2014 - Page 2 of 7 - Bipolar Burble Blog

Why People Don’t ‘Get’ Mental Illness and How You Can Help

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 7, 2014

When someone breaks a leg, people “get” it. They understand it. They empathize with it. They’re compassionate about it. The same thing is true when people get cancer or undergo surgery for a heart condition or even get the flu. And yet when someone has a mental illness, people just don’t “get” it. And in spite of spending more than a decade educating about my mental illness, bipolar disorder, sometimes I feel like they never will. This tends to make people with mental illness feel alone.

Psychiatric Medication and Stress Resilience

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 1, 2014

Yes, Psychiatric Medications Do Help

We all know (or all should know) that psychiatric medications can’t fix a broken life. Psychiatric medications are designed to treat the symptoms of a specific disorder, such as bipolar disorder. That means that psych meds can treat things like depression. This is a huge win for anyone suffering from depression and is miracle enough, trust me. And although some symptoms of the disorder, like bipolar or depression, may remain, (ideally they won’t, but most of us don’t live in an ideal situation) there are still many positive things that psych meds can do for you and one thing that psychiatric medications can do for your is increase your resilience to things like life stressors.

Dealing with Rapid Cycling Bipolar Moods in Everyday Life

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Sep 23, 2014

Garden variety bipolar disorder consists of moods that typically last weeks to months if not treated. People with bipolar experience a mood and settle in for a long ride. However, people with rapid cycling bipolar disorder experience moods that typically only last weeks. People with ultra-rapid cycling bipolar disorder have moods that only last days to weeks and people who have ultradian bipolar disorder may have moods that last from hours to days.

[It worth noting that when severe moods last only for a few hours this may be considered a mixed mood episode rather than a cycler, per se.]

So, if your mood cycles quickly and spontaneously, how do you live with it?

Parties and the Cost of Bipolar Depression

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Sep 8, 2014

Today is the day I did not go to my friend’s bachelorette party. Today is the day I cried uncontrollably about not going to my friend’s bachelorette party.

Do you know what hell is to me? One version of hell is being at a party with a bunch of beautiful people that I don’t know having to make inane conversation and pretend to be thrilled to be there. Anhedonia isn’t thrilled to be anywhere.

Bipolar Treatment Fatigue

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Sep 1, 2014

In the world of chronic illness there is a concept of “caregiver fatigue.” This is where caregivers of people with chronic illness get burned out because they just spend so much time and effort caring for another person. This is a real thing and a real problem.

I would suggest there is also such as thing as “bipolar treatment fatigue.” Bipolar treatment fatigue is when a patient with bipolar disorder becomes burned out because of all the time and effort it takes to fight the bipolar disorder. I think this is a real thing and a real problem.

When Your Family Doesn’t Support You or Your Mental Illness

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 26, 2014

Recently a received a message from someone who was very distressed because her family wouldn’t accept her because of her mental illness. Her family hadn’t cut her out of their lives, necessarily, but they didn’t understand bipolar disorder and just waved her off telling her to “take her meds.” They made no effort to support her dealing with her mental illness.

And to this woman, family was everything. She didn’t think she could live without the support of her family.

And while I know that family is critically important to some people, I’m here to tell you: you can live with a mental illness, with bipolar disorder, without the support of your family.

Bipolar Is About Physical Pain Too

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 19, 2014

I was describing the physical pain of bipolar disorder to a friend of mine and she acted surprised. She said, with great shock, “It physically hurts?”

Yes, bipolar disorder is about physical pain as much as it is about mental anguish.

Depression: ‘I’m Happy for You’ When You Can’t Feel Happy

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 11, 2014

A few years ago a good friend of mind got married. She was a beautiful bride. I thought she looked like she just walked out of a bridal magazine. And she was an extremely happy bride too. I think it couldn’t have been a better day and situation for her.

I was one of her bridesmaids. This was extremely hard on me as, at the time, I was in a major depression and I couldn’t feel happiness. I was anhedonic. I couldn’t feel positive emotions of any sort. And to see my radiant friend be deliriously happy and get married to a wonderful man was just too much for me. It made my depression so much worse. I just couldn’t feel happy for her because I couldn’t feel happy at all. All I felt was incredibly upset for me.

I Want to Blog about Bipolar – How Do I Start?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 5, 2014

I get this question from quite a few people who read this bipolar blog: How do I start blogging about bipolar disorder?

It’s pretty simple, actually. If you really want to get right down to being a bipolar blogger, it’s only about one thing: write about bipolar and do it a lot.