By: Sam Bowman Mania is challenging to deal with on its own. Add impulsive spending to those manic episodes, and you’ve got an additional layer of difficulty to overcome. Grounding yourself after an episode and finding out you’ve spent all of your savings on trinkets at a garage sale might just tip you into another bout with mania. Impulsive spending not only wrecks your financial stability but can hinder your ability to manage your bipolar disorder successfully. Instead of letting your next manic episode put you further into financial ruin, do the following to protect yourself and your money ..read more

The orange crayon made the setting sun possible as he held on to the string taking him upwards attached to the rays attached to the orange balloon that was made possible by the birth of creativity, outside the lines as the string swayed as chaos ensued as the orange crayon became smaller such force from a small hand from the will of imagination. Falco’s third poetry book: Chronicles of Cosmic Chaos: In The Fourth Dimension is forthcoming later this year, and she is the author of Farewell Clay Dove, and of her award-winning chapbook: The Immortal Sunflower all published by UnCollected Press. Sh ..read more

Dear 16-Year-Old Sophia, You will have made it. You will have made it with flying colors and will be proud to represent the rainbow flag. You will have made it with your dream of being a unique, talented, and published poet come true with your book three masterpieces! You will have made it into a highly regarded Master of Fine Arts Program, and selected for their Teaching Fellowship. But more importantly, you will have made it as a human being—alive—while living with bipolar disorder 1 for over a decade, and later post-traumatic stress disorder. You were given that diagnosis of manic depressio ..read more

As the last American soldier stepped aboard a C-17 cargo plane in Kabul in September 2021 and became the last soldier to leave Afghanistan, my inbox was filling up with messages of despair from Afghan war veterans. They were witnessing a disastrous end to the war for which they put their lives on the line, and many are still feeling bereft, demoralized, and desperate, more than a year later. And President Biden’s declaration that he stands behind his decision offered scant solace amidst the chaos and death. Here’s a sample of what they wrote: “I feel hurt, anger, resentment, anguish, rage, dis ..read more

Free Webinar on Nov 10, 2022 11:00 AM PST Interested in learning more about Metabolism, Mental Health, and the Ketogenic Diet? During this webinar, we will review the evidence for the strong relationships between metabolic and mental disorders, premature mortality in people with mental disorders, and the use of the ketogenic diet as a treatment for neurological and psychiatric conditions. There will also be a 15-minute Q&A nearing the end of the webinar. Dr. Christopher M. Palmer is a Harvard psychiatrist and research ..read more

New Webinar, Sign Up Here! The holiday season can be a joyous time, but it can also contribute to increased stress, anxiety, sadness, grief, loneliness, and mood instability. During this webinar, you will learn practical tips on how to maximize your enjoyment, mental health, and overall well-being during this time of year, and avoid unnecessary stress and the common pitfalls that can derail our best efforts to enjoy the holidays. Serena Goldsmith is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and practicing psychotherapist who received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Occidental College and her Master o ..read more

By: Margaret Fitzgerald I was a moody, undiagnosed, anxious bipolar child that self-soothed with food. I was always ten pounds overweight, and my parents catastrophized it. So many weight loss tactics were tried. One diet included eating only carbs until noon and then not mixing carbs and proteins the rest of the day. That did help with weight loss, but that thinking probably helped in my becoming insulin dependent in later years. Then there was the eating dinner only off of a salad plate when everyone else had a dinner plate. Or the “You can go to the ice cream party but you will have differe ..read more

By: Sam Bowman Living with bipolar disorder can negatively impact many areas of life. It can be especially problematic, however, when you’re trying to hold down a traditional job or expand your professional network. However, as long as you’re willing to put in the time and effort to manage your bipolar disorder, it’s completely possible to have a fulfilling and successful career for years. If you’ve struggled to manage your disorder in the past and it’s affected your job, it’s time to take control. By making some adjustments in your personal life and at work, you can navigate employment more c ..read more

Bipolar disorder can strike anyone, regardless of gender, race, education, or class, from pre-teens into our sixties. It is an equal opportunity disorder and can, at its worst, destroy lives and health, marriages and families, careers, friendships, finances, and more. Many people with bipolar disorder are not as fortunate as I was. Between 25 to 50 percent of the five million or more people with bipolar disorder in the U.S. attempt suicide at least once. Eight percent succeed in killing themselves, and the suicide rate for people with bipolar is four times higher than ..read more

By: Melinda Goedeke Spying on a lobster the size of my leg while gently swaying back and forth 70 ft. below the sea is both exhilarating and meditative for me. I even secretly like the anxiety of knowing that with each breath my oxygen is depleting. I swim swiftly past fire coral hoping to avoid the oozing and burning wounds it inflicts on me; yet, I want to get close enough to see its brilliant color. When I tell people I scuba dive, they often give me a look of surprise or maybe it’s fearful curiosity. It is the same look I get when I tell people about my daughter who suffered from bipolar d ..read more