Bipolar Disorder – When to Get Off Antidepressants

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 31, 2011

I try not to give medical advice here because I am not a doctor. But so many people ask me about this I felt I had to address getting off antidepressants without withdrawal. So many people with bipolar disorder (depression and others) need information about getting off psych meds and they are not getting it from their doctors.

This is the first in a three-part series:

When to Stop Antidepressants in Bipolar Disorder
How to Stop Antidepressants in Bipolar Disorder While Minimizing Withdrawal
How to Stop Taking venlafaxine (Effexor) and Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) – as they are particularly nasty to get off

Selling True Hope to People with a Mental Illness

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 29, 2011

The Bipolar Burble doesn’t sell anything, not to people with a mental illness, or anyone else.

It will one day. One day soon it will be selling my book. And then another book after that. We writers do stuff like that.

And maybe one day there will be ads here trying to sell you other things too – therapeutic lights or omega-3 supplements for mood.

But one thing I do not now, nor will I ever sell:

Hope.

I will never, ever try to sell you hope, true or otherwise. Hope is free and selling it is a lie.

Linky-Madness, Drugging Children and Anxious Hat Makers – 3 New Things

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 25, 2011

In my line of work I come across the most obscure information, which is why I love sharing it with you. This week’s three new things about mental illness include:

A weekly mental health link-party
How scientists want to drug children who might get a mental illness
How hat makers used to experience social phobia

How could you not want to know the details about that?

Mixed Bipolar Disorder – How to Treat Mixed Mood Episodes

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 23, 2011

In the final installation of my mixed moods series, I talk about how to treat mixed moods in bipolar disorder. If you need a refresher on mixed moods in bipolar 1 or bipolar 2, see the first three articles in this series:

Safety Warnings for St. John’s Wort

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 21, 2011

Including the Dangers of Using St. John’s Wort to Treat Bipolar Depression

I mentioned last week that St. John’s wort has been shown ineffective at treating mild depression as well as moderately severe depression (major depression).

Nevertheless, St. John’s wort is the most well-known alternative treatment for depression and many people take it. However, there are absolutely some dangers in taking St. John’s wort that you should know about, especially if you’re bipolar.

Alternative Medicine Resource, Fad Diagnoses, St. John’s Wort – 3 New Things

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 19, 2011

In today’s 3 New Things series I talk about:

A great resource for alternative medicine information
A New St. John’s Wort and depression study
A new “fad” diagnosis up for consideration in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Version V (DSM-V)

Polypharmacy Treatment Requires As Much Faith As Science

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 18, 2011

As I’ve said, mental illness treatments often don’t work. And you have to keep trying treatment anyway. Because without doing anything new, you are condemned to being stuck in the same mental illness mire you are currently in.

But in all honesty, mental illness treatment requires faith. Trying psych med after failed psych med requires a belief that something will work in spite of the evidence to the contrary. It requires a belief that is not based on proof.

I hate that.

Mixed Bipolar Disorder – Mixed Mood Episodes in Bipolar 2

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 10, 2011

As I mentioned, mixed moods are technically considered part of the manic phase of bipolar disorder and thus, by definition, are only a part of bipolar disorder type 1. However, those of us with bipolar type 2 can tell you we mix it up with the best of them.

So, in part II of this series on mixed moods in bipolar disorder, I look at mixed moods in bipolar type II.

Mixed Moods in Bipolar Type II

Now that we’ve wandered into Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-free territory, definitions on mixed states get a bit looser.

Mixed mood states may be, in fact, the most common way of experiencing bipolar type II. I find most people have a hard time distinctly separating “depression” from “hypomania” from “normal” moods. There is just too much crossover.

Two Types of Mixed Moods in Bipolar Disorder

Additionally, considering mixed moods to be part of the manic phase of bipolar disorder becomes useless when looking at bipolar II. As an article in Psychiatric Times suggests, there are really two types of mixed moods in bipolar disorder:

Mixed mood with depression as the primary mood (meeting the criteria for depression with some hypomania symptoms present)
Mixed mood with hypomania as the primary mood (meeting the criteria for hypomania with some depression symptoms present)

Those two mood types better reflect my own experience and I think the clinical experience of other patients and doctors.

Mental Health Information – 3 New Things

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 4, 2011

Sometimes writing for a living drives me bonkers. Basically, I have to be brilliant on-command. And seriously. That’s hard.

You. Write. Be brilliant. Now!

It’s a lot of work for me. My brilliance gets tired and bogged down in the bits of my job I don’t like doing.

However, then I’m reminded there are many wonderful things about my job. Specifically, I get to learn new things, every day, all the time. While others work at real jobs I spend all day looking up facts and studies and learning things I didn’t know when I woke up.

I love that stuff.

3 Things I’ve Learned About Mental Health

Three New Mental Health Articles

So, I’m creating a weekly feature by sincerely flattering Jane Friedman and stealing her idea. (Jane writes Three Happy Things about writing once a week. Go check her out.) I’m not sure they will be three happy things, exactly, but I will be sharing three new things about mental health I’ve learned each week.

This will give me a chance to share smaller details that don’t make it into a full blog post, pimp the resources I like and otherwise share my knowledge.

On board? Great!