Category: Bipolar blog

Breaking Bipolar Articles You Should Read – Updated Resources

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Mar 29, 2011

As most of you know, in addition to the Bipolar Burble I also author Breaking Bipolar on HealthyPlace.com. I write a column there twice a week as well as produce one bipolar-themed video and two audio files per month. It’s a fairly well-received bipolar blog often with much discussion, feedback and sharing.

Recent Breaking Bipolar Blog Highlights

If you haven’t had a chance to check out Breaking Bipolar lately, here are a few of the highlights:

How to Help Someone with a Mental Illness – A new piece yesterday in response to someone’s query about helping their newly-diagnosed loved one with bipolar disorder. Helping someone with a mental illness is a huge challenge but these tips seem to be striking a chord with people.
Mental Illness Treatment and Risk Tolerance – I like this writing a lot. The article talks about how some people are willing to accept greater risk in their chosen treatment of mental illness. It’s about respect and choice.
Bipolar Disorder and Treatment Stigma – Yes, I was talking about electroconvulsive therapy here but don’t reference ECT directly. I don’t like to bring the hugely contentious issues or opinions onto Breaking Bipolar due to the wide audience and huge amount of (likely negative) reaction it will receive. I do, however, think it’s important to discuss the issues around bipolar/depression/mental illness treatment whether specific or not.
Mental Illness is Only a Problem when Mental Illness is a Problem – This is essentially in response to people saying every behavior is being labelled a “disorder.” My point is that people only get help when their issues rise to the level of a problem.
Why Don’t we Shower When we’re Sick – A popular article on the question of forgoing showers when extremely ill. I present four reasons.
Zealotry and Rules for Debating Mental Illness – I wrote this article in response to the people who insist on making mental illness discussion into nasty, name-calling, unscientific, overly-emotional fighting. Really drives me bonkers.
Shame and Electroconvulsive Therapy – When I got electroconvulsive therapy I experienced a lot of shame. This really is unnecessary and illogical but has to do with the massive stigma on receiving ECT treatments. (Excellent comment about stigma and ECT treatment here.)
Minimizing Mental Illness – The Worst Things to Say – Most popular overall article with over 20,000 reads. I added a bonus worst thing to say so someone with a mental illness here on the Bipolar Burble as well.

Upcoming Bipolar Burble Articles

I’m sure that’s more than enough for now. Upcoming pieces on the Bipolar Burble will likely be about hypomania and delusions and possibly regarding the black box warning on antidepressants actually increasing suicides (you can yell at me about that after I write it). There will probably be a piece about my own ECT experience as well as that’s not really covered here (I wrote quite a bit about it on another blog.)

If you’d like to see a topic covered on the Bipolar Burble or Breaking Bipolar or have a question you can always contact Natasha Tracy. I can’t promise I’ll respond but I’ll do my best.

New Mental Health Resources Added

The bipolar and mental health resources page has also been updated. These are good resources you should know about.

What Happens When You Talk About ECT?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Mar 25, 2011

Thanks for everyone who took the time to read my electroconvulsive therapy primer and the Badger’s personal experience of ECT. Most people were really respectful in their opinions and asked great questions. As per the usual, however, electroconvulsive therapy is a controversial, contentious and polarizing topic that brings out people’s abusive side pretty quickly.

The Goal of Sharing a Personal ECT Experience

My goal in having a personal ECT experience shared here is to provide the perspective that many people silently have – ECT works, it works quickly, and it works with few side effects. (That’s few, not none.) This is not to say this is everyone’s experience, because it certainly isn’t, but statistically speaking, most (more than half of) people have a positive response to ECT.

Myths, Realities and Journey Through ECT – by BiPolar Badger

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Mar 22, 2011

This post was controversial even before posted; clearly underscoring how much people need to talk about ECT. The Bipolar Burble welcomes Steven Schwartz, the BiPolar Badger, and his experiences with electroconvulsive therapy.

Myths, Realities and Journey Through ECT – by the BiPolar Badger

I was 9-years-old in 1975 when One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest came out. I remember watching it on our floral, pleather sofa, late one night on TV. It scared the crap out of me; this was the first time in my life I saw E.C.T. (electroconvulsive therapy, previously electroshock therapy or shock therapy) and little could I imagine that one day I would find myself in McMurphy’s position.

After Third ECT Treatment – How Do I Feel? Less Depressed.

Electroconvulsive Therapy Works (ECT, shock therapy)

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Mar 20, 2011

Natasha Tracy and the Bipolar Burble welcome Steven Schwartz, the BiPolar Badger as a guest blogger later this week. Steven will be speaking from the point of view of someone who has chosen to get electroconvulsive therapy treatments and is in the middle of his current series of electroconvulsive therapy treatments.

Electroconvulsive Therapy Primer

In preparation for Steven’s piece, I’ve written this primer.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the second most controversial medical procedure. (Abortion is the first.) Certainly when I write about ECT it seems to prove the controversy of this topic. And it doesn’t matter what I say about ECT, even if it’s not pro or con, people insist on expressing very strong viewpoints on the use of ECT. And yes, I have had ECT.

And generally the strong viewpoints are anti-ECT. They are from the ECT-is-torture crowd. A prevalent crowd online, to be sure, but someone needs to actually talk about the facts of ECT.

Angry at Bipolar: Dealing with the Anger of Mental Illness

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Mar 16, 2011

Also known as: I’m Mad at the Jungle

People don’t like it when I get angry. They don’t like it when I rant. On my very own blog. On the internet. Sheesh people, I am human you know. One might suggest it would be absolutely nutty not to rant.

And I’m not an angry kind of person. I have a theory about why you shouldn’t be angry and I try to use the idea that there is no reason to be angry, and allow anger to roll off my back. It usually works.

But I think all sick people have a right to be angry. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a good idea to live in that anger. It’s not a good idea to spread that anger. But for fuck’s sake, you’ve been given a life-long mental illness that requires too many doctors and debilitating psychiatric medication. You have the right to be a little angry about that.

Why Should I Continue to Fight the Pain of Depression for Another 40 Years?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Mar 3, 2011

A commenter, Jessica, left a comment yesterday that so succinctly expresses what so many of us feel about depression, bipolar and mental illness, and continue to feel. The following is her comment and my response.

“when I just feel so sick and tired of fighting for what seems like nothing…what seems like a never ending battle…what seems like someone hitting me over the head with a two-by-four every two minutes, telling me it will never stop until the day I die, and then they explaining to me why I should continue to fight to live for another 40 years.”

Yes. I know.

Fighting the Pain of Depression

We fight to the death for millimeters when we really need a mile. I know.

Mental Illness and Crazy Block Goals

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Feb 28, 2011

You can be anything you want to be. Dream it and you can be it. Do it now.

We have all heard these things. These are the things we tell our children. These are the some of the lies we tell our children.

Tell the Crazy They Can Do Anything they Want, I Dare You

We’re trying to encourage our children to be who they want to be. We want them to get what they want.

And as far as lies go these ones aren’t bad. We are trying to encourage kids to be presidents, astronauts, fire engines (seriously, kids love fire engines), CEOs, police officers (they don’t want to be police cruisers for some reason), doctors, lawyers and so on. We want them to obtain their dreams. It’s so terribly noble of us, to lie to our children like that.

No, You Can’t Do Anything You Want

Of course doors for a person are closed the second they take their first breath. What is their race? What is their sex? Where are they born? Who are their parents? How much money do they have? Into what time are they born? What is the political climate? Are they born with a birth defect? Do they have a disability? Do they have an illness? And so on, and so on, and so on. And with every circle around the sun, more and more limitations are placed on them.

Self-Diagnosing Hypomania

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Feb 13, 2011

Also known as, How Do You Know if You’re Hypomanic?

These are my hypomania signs seen throughout an average hypomanic day, and honestly, the symptoms vary by individual, time and medication, but I suspect many bipolars are similar. The secret to self-diagnosing hypomania are paying attention to these little differences seen throughout the day.

Hypomania and Sleep Disturbance

The first thing I usually notice in hypomania is a sleep disruption. I’ll go to bed and become so awash in fantasy I cannot sleep. And this fantasy comes with it’s own soundtrack. A collection of sounds that become the tone of my mind. I lay naked in bed trying to calm my mind down. But my brain and my mind will have none of it. Even if terribly tranqued, my hypomanic consciousness will spend its time with sloppy fantasies instead of snappy ones. Or sleepy ones.

My brain’s neurons light up in syncopation to the throbbing beats of Nine Inch Nails or some such.

Hypomania and Sleeping Pills

Psych Meds, Psychiatry and Psychology Are Evil

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Feb 8, 2011

I hear from quite a few people, generally part of special interest groups, who think psych meds are evil, psychiatrists are evil or psychologists are evil. Usually these statements of hatred come from negative personal experiences with psych meds or psychiatry/psychology. Usually these people are lashing out emotionally because they didn’t like how the medicine or other form of treatment went.

I Understand Why People Think Psychiatry and Psychiatric Treatments Are Evil

I get this. I really do. When you tie yourself in knots and live through painful psych treatments and do things you never thought you would do to get better, and then you don’t get better, you get a little bitter. I’d say that’s pretty normal and understandable.

(I am jaded and perhaps bitter but far too even-minded to form such a fanatical stance.)

But here’s the thing, psychiatry is no more evil than any other branch of medicine; psychiatrists are just doing the best they can with what they have.