Having suffered with symptoms of bipolar 2 disorder for over fifteen years, my hope in making this piece for See Change is to give people some understanding of how it feels in the different phases of this complex mental health illness. From the deep despair of the manic depressive stage to the idealistic highs of the hypomania, I will shine some light on the experience of going through these polar opposite states. I will also compare these extreme states to the feeling of relief, balance and wellbeing that comes with being in recovery and the different ways, from my own experience, in which y ..read more

Would you like to be part of a collaborative video that sends a message of peace and how we can all get along and the answer is not division and not being friends with someone because they disagree with you or calling them a racist because their political views are different? If so. please send a pic of you holding sign thar can be read in 2 to 4 seconds to bipolarbandit@gmail.com Subject line *Heal the World * Deadline April 15th The pics will be used while the song by Michael Jackson is sung by independent artists as well as We Are the World. You can also post pic in Telegram group Heal the ..read more

Teen Mental Wellness Day is March 2nd. Please read or watch a video to learn more about it, statistics and resources. TikTok Video Instagram Video Tumblr video Clapper Video Twitter (X) Video ..read more

Video on Tik Tok Video on Instagram MOST COMMON EATING DISORDERS Anorexia Nervosa Bulimia Nervosa Pica Disorders: Binge Eating Rumination Avoidant/Restrictive Purge Eating Night Eating Syndrome OSFED (other specified feeding or eating disorder) STATISTICS Ref 1 16% of adult patients screened positive for an eating disorder.  Anorexia has the highest case mortality rate and second-highest crude mortality rate of any mental illness. 10,200 deaths each year are the direct result of an eating disorder—that’s one death every 52 minutes The most common age of onset is between 12-25. Altho ..read more

Music has been proven to help with your mental health and overall health. Singing, songwriting, listening to music and playing an instrument are all things that you can do deal with your mental health. Ways Music helps: Connects you with your feelings Gives you a way to express yourself Boosts your mood Makes you dance Forms a community Helps you feel your feelings Increases dopamine to help with stress, depression, and anxiety Helps to figure out who you are Helps with memory Challenges your mind Helps to heal from trauma Makes you know others feel the way you do helping with loneliness Musi ..read more

Randye Kaye is the co-creator and host of the popular podcast, Schizophrenia: 3 Moms in the Trenches. She is the Connecticut State Trainer for NAMI’s Family-to-Family Course, and is the author of Ben Behind His Voices: One Family’s Journey From the Chaos of Schizophrenia to Hope (Bowman & Littlefield,2011 and Front Porch Press audiobook 2022), and Happier Made Simple: Choose Your Words. Change Your Life (Front Porch Press, 2022). She’s also an actor, voice talent, radio broadcaster, audiobook narrator, teacher and speaker. She has spoken at CIT Int ..read more

I have made it a point to not talk about medications on my blog and social media. It is actually a rule in my Facebook group Advocates for People with Mental Illnesses not to talk about medications. My reason is everyone is different and most of us are not medical professionals. I won’t be talking about specific medications and certainly would never encourage anyone to go off their medications. However, I do feel a responsibility to caution you about taking psychiatric medications ( and other medications) without doing research about side effects and become familiar with the signs of tardive ..read more

Rosalyn Carter was not only the First Lady of Georgia and the United States, she was also a huge mental health advocate. She shared a story of a relative who had mental illness and he scared her because he would run down the street yelling. She would later share he probably just wanted friendship. He was different and back in those days I’m sure the stigma attributed to lack of knowledge and made her hide. While campaigning with her husband she was asked by many family members of those with mental illnesses what her husband would do. One time at a rally she got in line with everyone else and ..read more

What I Learned from Hosting 100 Hours of Peer Support By CeCe Cheng, CEO and Founder of ShareWell Peer support isn’t a phrase we hear all that often and I wasn’t fully aware of what it meant until I needed it. Two years ago, I was in an emotionally abusive relationship and my recovery from that changed the course of my life. I saw a therapist and spoke to friends but still felt lonely and isolated. When I discovered peer support, I finally discovered people who understood me because they had been through a similar situation. I was not only able to talk about what I’d experienced without fee ..read more

Interview with Merryl Hammond, PhD, Editor of Navigating Bipolar Country and author of Mad Like Me Q:      To start, could you tell us a bit about your background and work, Merryl? A:      About a hundred years ago back in South Africa where I was born, I trained as a nurse, got several post-grad nursing qualifications, did a master’s in sociology and a doctorate in adult education and public health. I’ve worked as a lecturer in medical school, a trainer of nurses in rural South Africa, and — since immigrating to Canada — a public health consu ..read more