial compared the use of an app to track indicators with “usual” care for depression, and, although the sample size is small, the results are very promising. For the …
Here’s an interview published by the website BP Hope, a colleague site of Moodsurfing. This expert researcher who also experiences mood disorder gives her top six coping strategies for dealing with bipolar. Her insights are both sharp and encouraging: there is a lot anyone can really do to make a life with bipolar be a better life. Kay Redfield Jamison, …
A link between creativity and mental illness has been a long-standing area of conjecture, and there have been some recent attempts to research such a link, with varying results. The first major problem is that there is no real agreed-upon definition of “creativity”, and therefore no way to pinpoint people in the general population who have it (or more of …
Several recent studies are looking at the interaction between bipolar and increased impulsiveness. Impulsivity is often found as a component of bipolar, but researchers remain uncertain whether it is a core trait of the disorder or a separate characteristic. Impulsiveness has different behavioral factors, including: “1) Non-planning Impulsiveness, which refers to a present orientation or failure to consider the future; …
Moodsurfing continues to monitor developments in the field of online help for mood disorders and mental health generally, we have looked at several newly available resources here and here. Of course, there are negatives as well, but overall, we are observing a trend of more and more useful and useable online programs and communities. Here, we share a reader’s recommendation …
Another online resource that folks may appreciate is Bipolar Advantage, a program dedicated to helping people function at their highest potential during all mood states and levels. Their trademark is changing the discussion from “Bipolar Disorder” to “Bipolar IN Order”, where the student learns to thrive during manic and depressive episodes, and to consider the advantages of their states of …
Americans with bipolar are more likely than Europeans to marry someone with a similar diagnosis, according to a study by Robert M. Post, MD, of the Bipolar Collaborative Network, Bethesda, Maryland, and the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, George Washington University. Post and colleagues recruited volunteers with bipolar I from four cities in the USA and three cities in …
Anxiety and panic attacks are some of the “comorbidities” (concurrently occurring disorders) that folks with bipolar have to contend with. Another concern is the complicated relationship between bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorder. Social anxiety is often found in conjunction with bipolar. Although many people think bipolar is characterized by the extraverted and friendly attitude often experienced during hypomanic episodes, the …
