Sleep and Bipolar Disorder – How I Cured My Insomnia – Guest Post

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 27, 2011

The Bipolar Burble welcomes Leslie Smile for today’s piece on how she recognized that sleep was affecting her bipolar disorder and how she worked to cure her insomnia.

I’ve lost many hours holding the wall up with my glazed stare. Unable to calm my mind yet unable to focus my thoughts clearly, I’ve been sleepless for days on end. I would go on through my days like a zombie. “Just keep going,” I’d tell myself. Some days I would come home from work and collapse on my bed until the next morning. I would wake grouchy, confused and still tired. Insomnia doesn’t keep you awake permanently… just until you crash.

Insomnia’s Effects on My Life

I’ve always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed. ~ David Benioff

The tired feeling morphed into a bone deep lethargy; an energy sucking, crippling fatigue drained me. I began to feel like I could barely survive. I had begun the dip into major depression and bipolar behaviors. I don’t blame my mental illness on my poor sleep nor do I blame my sleeplessness entirely on my mental illness but as I’ve come to learn bipolar disorder and insomnia affect each other in such a way both deserve the attention and respect of proper self-care and good sleep hygiene.

Stop Trying To Stigmatize Me — Behavioral Health vs. Mental Health

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 23, 2011

It seems it’s more politically correct these days to say “behavioral health” rather than “mental health.” Hospitals and governments are changing their programs from mental health programs to behavioral health problems. And somehow this is progress. Somehow this is less stigmatizing.

How’s that again?

Did my behavior suddenly become a problem while I wasn’t watching? Because, quite frankly, I found the notion there was something wrong with my mind to be insulting enough, to find out that now, my behavior is the problem has pushed me over the insultant edge.

Beating Insomnia – How to Sleep Better – Part 2

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 19, 2011

Last time we discussed the routines involved around sleep, part of sleep hygiene, and how to train your brain to get a better night’s sleep. This time I’ll be sharing additional tips and information on how to beat insomnia and sleep better every night.

Coffee Good for Depression. Sybil Revealed. Bipolar Questions Answered. – 3 New Things

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 16, 2011

Keep up with mental health news. Three new things in mental health to learn this week:

The more coffee (caffeine) your drink, the less likely you’ll be depressed
Clinical records of real-life Sybil (part of the basis of “multiple personality disorder”) show likely falsehoods and unethical treatment
Get your bipolar questions answered by a clinical psychologist

How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep – Part 1 – Brain Training

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 13, 2011

I get asked fairly regularly for insomnia tips or ideas on how to get a good night’s sleep. I actually have quite a bit of knowledge in this area as I’ve written many articles on sleep disorders for other sites. I know many tips and even rules for getting a good night’s sleep.

Sleeping Well Takes Work

If you’re like most people you will experience insomnia some time in your life. It’s actually a very normal problem. Insomnia stems from stress and anxiety, mostly, but can also come about thanks to mental illness or psychiatric medication.

And the thing is, conquering insomnia, no matter what the cause, takes work. You will have to do things you won’t want to do. But when trying to sleep well, you get out of it what you put into it.

Train Your Brain to Sleep Well

The reason most people don’t sleep well is because they have something called bad “sleep hygiene.” Sleep hygiene is simply all the behaviors and thoughts surrounding your sleep habits, and for most of us, our actions and thoughts are keeping us from sleeping.

But you can train your brain to sleep well. It takes time, but you can do it.

Mental Illness Stigma Affects Psychiatrists Too – Who Wants to Be a Psychiatrist?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 9, 2011

Recently I read Invisible Tattoos: The stigma of psychiatry by Dr. Henry A. Nasrallah in Current Psychiatry. Invisible Tattoos is and editorial piece on how the stigma of mental illness affects psychiatrists just like it affects the mentally ill. And my reaction?

Oh cry me a freaking river.

I thought the piece was a little whiny and navel-gazing. I mean seriously, these people are respected professionals making lots of money – they don’t have an illness threatening to kill them every day.

But then I got a comment from a medical student and I reconsidered my position. Maybe antipsychiatry poster-boy Tom Cruise doesn’t just fuck around with the way people look at me, maybe he fucks around with the way people look at psychiatrists too. And maybe stigma is difficult for psychiatrists to deal with.

Bipolar’s Not Bad Enough – We Beat Ourselves Up – Advice

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Oct 3, 2011

Part of having a mental illness like bipolar disorder is having a brain that hates you. A brain that overreacts to the slightest perceived imperfection. All it takes is believing that we have done something wrong for our brain to see it as a capital offense and spend hours or days beating ourselves up about it.

This is pretty de rigueur for someone with a mental illness (especially depression or anxiety).

Beating Yourself Up Over a Perceived Error

And this morning I got an email from someone in just this situation. This person had spent some time with friends and felt they were overly-anxietious, overly-talkative, overly-hyper and so on. And unfortunately, this person was using this perception to beat themselves up.

This is wrong. Please read my response to this person. I hope it will help anyone in this situation (which includes me, from time to time).

Free rTMS, Brain Changes in Depressed Females, Why Anti-Benzodiazepine? – 3 New Things

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Sep 29, 2011

Last week I didn’t post three new things but don’t take that to mean I wasn’t learning because I certain was, and always am. For this week I have these three new pieces of information to share:

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) treatment for depression to be free for (some) Canadians
Brain changes are noted in depressed females
Why are some doctors anti-benzodiazepine?