Category: Mania
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Where Am I Going Now?
How do I describe myself? How do I best describe my blog? What has my blog become? What direction do I want to take it? What direction is my life taking? Is my writing taking? Is my (dare-say) art or photography taking? Back in the 90s when I registered my first corporate URL, I knew that…
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Words Fly
I remember when I couldn’t hold the letters of a word together long enough to make sense of them. They flew off in all directions or got all jumbled up. I simply could not read no matter how hard I tried. Even if I forced myself to concentrate, to focus, to glue one letter to…
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Podcast Preview
Yesterday I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Adam Lennon of SeaTread Studios. Adam, like me, lives with bipolar disorder. In April of 2014, Adam had a severe manic episode after taking medication that should have been complemented with a stabilizer. This “woke up” his bipolar genes, which would ultimately have devastating consequences for his…
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Burns.
As someone with bipolar type II (turns out that ever since I was hospitalized, my diagnosis has been bipolar type I), I know that my symptoms are less severe than others. That’s not to say that I do not cycle or that I’m asymptomatic. I’ve screamed at and hit my son. I’ve flipped the kitchen table and…
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Spring is REALLY LOUD
Springtime can trigger seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in both those with depression and bipolar disorder. For those of us with bipolar disorder, SAD can trigger mania and hypomania. The stressors of these changes contributed to my psychiatric hospitalization a decade ago. As spring has approached and the days have lengthened, I have had mild symptoms of hypomania, including insomnia, which I addressed with my…
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This Is My Brave Now – A Guest Post by Kitt O’Malley
Thank you, Jennifer Marshall for featuring my guest post on This is My Brave: This Is My Brave Now – A Guest Post by Kitt O’Malley. This is My Brave as I write these words. This is My Brave as I blog about living with bipolar disorder. This is My Brave as I use social media to…
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Bipolar Disorder and Seasonal Affective Disorder
Outside a cacophony of birds outside loudly pronounce that they have important work to do, nests to build, eggs to lay, offspring to bring into the world. Spring has sprung. The sun is bright. The season of rebirth is here. Hypomania is officially here, as well, folks. Yes, I have concurrent bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder.…
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I, Too, Am Not Okay
Yesterday I wrote this response to Tempest Rose’s post It’s Okay for Me to Not be Okay on STIGMAMA.COM: I, too, am not okay, and I’m okay with it. Often other people do not understand what they cannot see. For many years I wondered, do other people think like this? Do other people have to…
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Bipolar is a Progressive, Organic Brain Disease. Medication Helps Stop Damage to Brain.
Excellent post summarizing research on the negative effect of bipolar disorder on the brain over time. Medication, lithium in particular, heals and protects the brain. Take your meds, folks. Mania is damaging.
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Review: An American’s Resurrection
An American’s Resurrection: My Pilgrimage from Child Abuse and Mental Illness to Salvation by Eric C Arauz My rating: 5 of 5 stars On November 9, 2014, I had the pleasure of hearing Eric Arauz’s presentation on Conscious Storytelling at the International Bipolar Foundation’s Annual West Coast Meeting. He gave us each a copy of…