Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for bipolar may reduce anxiety and bolster emotional stability As with many psychiatric disorders, bipolar disorder isn’t impossible to treat but it has its own unique and unremitting way of seriously wearing down a patient’s resolve. Mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for bipolar joins a handful of therapies that can help. A kind of yo-yoing of …
Poor Health Predicts Bipolar Outcomes
John has not been doing well. He used to be optimistic about all challenges and, although he had ups and downs, he managed to overcome these shifts in mood and maintain a focus on achieving his life goals. For the last year and a half he seems to be having difficulty focusing on those goals. And he seems discouraged, particularly …
Apps and Links Updated
I have just been a couple of hours updating the apps and links page on this site. There are a lot more choices for mood charting including many more that are available on both android and iPhone. I’ve also been using three different apps concurrently for the last two months to get a sense of what it’s like with different mood …
Cannabis and Bipolar
More than half of people with bipolar will qualify for a substance use disorder diagnosis at some point. In many places, the most popular drug (other than alcohol) in people with bipolar is cannabis. People with bipolar are almost 7 times as likely to use cannabis than the general population. In the United States, many states have legalized cannabis for medical indications, and two states have legalized its recreational use. …
Is It Bipolar? The “Rule of Three”
Confession time: When I was younger I used to take the women’s magazine quizzes – How to know if you have met your ideal partner? When to worry about your sex life. It turned out that all kinds of interesting and complicated life questions could be boiled down to the answers to about 6 multiple choice questions. Of course it was …
DBT for Bipolar Group
We are very happy to pass this information on about a great group for people with bipolar being offered in the bay area by an expert in the psychosocial treatments for bipolar: Dr. Jenifer Culver. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills Group for Individuals with Bipolar Disorder in Los Altos, CA. The Next group begins September 2015. This group focuses on teaching …
UCSF Bipolar Group
The UCSF bipolar psychoeducational group starts on September 14, 2015. This group is lead by bay area bipolar expert Descartes Li, MD. It runs for 8 sessions, Mondays 12pm to 115pm. Most commercial insurance is accepted. Dr. Li describes this group as “an advanced class about bipolar disorder for people who have bipolar disorder.” For regular readers of this blog it …
Bipolar Types
One of my new patients introduced herself this way, “Hello Dr. Forster, I have Bipolar 2 and a half.” Had she just finished watching Harry Potter and was thinking about the invisible platform that takes young wizards to Hogwarts? No, she was referring to a type system developed by Hajop Akiskal, probably one of the most influential thinkers in the …
Mindfulness for Bipolar – Eric
Could mindfulness meditation be a viable treatment for bipolar disorder? What are the aims of modern-day meditation? Transcendence? Inner peace? Maybe a sort of vague, on-and-off tingling around your body where you think your chakras should be? With mindfulness meditation, there really aren’t any guarantees. In fact, just having any expectations, or the experience of “anticipation,” runs counter to the …
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 …
Blog Recommendation
A longtime reader of this blog sent us an email – “I wanted to share one of my favorite blogs. I first found out about the author and blog through his amazing article right after Robin Williams’ suicide. I feel he writes what I feel but can’t put into words on my mental health. Best, Geraldine.” http://letsqueerthingsup.com/2015/06/22/mental-health-recovery-isnt-always-daisies-puppies-and-rainbows-and-thats-ok/ Geraldine has bipolar …
Bipolar Depression Webinar
Bipolar Depression with Dr. Peter Forster and Dr. Kelsey Schraufnagel Please join us for a Webinar on June 24th, 2015 at 9:00 am PT. For many people with bipolar, it is depression that is the source of most of their difficulties. Considerable controversy has surrounded to the question of how to treat bipolar depression. New medications offer the hope of …
Hypomania and Success
During the 1990s clinical psychologist John Gartner was planning on writing a book about religious movements started by manic profits, but he began to be distracted by the energy and excitement swirling around him as people became immersed in the Internet “bubble”. He decided instead to write a book about the relationship between hypomania and success in the business world (The Hypomanic …
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 …
Bipolar Medications – Lyndsey
Long time correspondent Lyndsey, who has wrestled with bipolar mood swings for years, what it means, how it enhances life, and how it diminishes it, and who has also, at times, cursed the condition and the treatments she has received from her doctors, writes about medications. We don’t generally talk much about medications on this site, because we felt / feel …
Employment Rights and Bipolar
What are your employment rights if you have bipolar? Do you need to tell your employer? Should you tell your employer? What if you’re looking for a job, when can your potential employer ask you about bipolar? We ran across a nice summary with some very useful links on the Bipolar Network News website. Attorney Katharine Gordon writes – It …
Kathy Leichter and Here One Day
We had the absolute pleasure of talking with director Kathy Leichter about her experience of making her movie, Here One Day. Here One Day is an intimate look into Kathy’s mother’s experience with Bipolar Disorder as well as her own experience, as her daughter. Question: How did you come up with the idea of Here One Day? Kathy Leichter: I’ve been …
Bipolar in Order Study
Several readers of this blog have been intrigued by Tom Wootton’s “Bipolar in Order” site and the training program that he has developed to help people live well with bipolar. A few years ago I added a chapter to one of Tom’s books, and Tom and I have had a professional relationship for more than a decade. I don’t agree …
Positive Change or Mania?
Charlie is concerned that by being too positive he will trigger mania. He has been hospitalized once a year and the pattern always seems to be the same. He will have settled into a seemingly fixed state of depression, and then will begin to feel frustrated with that state and tried to make changes to escape from the swampy morass. He …