Category: Bipolar blog

Mental Illness – It’s Your Fault

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jun 13, 2012

One of the frustrating things about having a mental illness is how often people say (or intimate) that the mental illness is your fault. Oh sure, they might not come right out and say, “You’re to blame for your bipolar,” (although some people do) but they might just say:

You wouldn’t be bipolar if you didn’t take all those meds
Your diet [eating wheat, dairy, etc.] is causing your mental illness
You wouldn’t be depressed if you exercised more
Your mental illness is “all in your head”
Your bipolar is made up by your psychiatrist
Mental illness is your punishment for not being Christian (or not being faithful enough)

And so on and so forth pretty much until my head is about to explode.

But here’s a newsflash – mental illness isn’t your fault. My bipolar isn’t my fault. No illness is the sufferer’s fault and I’m tired of having to defend myself to others just because my illness is “mental.”

New Research in Bipolar and Depression – The Glutamate Train

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jun 11, 2012

After looking at the future treatment approaches for treatment-resistant depression, I thought I’d share a bit more depression and bipolar research. New options offer hope for everyone who run the gamut of bipolar or depression treatments.

A new mood stabilizer
A new, novel antidepressant
Knowing when depression isn’t depression

New Treatment Approaches for Treatment-Resistant Depression

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jun 6, 2012

I have been known to lament that there’s nothing new under the sun when it comes to depression treatment, and thus, there is little hope for people with true treatment-resistant depression. (And by treatment-resistant depression I mean people who really have tried everything, and there are few in this category.)

But I forget how far we’ve come and how fast. It isn’t fair to say there aren’t new approaches to treatment-resistant depression because there are new approaches being researched and approved every year. Here are a few noted by Current Psychiatry article Innovative approaches to treatment-resistant depression:

Doom and Gloom Support Groups – Is Bipolar Really That Hopeless?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jun 4, 2012

The Problem with Online Support Groups

Recently a reader wrote into me and told me that online bipolar support groups scared the stuffing out of her. In her words:

. . . is it really that bleak? IS there a place to find support and encouragement and practical advice that isn’t so dire – comment after comment about divorce, violence, anger and mania…. I just need some perspective.

I feel for this reader. She is trying to support her significant other with bipolar disorder and she is finding that the supports are more harmful than helpful.

And, honestly, this is a big problem with support groups – they are often either doom and gloom or sunshine and light, and neither represent a decent perspective.

Something Good Comes from Bipolar?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | May 31, 2012

Making a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s Bipolar

Many people feel that with this site, I have taken something terrible – bipolar disorder – and turned it into something positive – this site, my writing, etc. People feel that I have taken all the agony and sorrow and turned it into an ability to help people.

And true, those people are right, but I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Turning Bipolar into Something Good

I mean, I feel good about creating a valuable resource and I feel good about helping people but I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this notion of something good coming from bipolar. In my experience, nothing good comes from bipolar.

Now I know, some of you are going to tell me to “reframe” the issue. Look at it from a different angle. See the good in everything.

Well I say poppycock. I don’t have to see the good in a debilitating, disabling disorder. I don’t have to do it. And I won’t do it. And I won’t be a part of telling other people that “something good comes from bipolar” either.

Latest Bipolar Bites and Breaking Bipolar

Posted by Natasha Tracy | May 24, 2012

As per the usual, I’ve been a busy little beaver. I write about five mental health articles a week for blogs as well as other articles for clients. It’s the reason why I’m up on the latest research – I pretty much have to be; I spend most of my day looking at it.

And if you just hang out on the Bipolar Burble – I love you – you might miss a lot of interesting things. So here, without further ado is what has been going on at Bipolar Bites at Healthline.com and Breaking Bipolar at HealthyPlace.com.

Bipolar Bites

Bipolar Bites is a blog I started writing in February for Healthine.com. It contains what I call more “sciency” articles – those with facts and figures and study references. It’s for the mental health geek in many of us.

Recently at Bipolar Bites we’ve seen:

Medication side effect chat – antipsychotics and brain shrinkage and the danger of dry mouth.
A companion piece to the one I did on the biological evidence of depression – the biological evidence of bipolar disorder (part one and part two). Hint: there’s lots.
Something I’ve mentioned before – can people with bipolar disorder properly recognize facial emotion?
A pet peeve of mine is the notion that some people will commit suicide no matter what you do – I don’t believe that for a second.
An important issue and the data that supports it – do antidepressants work? And do they work as well as other medications?

Breaking Bipolar

Over at Breaking Bipolar I’ve got all kinds of advice for living with bipolar disorder:

Does Mental Illness Get Better or Worse?
How Do I Tell My Parents I Need Mental Health Help?
Relationships Can’t Fix Bipolar Disorder
Do We Internalize Mental Illness Stigma – Yes, and this affects recovery. Doctors can also sabotage treatment with medication.
What to think about when you travel – Travel Tips for the Bipolar
Why Worrying About Medication Side Effects Won’t Really Help You and What is Medication Tolerance (when medication stops working)
Mental illness, guilt and making amends.
Bipolar – Attack of the Body Snatcher – written at the behest of a reader
Power to the Crazy – Why Writing Off People with a Mental Illness Hurts You and Not Us
Depression Symptoms – Easy to Tear
Why It’s Ignorant to Write off Psychiatry – another shot across the bow of antipsychiatry

And while you’re perusing your articles of interest you might want to check out a series I did on mental illness and stigma or my piece for Sharecare: Succeeding with Mental Illness – Slow and Steady Wins the Race.

Oh, and did I mention I got name a mental health hero? (Thanks to Chato Stewart for the drawing seen above.)

Thanks all for your continued to support. I shall continue to do what I do as long as you keep your eyeballs facing forward.

Why Don’t People Get Help for Mental Illness?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | May 20, 2012

There is a lot of help available for people with a mental illness. There are hotlines, mental health resource locators, therapists, doctors and many others. And yet, many people with a mental illness continue to live every day with bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses without getting help.

And what’s worse is that we know that by not getting help, or by delaying help, the course of the overall illness and outcome is worse.

So why don’t people get help for mental illness?

Interview: Writing my Way to Bipolar Disorder Recovery

Posted by Natasha Tracy | May 17, 2012

The Bipolar Burble welcomes guest Karen Tyrell. Karen is an Australian mental health advocate and author of the new mental health memoir Me & Her: A Memoir of Madness.

Writing for Bipolar Recovery

Today Karen shares a little about her life and the place writing has had in her bipolar disorder recovery.

The Desperation of Mental Illness and Depression

Posted by Natasha Tracy | May 16, 2012

I woke up one morning in 1994 crushed with depression. The first thing I thought of that morning was how much I wanted to kill myself, and if I couldn’t do that, then how much I wanted to hurt myself. I kept cutting implements and bandages near my bed just in case the feelings were too much to bear.

Of course, this was like every morning of my 16-year-old life. I was depressed, but I didn’t know it. I only knew that I wanted to die. I needed to die. I needed it like most people needed breath. And I knew that no one understood.

Home Life, Suicide and Depression

My home life was one of the things driving me to depression and granting me the leanings of suicide. Things there were a hellish nightmare of screaming and hate. And the people related to me and forced to love me gave me no consolation whatsoever as I was sure that they didn’t. These people hated me and wanted me gone every bit as much as I did.

This was, at least partially, my depression talking, but I didn’t know it then. I didn’t know what depression was and I didn’t know how loudly it spoke.

The Only Place That Would Have a Depressed Me

So I found myself in my car trying to drive anywhere away from there. Away from the nexus of crazy. So I drove to the only place that I knew would have me – to the house of my rapist.

As is most often the case my sexual abuse was complicated. And while I hated what this man in his 40s did to me the one thing I couldn’t live without was his love. He would tell me he loved me. This was undoubtedly a lie but convinced as I was that no one else did, that my life was worthless and that I should die, that one sliver of love offered by a minion of Satan made me keep breathing.

I arrived at his house to find him not home – away, undoubtedly grooming other little lovelies for his nest. So I did the only thing I could think to do, I curled up on a square of cement near his front steps and went to sleep weeping – an attempt to escape the world that was trying to kill me.

A Picture of Mental Illness in Crisis

This is a picture of a girl in crisis. A girl so tightly wound in the grasp of depression that she can see no way of dealing with it at all. A girl so desperate to feel anything but the pain of mental illness she was prepared to put her body and her soul in harm’s way just to not feel like death was upon her for one brief moment in time.