Hi folks, if you’re long-time readers of mine, you might remember me mentioning Global Medical Education. This site, literally, offers you up-to-date, medical information, from experts in short video format for free. (This used to be a subscription service but they have changed their model — to the benefit of all of us.) And while I do have a working relationship with this site, I can honestly tell you their content is great, generally easy to understand, and covers a wide range of medical issues.
Patient Information from Global Medical Education
This brings me to why we’re here. Today I’m asking to get your thoughts on what topics Global Medical Education should include in their library. Share your thoughts and you’ll be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.
As you’ll see below, Global Medical Education currently addresses many patient issues (including bipolar issues), but they want to do more. So read the list below and tell me (and them) what they’re missing. What else do you want to know about bipolar disorder and other patient-centered medical topics; because, let’s face it, if you’re wondering about it, then other people are, too, so sharing your thoughts could help our community at large (not to mention better educate doctors about our, real-world, concerns).
Here is a complete list of their existing patient-concern videos. Please leave suggestions for additional videos in the comments section below (links in the following link to other articles on my site, FYI):
Note: I know this is a lot but if you think of a topic and hit ctrl+f to find the keyword that you’re thinking of, that will narrow the list to see if it has already been covered.
Patient Information Videos on Bipolar Disorder
The following videos mention bipolar disorder specifically, but many below them are also relevant for bipolar disorder.
- Can a person fully recover from bipolar disorder?
- What is the difference between bipolar disorder and depression?
- What are the latest treatment options for bipolar and depression? How effective are they?
- Are there any bipolar treatments that do not cause weight gain?
- How long does it take to find an effective treatment for bipolar disorder?
- How long do medications work for, and what should I do if my medication stops working?
- What kind of psychotherapies work best for bipolar disorder?
- What should I do if I find that I cannot work because of bipolar disorder?
- What kind of alternative therapies work for bipolar disorder?
- What should I do if my doctor does not know what to do after I haven’t responded to bipolar treatments?
- Why is cognition important in depression and bipolar?
- Difference between bipolar disorder and personality disorder
- Difference between bipolar disorder and major depression
- Can psychostimulants be used in bipolar disorder or are they too dangerous?
Patient Information Videos on Depression
- How To Treat Comorbid Anxiety and Depression
- Symptomatic Versus Functional Improvement in Major Depression
- Advantages of Rapid Onset of Antidepressant Effects
- What antidepressants have the fewest side effects?
- How do I know which antidepressant is the right one for me?
- When is psychotherapy a good option for depression treatment? Can I do it instead of taking medication?
- What kind of alternatives work the best for depression?
- Are new antidepressants better than ones developed a decade or two ago?
- What do I do if I’m depressed, and I need help, but my parents won’t listen to me?
- Do antidepressants actually work?
- Can antidepressants cause sleep disturbances?
- Does St. John’s Wort work for depression?
- Does metal folate have any role in the treatment of depression?
- Is there a role for newer antidepressants for the treatment of depression?
- Why is it important for me to take my antidepressant for the long term?
- Which works better—ECT or rTMS?
- Antidepressants Can Affect Your Sleep
- Sleep and Depression: An Intricate Relationship
- Relationship of Depression with Your Sleep Patterns
- Red Flags for Depression in Women
- Physical Illness and Depression Relationship Often Confusing
- Can Antidepressant Treatment be Personalized?
- How Cognitive Symptoms of Depression Affect Your Life
- Gender Differences in Reporting Depression
- Do Antidepressant Add-On Medications Really Help Treat Depression?
- Depression Medications Don’t Work Well for Everyone
- Minimizing Severity of Depression
- How Long Should You Take an Antidepressant?
- Difference between generic and trade name antidepressants
- Problems getting off of antidepressants, am I addicted?
- My family member responded to a particular antidepressant, is that the one I should be on?
- Role of gene testing in choosing right antidepressant
- Role of marijuana in helping symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Can antidepressants make my anxiety worse?
- Relationship between antidepressant medications and suicide
- Can some psychiatric medications reduce the risk for suicide?
- Are there any cures for depression?
- Does trauma cause depression?
- Can blood tests or brain scans diagnose depression?
- Am I an appropriate candidate for a ketamine infusion?
- How does ketamine work in depression?
- Where can I find a provider who offers ketamine therapy?
- My depression is better, my functioning is not
- My antidepressants no longer work. What should I do?
- Are pain, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome the same thing as depression?
- Does depression cause binge eating disorder?
- Are two antidepressants working together always better than just one?
- Will my antidepressant medication change my personality?
- Can I drink alcohol while taking antidepressant medication?
- I have heard a lot about deep brain stimulation. What is the latest on this in depression?
- Does chronic use of benzodiazepines (Ativan, Xanax, valium, etc) cause depression?
- Are opiates dangerous to use if you are depressed?
- Do antidepressants make a person euphoric?
Other Patient-Related Health Topics
- How To Assess Functional Recovery
- What changes in sleep are considered normal with healthy aging?
- How many cups of coffee, tea, or soda can I safely consume if I have insomnia?
- Is it okay to spend more time in bed if I’m having a hard time sleeping?
- How does exposure to sound, temperature, and light affect your sleep?
What is the relationship between shift work and sleep?- What is the relationship of jet lag and sleep?
- Why am I always tired?
- What does vivid dreaming mean?
- My legs are restless when I go to bed—what does this mean?
- What is the relationship of snoring and sleep apnea?
- What is narcolepsy?
- How much sleep do we need?
- Can sleep medications affect wakefulness?
- What is our current understanding of insomnia?
- What are the causes of daytime drowsiness?
- Can alcohol affect my sleep?
- Can exercise affect my sleep?
- Can using a smartphone or a tablet affect my sleep?
- What is the role of genetic testing in psychiatry today?
- Nausea and Psychiatric Medications
- Tips For Managing Nausea as a Side Effect
- Sexual Dysfunction and Psychiatric Medications
- Tips For Managing Sexual Dysfunction as a Side Effect
- Weight and Psychiatric Medications
- Tips For Managing Weight Gain as a Side Effect
- How do I know if something is a side effect of my medication, or part of my illness?
- When should I stop or change medications because of side effects?
- Do I have to just live with side effects?
- How can I get my doctor to take my side effects seriously?
- How To Avoid Ruining Your Sleep
- When Should Patients with Insomnia See a Sleep Specialist
- Does using marijuana or other substances cause mood disorders or psychoses?
- Best way to manage sexual dysfunction with my mood disorder medications
- Best way to manage weight gain with my mood disorder medications
- Negative symptoms of schizophrenia
- Cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia
- Treatments for negative symptoms of schizophrenia
- Treatments for cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia
- What is clozapine and how is it different?
- Who is a candidate for long-acting antipsychotic medication
- Fast-acting options for agitation in an emergency room
- How new antipsychotics available today different
- Why are combinations of medications used?
- Options for affording medication cost
- Binge eating disorder
- Treatments for binge eating disorder
- Is everyone with binge eating disorder fat?
- Everyone in my family eats a lot. Do we all have binge eating disorder?
- I cannot fall asleep before 4 AM and need to sleep until noon
- Sleeping pills and messy kitchens
- Inadequate sleep time on weekdays and catching up on weekends
- Role for kava kava natural supplements for my insomnia
- Sleep apnea, CPAP, camping and no electricity
- Sixty years old and I flail in my sleep
- Night shifts, sleepy driving, can opening car window help
- Common signs of narcolepsy
- Best way to put more routine into my sleeping schedule
- Difficulty falling asleep, what time to take melatonin
- I am tired all the time, should I see a sleep specialist?
- First thing I should do to improve my sleep
- My child falls asleep in class, should I have her seen by a doctor?
- Should I ask my doctor for a prescription of stimulant medications for my tiredness?
- My legs feel restless in bed at night
- My son is always late for school as I cannot get him out of bed, why is that?
- Whenever I nap I dream, is that normal?
- Why did my doctor prescribe me an antipsychotic medication if I haven’t been psychotic?
- How often should I see my prescribing clinician for follow up visits?
- How do I decide if I should take medication or do talk therapy?
So, what’s missing? What do you want to know about? It can be about bipolar or any other patient concern you may have.
And remember to leave your real email address when you leave a suggestion so I can let you know if you win an Amazon gift certificate.
(If you’d like to browse all their videos in a more organized way, see here.)
Above banner by #redcamp.
We need a serious honest discussion about the increased mortality rates among bipolar patients. I’m not just talking about the obvious, suicide, but what about the illnesses that have a direct link to taking medications for bipolar disorder. For instance many antipsychotics cause massive weight gain that in turn can cause heart attack, stroke or diabetes. I’m tired of hearing this sort of thing being swept under the rug like it doesn’t exist
Perhaps you could provide us with scientific data about the warnings of long term use of antipsychotics, for example after bipolar 1 psychosis stabilization a) with the older vs b) with the newer generation antipsychotics or perhaps even the off label uses with the newer antipsychotics such as seroquel for sleep or as anxiety aides in lieu of benzodiazepines. Is there not a safer way to deal with these off label problems than with antipsychotics?
I have to admit that my behaviour around others has drastically changed for the “better” since I’ve been on bipolar meds over the last 3 years. My mood is much more stable and I am much more pleasant to be around. But unfortunately there has been alot of fallout from my pre med days. Where do you find the motivation to continue to stay on your meds when you feel so ugly, repulsive, insecure, alone and abandoned, especially by loved ones. How do you mend the rift when people from your past want nothing more to do with you. The side effects from alot of the meds such as massive weight gain cause many people to stop taking them but what if the only reason you chose to take them was so you wouldn’t lose those you loved and what if the stigma is just too much to bear and denial sets in. What if you’re tired of feeling dead inside and you’ve lost your will to live and you’re tired of being a pdocs lab rat
What if the “benefit” of taking meds doesn’t outweigh the reason to take them, what then…
I’d like to hear more about the effects of stress on bipolar disorder, especially kindling.
Why is there hardly anything mentioned about kindling. What causes it. How can it be prevented. Can the effects be reversed. Is there a type of medication that works best to mitigate it’s effects. Why is stress often a precipitator of a bipolar episode…
Renita’s comment and questions: “’d like to hear more about the effects of stress on bipolar disorder, especially kindling. Why is there hardly anything mentioned about kindling. What causes it. How can it be prevented. Can the effects be reversed. Is there a type of medication that works best to mitigate it’s effects. Why is stress often a precipitator of a bipolar episode…” That’s a great question, Renita! Yes, kindling is an issue that is almost always overlooked in various bipolar discussions. I think I used to have really severe kindling. Once I’d get started being offended, then angry about something, there was absolutely NO WAY I could stop my rage. For the last 20 years or so I’ve been having great treatment for bipolar II, from caring and highly capable mental health professionals. Until the past year or two, I was having regular, week, counseling, too, Now I rarely need counseling, but can call my therapist when I have a severe mood episode. That happens when someone is rude to me, accuses me of something I didn’t do, or is unjust to me and others I’m with or responsible for (like when I host a discussion group and the venue double books, for instance). I, too, would like to hear from others about their experience with kindling, and also any meds specifically for that. Do you think or suspect or have experience that “regular” bipolar meds do not help with kindling/??
I am a True empath. Not proud, not deliberate, not pretend. just am.
Out of all of the subjects that are on this website, I came to THIS page like I was drawn to it …by way of ????
..like I was pulled to it by a strange force. I don’t even come here anymore to hear the others.
It seemed like the exact same writer is always writing the exact same way –just with different names and different sad histories and sorrowful tales. It started to feel like a fiction writing contest here. :(
I couldn’t relate anymore to their stories? I have bipolar but I didn’t have any of that to tell.
Then one started to give back and forth advice to the other….. no.
I could never give anyone advice on a site such as this. –I’m not qualified. Most of them weren’t either.
I Will come here, to read something on any given subject about subjects on bipolar and it’s co morbidity (s) that Natasha wrote on- or of. Too many to mention. I could relate there. Or maybe another topic I need help with that she wrote about. She always has a column I can find to read on to help me and my own current plight.
She’s an endless uplifting scholar and a hero. A Bipolar encyclopedia here, and my thanks for it.
She fascinates me with her insight. She may have an epic novel in her but she’s here to help all of us. She makes this place comfortable, warm and real. It’s her real-ness that I relate to. And her EXACT way of describing our hell.
I have my own psychiatrist telling his other bipolar patients about this blog. He likes Natasha. :) xxx
I even know some of the people on that ”mystic” 2010 blog. Well that’s b/c I just recall them from other old bipolar sites.
I have been reading about emotional empaths, and how to know if you’re an empath. I’m one! I just researched if there’s any similarity or relatedness between being an empath, and having bipolar disorder.
Check out this website by bipolar mystic. And here’s what I wrote there.
https://bipolarmystic.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/intuitive-empathy-an-explanation-for-some-bipolar-individuals/#comment-301
Dear Bipolar Mystic. Thank you for this fascinating subject. I, too, have bipolar dx. It’s Bipolar 2, rapid cycling. I’ve always been highly sensitive, and now realize and consider myself an emotional impath. I can related to what you wrote here: ” I was pretty darn happy as a small child. In fact I would say I was blissful. When did this all come to a screeching halt? Many things contributed to it, some of which I will not be getting into. One of the things, which if you are not bipolar, or not sensitive, you won’t understand, was nursery school. One day I found myself plopped down amongst unfamiliar energy, unfamiliar emotions and it was way, way too much for me. My mother tells me I would sit by myself in the corner (sounds a bit like autism, eh?). I was experiencing a terrible, painful overload. What human being wants to sit alone in a corner and not be amongst others?”
I remember my first day of Kindergarten, when I was four years old. I, too, felt very alienated and alone.
You also wrote:
” [M]editatative techniques help make my life a lot more liveable even in groups. ”
In my case, creative activities are what helps me. I draw, write, embroider, and am a musician. I have tried various meditation techniques, including Oprah, Chopra, Zazen sitting meditation, and more. I actually hate these practices! They are no fun for me, and make me really antsy. Among my creative talents, drawing is the most meditative, whether it’s drawing birds and animals from calendar photos, to drawing Nature outdoors. I also like company of a friend or friends when I do my creative stuff. I switched from being a pianist, a solitary endeavor, to playing a folk instrument in a band and in jam sessions.
Synergy
I believe you’re right that people with bipolar can have greater empathy. In myself, I see it as a humility that I’ve learned from discovering that my condition means that I can never achieve “normalcy” Added to that, a processing disorder which causes the brain to misfire under excess input; you mention being in a classroom. For me, it’s any situation where my circuit breakers trip, like a loud shopping mall, the midway at a fair, a party, the bar scene, a conversation involving more than 3 people – you name it. And some of these situations, if inescapable, can trigger me into an episode. That’s what has been happening to me since January of this year.
I tend to be a little sceptical of mystical or paranormal-type explanations for things. Before seeking answers there, check out http://hsperson.com/test/highly-sensitive-test/ You could be a “Highly Sensitive” person like me. You should also check out http://www.apduk.org.uk/ it’s about Auditory Processing Disorder, although that only pertains to sound stimuli.
But the bottom line is that, yes, I think high sensitivity can accompany bipolar.
Hi Paul, Thanks for this info and the links. I “passed” the highly sensitive test with flying colors, checking about 95 of the ID boxes. I do not have the auditory disorder, that’s for sure. I’m an auditory learner, but it’s slowed down as I have aged. I actually use all my senses, both sides of my brain, to learn. I don’t learn well from the written word alone (left brain learning).
Why is it that some people who suffer from bipolar can function without taking meds & others cant? & are there research studies being conducted to find alternative treatment methodes aside from excessive use of medication?
Hi Anna, I don’t know a complete answer to your question, but I know possibilities. One is, some people have only one mania episode. That is apparently what happened in the case of my ex-husband. Before I met him, he had been hospitalized for several months for mania. He had an extreme mania, which could have been caused by tainted marijuana. That’s what we thought after the fact. This was the only time he ever had mania, although he did act hypomanic once or twice when we were married. We were married for 9 years, and although he was deceitful and other things, he never had psychois. He told me that the doctors said about his only manic episode” You are lucky that you had this so young. Sometimes people have this only once in their life.” They also gave him lithium, and said he had to take it for the rest of his life, but he did not do that. So that’s one situation where someone functioned well without meds. The second thing that I’ve witnessed is from “smug” people who CLAIM they do not meet meds. They have been diagnosed with bipolar, even been hospitalized, but quit their meds anyway. Due to the nature of some bipolar types, episodes are recurring, but people can go for years without a recurrence. I’ve seen at least two cases of such smug people who, after years of functioning normally on a job, that crashed and were again hospitalized. I hope they became more humble and human after that “wake up call” that maybe, just, maybe they were deluding themselves, AS WELL AS deluding others who they had talked into quitting their meds. These people are some of the so-called “survivors” who think the whole mental health system is aggressively trying to sell prescriptions, ,make a lot of money for themselves, and persecute/make sicker the people who “mistakenly” trust their medical providers. The third example I have to offer is: the people who think they function fine, demand “accommodations” at their jobs, and the particular employers (or colleges or other programs) will allow extreme rages on the job, and other “accommodations” because “that’s just how I am.” I’ve also witnessed this twice, once from a high-level federal employee int he mental health field, whose style was “management by rage.” He didn’t say those words specifically, but people he worked with told me that’s what he was like. The second instance was in a college class I took. A disabled student was aggressively creating and spreading shocking ugly and untrue rumors about the teacher, who according to that student, was having sexual relations with one of her top students. The teacher told her administrator she wanted that guy out of her class! But the administrators said she had to accept him in her class, and they refused to remove him.
Rhonda – I don’t know if this is the type of thing you are experiencing since the woman giving the talk has schizophrenia, but it might be helpful to you
TED talk, watch/listen to this first
https://www.ted.com/talks/eleanor_longden_the_voices_in_my_head?language=en
Organization website
http://www.hearing-voices.org/
What’s the difference between major depression and bipolar depression?
How can a person with bipolar stop thinking about suicide – or how to interrupt constant suicidal thoughts?
Deb Matthews, what great questions! I’d never thought of that. I look forward to hearing what others have to say, since I have no idea of any answers or explanations.
A much more useful article as far as I’m concerned this time round.
I really am worried about antidepressants and sexuality issues. Synergy, you are right in pointing this out.
My doctors here never ask about side effects and when pointed out in the past are always evasive, in some ways insulting my and others’ intelligence.
Hi Martin — did you mean to put a link to an article about side effects, particularly sexual side effects, in your post today? What article are you mentioning, please?
Natasha_ Love your blog. Excellent information; excellent view points. I would like information as a loved one of three immediate family members with bipolar (two undiagnosed) as to strategies for conversing with them. They ask for help; need help but can’t hear what you suggest.
Hi sjcamp, Give this book a try: “I am not sick, I don’t need help: How to Help Somone with Mental Illness Accept Treatment,” by Xavier Amador, PhD. Hope this helps.
Hi Natasha, I am interested in the effects of diet and toxins on Bipolar Disorder and how they effect childhood anxiety and depression pre-bipolar.
I can’t think of anything to add, but I did want to report that even after subscribing, I could not find any of these videos by the listed titles. What am I doing wrong?
I’d really love to see several of these videos – it might lead me to make some suggestions.
Hey Synergy, thank you for your response (hearing me!) You seem to be in a very acceptable stage of stability. I am jealous in a good way! I wish I was at that point, but very happy for anyone with mental illness to be stable. I need to figure out how to not let her on anyones disinterest OR perceived disinterest tear me up. My sister sounds EXACTLY like yours. Stressed out to the very maximum of existence. She recently told me that she hasn’t had time to read my links because she was doing something of importance while peeing. She said she was multitasking while urinating for a whole three minutes. Of course, us bipolar folks (as I’ve recently learned) CATASTROPHISE almost everything. I feel baseline at the moment and have more clarity on my earlier comment. It is only when I am super duper depressed that i start believing nobody listens, everyone wants to steer clear of me, etc. etc. etc. Right now, I’m not even upset that my sister seems disengaged…bipolar is a most curious condition, with the exception of when I (or any sufferer) would rather be dead. Was it on this blog that I read ‘If your presence can’t add value to my life, your absence will make no difference’ easy to say now. Not so much when I am cranially planning my funeral. I will work on accepting and being thankful for the ones that are with me every day. Thank you for shedding some light. Time will tell (again) if she really isn’t concerned or if I am simply catastrophising her intent. That is what I got out of your response. So thank you, (even if what I got out of it was not what you were trying to convey). Oh our dysfunctional little crinkly goo gobs in the head. Your response meant a lot to me.
Dear Melody, Such a sweet post from you! Thank you….I wasn’t at all sure how you’d receive my previous message to you. I thought maybe a lot of what I wrote would be irrelevant to your situation. But you write that it was helpful! I very glad. You quoted: ‘If your presence can’t add value to my life, your absence will make no difference’ . Wow is this ever the truth. I also have one other point — I disconnected from another bipolar friend, but more on that in a minutes. Quite a few years ago, and during most of our adult lives, my sister and I yelled and screamed at each other on the phone. She gets quite incoherent when she is stressed. She imagined things that I supposedly said. She still does that. Now, though, we email sometimes. There was a whole, long, conversation where she accused me of putting her down and embarrassing her. The email conversation only had three people in it: me, her, and our brother. She doesn’t like our brother to be involved in anything in her life that may make her look bad. There is very good reason for that: One of her adult sons is a recovering alcoholic and recovering drug addict. He and her other son are both manipulated by her emotionally abusive (active alcoholic, too) ex-, their father, who continues to try to turn them against her every chance he gets. PLUS, our brother’s wife hates her, and used to hate me. (Now, suddenly, the wife is treating me real nicely! My sis and I both think this is because she wants to put down my sis by sucking up to ME. Plus, this sister in law reports everything, everything privately discussed with my brother, my sis, and me to the ex- and the son/s. So my sister has her whole closest relatives trashing her. I’ve told her she needs to stand up for herself and tell her sons the truth about their dad. But she refuses to do that, so continues to suffer as victim. She’s stronger than she used to be, but I still think she needs to stand up for herself, but anyway it’s her life and her judgment about her situation, so I can’t really say. Well, when she would accuse me (years ago) of stuff, I would get very defensive. I don’t know who first started to scream, if it was me, or her, or alternating. But anyway, I finally told my sister I wanted nothing to do with her anymore. I dropped her. Completely. A few months into this, my brother told me that our sister was completely broken up by my decision. So finally I let her back into my life. Guess what — she has NEVER SINCE screamed at me. Not once. We have our disagreements, and they are very, very painful for me, and I have to go to my therapist, who has good suggestions and insights. He doesn’t always blame her, either. He gently might suggest ways I can react/respond to her in the future. I’ve learned so much from him. My sister says it’s myself who have changed since them — not her. WRONG. I am almost certain that she screamed at her last two ex-boyfriends, driving them away. I’m pretty sure she screams at her most abusive son. She doesn’t scream at me, ever, not anymore. As for the friend I recently dropped, (I’ll call her A____we were friends for 3 years. I thought she was a person who took care of herself — she takes meds for her bipolar, has a pdoc, and also started seeing a therapist I highly recommended. But to make a long story shorter, she would alternately praise each professional to high heaven, then the next time I’d see her, she was complaining about them and trashing them. Meanwhile she “still” liked me a lot. So much so that I started spending too much time with her in a co-dependent way. I felt like it would hurt her feelings if I didn’t have lunch with her as often as she liked, or answered her phone calls and emails, which were getting way too frequent. So finally I said nicely in an email, that let’s basically take turns emailing/calling, that when one emailed the other could respond when they were able, and that we would not initiate emails or calls before receiving a reply back. She nicely agreed, and said she understood and that was fine with her. BUT the next time I saw her at the senior cafeteria for lunch, she sat down without a lunch of her own (I brought my own sandwich), and started screaming at me: “I will NEVER, EVER email you or call you AGAIN!!!” So, I stood up, said, “Bye. A___” and walked away. I had my sandwich and was looking for a vacant seat so I could eat in peace, but she followed me around the dining room screaming: “YOU were honest with ME, and not you have to LISTEN TO ME BE HONEST WITH YOU!!!’ I thought if I could not find a seat soon, I would just walk out the door into the cold rain and find a shelter in a nearby park to have my sandwich. But she fianlly left. My sister said I was “too harsh.” NOT! I know myself it was the right thing to do — for both her and myself! Nobody, but nobody is allowed to address me in such a way! I spent way too many years of my life being yelled at, yelling back, and putting up with this state of affairs. So, believe it or not, a few days later I receive a pink envelope/letter from her. I’ve had this sort of ploy from other people, so I knew what it was: either: it was an apology (which I would not accept); or, it was treating things like everything would move on as we had been already for 3 years (which I would not accept); or, it was an ugly letter calling me all sorts of things that I am not (so of course I would not accept that, either). So I shredded it without reading one single word. Again, my sister thought that was “harsh” and if it had been her, she said, she would have read it to see what her friend (i’e. if she was A___’s friend, for instance) had to say. Ha ha for Sis. This is exactly what she has been doing for nearly 3 years, with a man who broke up with her. He tries to keep contact with her. So she says her heart is [still] breaking. She sees him at concerts that they both happen to be at, him with his new woman, she with a man friend (she has no boyfriend now) or a woman friend. She looks at this ex- and his woman. She’s interested int he woman’s life….etc etc. Dumbo. Nothing I can do. I finally told her that the subject of this ex- was off limits in our conversation. It’s the same issues, over and over and over and over — for three years now. Sorry this is so long…hope you’re still interested in all these details about my relationships with sis and the woman ex-friend. If you are not, never mind — I will not be upset if you don’t want to respond to this rant!
Melody: I lost one train of thought in the first part of my previous post to you. I wrote: “we email sometimes. There was a whole, long, conversation where she [my sister] accused me of putting her down and embarrassing her.” Actually I did nothing of the sort. Some trivial, innocent remark and she totally misinterpreted it. My therapist was shocked and amazed that this itsy bitsy bit of trivia had upset my sister! But the good thing about the email was that I had an entire record of what she was accusing me of, this time. However, even so, she never backed down on her accusations! She even said she wanted me to clear anything I would write about, when there were emails with the three of us on the thread. I said two or three times that that was NOT something I could do. Finally we made the decision that we would never have 3-way conversations in email that discussed anything persona. No more family history for us! My brother and I will continue to talk about our family history. I will have to be very careful to leave the subject of sister completely out of our conversation. However, it’s quite likely that she will come into the conversation. C’est la vie. And by the way, my therapist gave me a way out in the future — don’t talk about or write about anything she says/writes that is off-base. Drop it right away. He said that by trying not to hurt her feelings, I was keeping the conversation alive.
I would like to hear more about PANDA,autoimmune disorders and the link,if any to bipolar disorders.
I would also like researchers to throw out their old notions of the anatomy of ‘an episode’ .I think they have a lot wrong.
Awesome article. I did not know so many videos were available. Looking forward to watching them.
I found the long list of videos about bipolar disorder. But Global Medical wants me to Subscribe to view them. Did you do that? Their form is confusing, and seems like they want the subscriber to be a mental health professional.
Hi Synery,
Yes, they are focused towards healthcare professionals, but there’s no reason why anyone can’t subscribe. Learning quality information is what it’s all about.
– Natasha Tracy
Thanks, Natasha. I will check out a few of them. Maybe they are all “information” for professionals, without any “real” photos, or anything about sexual side effects. Maybe not about rage at all, or about relationships. I’ll take a look, though.
I am not bipolar. My x husband of nearly 50 yrs is. He up and left last yr. He promptly went off all meds. He has mostly been MANIC for 10 yrs. In the hospital a few times and has had shock treatments as well. Before he left he declared himself “cured” and abruptly STOPPED all meds. My one estranged daughter says he is doing wonderful. He is so happy and feels so free and great. He doesn’t feel “drugged” anymore since he quit everything. My interest here: DID MEDS REALLY MAKE HIM FEEL SO AWFUL? SO DRUGGED? Is he truly doing a ton better because he no longer feels “DRUGGED”? OR….Is he lying to our daughter? What is he really feeling? A note here…he has been so mean and so cruel and vindictive and shown so little care of my well being since he “walked” it has unnerved me to the bone. He acts like he’d like to make sure my spousal support is so low that I could end up living out of my car. He could care less. I have never seen him so evil toward me. Is this because he STOPPED MEDS. HE IS BIPOLAR 1 and NARCISSISTIC.
I”d like to know why 900mgp/day kept me completely cycle free for 7 years. I had a cancerous thyroidectomy and have cycled since. I have tried every natural product out there, psych.med,unfortunately sucked into ect and am still suffering . I thought my psych should completely dry me out and just start the lithium again, to see what happens. I am totally at my wits end and living day to day is so very difficult and worthless.
My body is not naturally producing Serotonin to my brain. At a very young age I coped by staying active and realizes that adrenalin kept me from constantly fighting against the dark places in my mind. I have lived a very unhappy life, could not socialized, went through a divorce after 33 years of marriage. After 40 years of controlling the sad thoughts by staying active I went to a doctor that put me on Serequal, Lamitor and Rivitrol. It took a while for the medication to work and I still needs to stay active but the medication gave me control over my mind. At the age of 53 I started living but lost my family and end up alone.
I’d like to see the effects of bipolar disorder on perimenopause/menopause. I’m having terrible trouble right now due to peri-menopause, it’s making me a lot less functional and the medications are not working as well as they should. I think that at the very least, bipolar women should be given the information that their bipolar disorder may worsen as they get older. Mine sure has.
There are a lot of videos about antidepressants, but I’m guessing they are from the perspective of unipolar depression. Antidepressants are contraindicated for bipolar depression and there should be at least one video about why, as well as warnings on the unipolar videos.
Mindfulness and CBT for bipolar would be helpful, mood charting, and a video on managing chronic non-acute suicidal thoughts.
Yes, Sandra. Very good points. Another thing that I myself forget to post was about antidepressants. We see so much information — as well as advertising! — about how much antidepressants help our moods. But we NEVER see anything about these medications severely impeding our sexuality. And, how about — when we lose our sexuality (in which ever of various ways these medications impede us all — no libido, wanting to push away members of the opposite sex (one of my former symptoms), inability to orgasm, inability to keep an erection, or whatever else — how does this affect our marriages? Our our relationship to our significant other???? Ha! It would likely RUIN these relationships!! So, here’s our choice: a life alone without depression; or a life with a loving partner AND HAVING depression! Is there any research going on that is addressing this terrible problem with antidepressants? I have not heard about any research. (Wellbutrin does not work for me as an antidepressant. This is apparently the only one that supposedly does not affect one’s sexuality.)
As a sufferer of acid reflux in addition to bipolar disorder, I would like to see more on bipolar disorder and the health of your digestive system
Is there a relationship between bipolar disorder and poor gut health?
What is the relationship between medications used for bipolar disorder and gut health?
Is there anyway you can improve the health of your digestive system while on MEDS?
This is what I’d like to know. Why my sister avoids the issue that I have bipolar depression with rage, and so does our mother (without rage and our mom won’t take any medication that doesn’t make her high) My sister just flat out won’t even acknowledge ‘the issue’ other than “It’s just the med’s” I realize the question petitioned for this post was for a more serious comment, but for me, this is what would be helpful.. I don’t push it down her throat, in fact I only copy a couple of links that I think would be most educational, asking her to read them, when she has time, maybe four or five times A YEAR. I have a very, very, small family (immediate and extended) so it is incredibly important during that deep, deep depression to be able to go to her for support instead of the psychiatric ward which is where I usually end up during the ‘color darker than black’ days. I am fortunate that I have a very strong, supportive, leave-no-man-behind husband. And two young adult daughters that are there for me. I just need my sister sometimes.
Dear Melody, I definitely “hear you” on the issue with your sister. Her’e’s my story, which is mine alone, and may or may not be something you’d want in your own situation. My sister is supportive SOMETIMES, but she keeps herself so busy that she is stressing out most of the time. When she’s like that, which is almost always, I pretty much leave her alone. We do talk on the phone about trivial stuff (or arts events we both love) about once a week. But she is two different people — one ultra stressed out, a lifestyle she claims she chooses to have, being stressy! — or just a very, very nice and kind person on the infrequent times when she is not stressed. One more thing, though — when I was really super depressed in the past (I’m quite stable now, with therapy and medications) I would cry and be very angry about life in general, and talk, talk, talk to my sister and my mother. I finally told them both that I request that t hey let me talk these negative thoughts for five minutes, then gently tell me that they could not listen anymore, and if I insisted, then to say they would hang up, but if I was still upset in 15 minutes, I could call them back. They both protested, saying with a sad and insistent voice, “But you NEED someone to LISTEN!!” I said, “You are trying to help me, right?” And they’d say of course they were. I told them, it was not helping me get better, by my own talking on and on and on about what was wrong. I asked them if THEY liked talking with me when I was like that, and they reluctantly admitted that they were not. So I says, “Okay, then it’s not good for either of us, so please say that to me, and if necessary, hang up on me!” So the upshot of it was, they never needed to hang up on me, and never did, because I’d manage my loud talking for myself.
I’m a chronic pain sufferer with fibromyalgia on top of it, taking opioids since 1983. I’m interested in how long term use of opioids and being on anti depressants and antipsychotics may affect my brain? Could I suffer damage or just a change in brain chemistry with the addition of all my meds? I think of all of them like taking insulin at this point…it’s an issue that frankly frightens me.
Also, more information of the role of these in lethargy for bipolar people.
Does a person ever fully recover from a psychotic break? Is there lasting damage?
I’d love to get more information in general about long term effects of any psychic meds, something no PDR ever tells you.
Regards,
Judy
1. For me, simply learning about the brain chemistry of what is happening in a bipolar brain is very helpful. A short video explaining the chemistry and particular brain centers would be my suggestion.
2. Also, I see descriptions of bipolar in comparison to depression, but nothing about bipolar symptoms themselves. So perhaps a video that describes the range of symptoms, emphasizes that they can be different in anyone, and that they can vary in intensity.
3. “What is the difference between Bipolar I and Bipolar II?”
I want to understand the perception of the unwell better. For the bipolar, I know so far that there is a biochemical storm which twists perceptions of everyday conversations into threats or impugning concepts. The impaired person feels accused, belittled, ignored, abandoned, etc when no such intention was there. It’s a sort of Murphy’s Law mix of interpretations that whatever could go wrong does, and a great deal of hostility ensues. These attribute the most cruel intentions to parents, suspicions of the worst kind, and then acting out on those seemingly as a matter of survival. My daughter then acts to her own detriment by leaving and, worse, severing all communications for ten weeks now. She now dwells in a culture of similarly impaired contemporaries who seem to affirm her mood and she affirms theirs.
What is happening in the brain of the bipolar to sever communications and think the worst of mom and dad? Give to me in tech-talk, please.
I have bipolar I w psychotic features. I have visual and auditory hallucinations. I would like to know the role psychosis plays in bipolar. What is happening in the brain? Mine are evil and destructive. Are hallucinations individualized in that perhaps the theme plays off something in my life? Should I look for meaning in them and try to focus treatment in that area. The current info just tells you what hallucinations are, not why they happen. Just like coping skills for preventing or reducing depression, what skills could I employ around psychotic symptoms?
Thank you.
Hi Rhonda, This is an excellent question! All the details and questions in your post are so important!!! Thank you for posting on this issue! And I hope you get some good answers from other participants, or anywhere possible. I myself have not had hallucinations. But I, too, get real, real tired of descriptions of symptoms, with no plans for controlling or managing them — or why they occur, etc.
PS The movie “Children of Darkness” shows people who are in extreme, incurable psychosis. It’s tragic, though somewhat fascinating, but personally these photos are not applicable to myself. I’ve never acted like most of the scenes in this movie.
There is a PBS movie (1983?) called “Children of Darkness.” It has real videos of real children (mostly teens) who are severely mentally ill and in hospitals across the United States. Apparently at that time (and maybe now, too?) these children got virtually no real help, groups, activities, etc. The only reason I mention this movie is that it’s REAL FOOTAGE of REAL PEOPLE showing how they act and look to the viewer. I have tried, tried, tried to find a movie or video with live footage of what bipolar rage looks like, for different people. Also what depression looks like and acts like The movie “Mister Jones” with Richard Gere, who plays a bipolar man, shows depression very well, also ups and downs. There’s a great short segment of a young girl in therapy session, who is extremely rapid cycling (reminds me of how I was for 50 years before getting help and medication). Richard Gere’s version or rage is SO TAME. Not really rage at all, although he lightly kicks a tire. “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” with Marlon Brando has some pretty good rage scenes. I need videos of real people’s rage, including plenty of women. Maybe this contest can find some videos of that.