Bipolar blog Archives - Page 38 of 81 - Natasha Tracy Bipolar Expert

Support for Bipolar Disorder – Will You Be Okay Tonight?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Nov 4, 2014

Yesterday I got the news that I’m losing one of my best friends of 16 years. He’s someone I’ve known pretty much since birth. He’s giving and loving and very furry. He’s my cat.

And while I can understand that not everyone will fully comprehend the bond between a human and animal, you will just have to take my word for it that the news put me into shock and I am now grieving what will very soon become a physical loss.

And, of course, a trauma like this (yes, it is a trauma) will make my bipolar disorder blow up. Bipolar makes grief worse and grief makes bipolar disorder worse.

Being a Mental Health Advocate True Champion for HealthiNation

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 23, 2014

A couple of weeks ago, Brendan Anderer, Vice President of Programming and Executive Producer at HealthiNation, contacted me. HealthiNation has created a series on their site (an overall health video site) for who they call “True Champions.” These are people who are extraordinary advocates for an illness and live with the illness themselves. Brendan said he wanted to film me and make me a part of their series.

Now, in all honesty, I didn’t take it overly seriously. I get a lot of offers for a variety of things and, often, once people are told that I’m all the way on the West Coast of Canada, they are no longer interested.

But, surprisingly, HealthiNation still was.

Calming the Cycle of Anxiety and Bipolar Depression

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 14, 2014

The Bipolar Burble is extremely honoured to introduce today’s guest author: Ross Szabo. Ross and I met when he introduced me when I won the Erasing the Stigma Leadership award earlier this year. Ross is a past recipient and an inspiring mental health speaker and, well, human being. Read below how he has learned to calm his bipolar depression by recognizing anxiety.

I was an anxious person before my diagnosis of bipolar disorder with anger control problems and psychotic features. Needless to say after my diagnosis, my anxiety did not improve. It took a lot of years of extreme alcohol abuse, broken knuckles, sleeplessness, hallucination-filled nights and dangerous behaviors until I was able to find ways to balance my disorder.

Anxiety seems to be at the root, or heavily tied to, every mood I have with bipolar disorder. One of the most dangerous cycles I have gone through is when anxiety swings in to contribute to constant thoughts of death and suicide. Overwhelming anxiety or crippling depression are hard enough to face separately. When they combine the results can be tragic.

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.