If you take three different meds at night and two more in the morning…you may be bipolar. If your therapist is on your speed dial…you may be bipolar. If you know the difference between rapid cycling and ultra-rapid cycling…you may be bipolar. If you have depression clothes and mania clothes…you may be bipolar. If you’ve stayed in bed for three days and not gone to bed for three days…you may be bipolar. If your significant other is also your emotional support animal…you may be bipolar. If all your Facebook friends have psych diagnoses…you may be bipolar. If your refrigerator door has 40 affirm ..read more

When I first started looking at the literature regarding SMI, I became confused by the abbreviation BPD. At first, I thought it was a typo or an alternative for Bipolar Disorder. Of course, I found out that it wasn’t—BPD stood for Borderline Personality Disorder. Even if you know what the abbreviation means, it’s easy enough to get confused between the two. In fact, bipolar is often misdiagnosed for borderline, or vice versa. There are some similarities between the two disorders as well. Both involve mood swings. Both can cause reckless behavior. Both can be associated with childhood trauma ..read more

I used to be a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal. Work provided the only structure to my days, back when I was able to work in an office. It wasn’t always the same structure, depending on the job, of course. I have worked various shifts over the course of my checkered career—first, second, and third. I adjusted to them fairly well (except when I was working third shift and going to grad school in the mornings). That all changed when I quit my last office job. I remember feeling so free. I basked in the ability to do freelance work whenever, run errands whenever, go to sleep and wake up ..read more

My husband asked me if I wanted to watch this movie, Operation: Arctic Cure. He knows I love stories about people who face hardship. Sometimes they triumph. Sometimes they fail. But they’re always out there trying. Dan also knows that I like stories of Arctic adventure—mountain climbers, exploration ships, races to the pole, and the like. So he figured the movie would be perfect for me. And it was. It was a documentary telling the story of a handful of people cross-country skiing across Baffin Island, Canada, to reach Mount Thor, pictured above. What made this expedition different was that th ..read more

We hear a lot about self-care these days. Much of the mainstream media seems to think that it means “shopping therapy,” indulgent desserts, spa days, and mani-pedis. Expensive things. Ones that you need to be able to leave the house to do. (Except for online shopping, of course.) Businesses are also quick to suggest self-care for their workers who are experiencing stress. What they mean by self-care is to take up yoga or meditation—on your own time and your dime. Real self-care may include yoga and meditation and even the judicious use of ice cream, but it’s much more than that, of course. Se ..read more

I once suggested to a writer that he should include chemist Clara Immerwahr in his book on notable women. After her education, she had no opportunities to do her own research, as it was the early 1900s. Instead, she helped her husband in his. In 1915, she killed herself because she couldn’t accept the weapons-related research on poison gases her husband was doing. My friend replied that he wanted the women in his book to demonstrate agency. At the time, I didn’t know what “agency” meant in any context than as an organization or business. Gradually, I learned what else it meant. And I looked i ..read more

In the past, I’ve had difficulties with my blood sugar. If I went more than four hours or so without eating, I got dizzy and weak. Fortunately, It’s not that difficult to arrange to get food within four or five hours. As long as I kept an eye on it, I wasn’t overly bothered. Although once I didn’t eat for about three days and didn’t just get dizzy, my entire body started shaking. But a good while back, when I was undiagnosed and unmedicated, I had a different relationship with food. When I was manicky (which in my case manifested as anxiety) I didn’t eat much. I got so skinny that I feared my ..read more

I used to write poetry, since I was in second grade. I continued through high school and college. I stopped because they kept turning into prose. So I wrote prose. I knew I could never make a living writing poetry anyway. Recently, though, I decided to try poetry again. I thought that instead of the free verse that wanted to turn into prose, I would try my hand at more structured poetry—villanelles and sonnets. And my subject: bipolar disorder, of course. Here’s what I came up with. Villanelle We understand there is both loss and gain and much besides we cannot think to know In trying to cont ..read more

I know that sensory overload can be a problem for people on the autism spectrum. Too much noise, uncomfortable touch, and assaults on the other senses can affect them negatively. I discovered this firsthand when my best friend, Robbin, and her ten-year-old daughter, Kelly, visited my house. My husband collects clocks, and the sound of all the ticking bothered the young lady. Then the clocks started to chime. They were not synchronized, and they sounded off one after the other, sometimes overlapping. It was noon. Kelly was visibly distressed by the sound, and they left soon after. I’ve had som ..read more

My husband and I have a dynamic that’s common to many couples. I’m always too cold and he’s always too warm. This becomes apparent at bedtime, when he has the window open and a fan on, and I’m wrapped up like a burrito in assorted quilts. When I ask how the weather is and he says it’s comfortable, I know I need to put on at least a sweater before we go out. What does this have to do with mental health? Well, the stats on major depressive disorder are alarming, especially among teens and young adults. “This is particularly concerning as the disease course is most likely to be malignant, and th ..read more