Julie A. Fast's Blog, page 107

Bipolar Disorder, Stress and a Glass of Water

Kathy C., a blog reader just sent me this. It's long and sweet and defintely worth reading. I am putting up more ideas from readers, guest writers and guest authors. If you know of anyone who would be great for the blog, just let me know. Maybe it's you!  

Stress FACTOR…..

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience,         

Raised a glass of water and asked;

'How heavy is this glass of water?'

Answers called out ranged from 8-10oz.

The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter.

It depends on how long you try to hold it.

If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.

If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.'

He continued,

'And that's the way it is with stress management..

If [ Read More ]


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Yahoo Shine Article: Six Surprising Signs of Depression

Liz Brody wrote an excellent article for Yahoo Shine on the six surprising signs of depression- I know I have experienced all of them!   Here is the beginning of Liz Brody's article and a link below. 

**

Six Surprising Signs of Depression by Liz Brody

Here's a "what-if" scenario: Your husband starts working late every night, you forget the last time you were physically intimate, and he seems to have lost interest in you. Shall we cut to the chase? The guy's having an affair. Slam dunk, change your Facebook status. 

Maybe not. These signs are some of the lesser-known symptoms of depression. which affects nearly 1 out of 10 Americans, according to CDC figures released just in time for National Depression Screening Day. Throughout the country today, October 7, you can get a free, anonymous mental health evaluation at one of 1,500 facilities or by taking a three-minute test online. "You can do the screening for yourself, or for a loved one you're [ Read More ]


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Bipolar Mania and Obsessions

 I just recieved this comment from Melissa. Most of us have been here. That is for sure. It's so important to remember that we are not weird or obsessive when we aren't ill. Most of us are darn normal! It's the illness- which means we have to become experts at managing the illness. Here is Melissa's comment and my reply:

Julie,

I'm revved up and getting amped out.  I can't concentrate on my work.  I'm seeing the three S's – speeding, spending ; sex – on the increase.  I battle with it constantly it seems and today I seem to be losing.  I was triggered by the possibility of not getting to see someone I've been fantasizing about anymore so I've been trying to contact him.  No-no.  I took my PRN but it really isn't helping.  Good grief I'm having problems with this and I'm rambling to boot.  Sorry. Melissa,

Hi Melissa,

Oh yes! We all know this [ Read More ]


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Bipolarity and The Social Network

I just had another client email where someone used the term bipolarity. Amazing.  I heard it for the first time just a month ago. That is the power of the internet. Speaking of the internet, I saw the movie The Social Network yesterday. I strongly recommend it.  There is so much to learn from the movie that has to do with bipolar disorder management.  Here is what I mean:

1. If we act wihtout knowing why we act, we will be in trouble.  In other words, if you're depressed and it is distorting your mind, you will act based off of the distortion and cause damage in your life. I did it until I created my management plan (Health Cards, Take Charge, Etc). Now I always try to say to myself- why am I doing this? Is it me? Jealousy? Bipolar? In the past it was mostly BIPOLARITY. Now I am pretty aware of why [ Read More ]


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Reader Question: What is the difference between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder?

What is the difference between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder? 

 Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder- bipolar disorder is a mood disorder. Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia share some symptoms, but in reality are very different. When my ex partner Ivan got extremely sick in 1994 and was committed to the hospital in a manic/psychotic episode, the first step was to rule out schizophrenia as they look so similar when the symptoms are full blown. Schizophrenia is characterized by chronic psychotic symptoms whereas the psychosis in bipolar disorder is episodic.

Of course the duration of psychosis can vary in both. When a person has bipolar disorder along with chronic, stand alone psychosis, the illness is called schizoaffective disorder. Psychosis comes in two basic forms- hallucinations and delusions. Hallucinations include seeing, feeling, smelling or hearing something that isn't there. I've had a lot of hallucinations over the years to seeing rats run around chairs, hearing voices that tell me [ Read More ]


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Odd depression and mania symptoms

I work with a lot of clients in my coaching business who find it hard to understand some of the odd behaviors of their loved ones. Here are the symptoms:

1. Want to work- have time to work- have ideas for work- but can't work.

2. Can't see the signs of mania even though others can see them 100%.

3. Make choices that make the depression or mania worse even when they know they are making a big mistake.

4. Stop taking meds even when it's obvious the meds are working really well.

5. Get angry and then expect the family/work/friends etc. to just bounce back when their mood [... Read More ...]


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Football Players, Depression and Bipolar Disorder

A few years ago I decided I wanted to talk to professional football players about bipolar disorder and depression. There is a rookie camp every year where they do all kinds of relationship, money, media pressure, getting along as a team, etc etc. I thought- I should go in there and tell them what it's like to have bipolar disorder and depression and how they could see the signs in themselves and others. Here is what I heard from people- "Julie, pro sports guys don't want to talk about depression! They will never listen to the word bipolar! That's for human resources!" I heard [... Read More ...]


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Have you tried this? or This? Or This or That?

Something rather 'funny' happened when I recently saw my osteopath today for a hip problem- he had a resident MD with him. My doc explained my situation and then told the resident that I was a well known bipolar disorder writer with seven books, and that I had a tough time with finding ways to help myself. Basically he praised my work and was explaining to the guy that I have it tough sometimes.  Then, the resident started to ask me questions about what Ihad tried to treat bipolar- Have you d...

Bipolarhappens.com reader comment: beds are for….

….sleeping at night. I just received a great comment on this topic. I often tell clients that there is one way to deal with the depression sleep issue- to have the motto: BEDS ARE FOR SLEEPING AT NIGHT.  Tracy's comment is a great explanation of why. It's so easy for us to crawl into bed when we're depressed. It's easy to stay in bed when we wake up depressed- but you will never feel better. Ever. Thanks to Tracy for telling her story!

Hi Julie,

I woke up this morning to a cloudy, dreary day.  ...

What Makes You Happy?

I think it's essential that people with a lot of depression get very, very clear on what makes them happy. These are the things that alleviate depression- or at least make it slightly better. These things can then be waiting when the depression starts.  You can make a list of what works to help you get out of the down swing.  Then you can pull this out and use it – if it's written down it can break through the depression and actually do something- and  when you have a list of what makes you h...