All About Bipolar

Fourth Annual Bipolar Disorder Awareness Month February 2012

January 5th, 2012

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February 2012 marks our fourth annual Bipolar Disorder Awareness Month. As always, I will be accepting guest posts from anyone who has been affected by bipolar disorder. I’m looking for personal experiences, insight on the disorder, new medical findings – anything related to bipolar disorder.

As many of you know, our host disappeared overnight without warning a few months ago and I had to rebuild the site. Some of it was lost, and cann0t be recovered. I worked tirelessly to bring as much as possible back online as a testament to my dedication to helping others cope and to help educate the public. Your support during Bipolar Disorder Awareness Month means a great deal, and I am hoping to see a lot of submissions. You can send them to me by using the contact form by clicking Contact in the right sidebar, or you can email support@allaboutbipolar.com. I am accepting graphics, cartoons, stories, news, anything related to bipolar disorder.

I would like to thank Lisa Marie for her graphic work, which will become the official button for the 2012 Bipolar Disorder Awareness Month. Over the next few days, I will resize the button so it can be used on blogs and other websites. Be sure to check back. Posting the button on your website is a great way to show your support and help raise awareness.

If you would like to volunteer to help in some way, please email me at support@allaboutbipolar or use the contact form on the right sidebar. I am always in need of volunteers. Together we can reach a lot of people. Educating the public about bipolar disorder dispels the myths about this disorder. We need the world to understand this disorder. There are still lots of people that don’t understand the disorder, and this is why people are still throwing around the term “bipolar” as an insult. This is why people are embarrassed by the disorder. It needs to change, and you can start by helping spread the word.

Here is Lisa Marie’s graphic:

Enjoying the Holidays with Bipolar Disorder

December 20th, 2011

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Everyone knows the holiday season is a difficult time for anyone who has bipolar disorder or any other mental illness. Perhaps it is the stress of the holiday rush. Maybe there are painful memories associated with the holidays. Maybe it is the feeling of being alone in all of this. Whatever the reason, it happens.

I urge anyone who is having a difficult time to reach out to others for support. I am almost always available to answer email, and you can email me at support@allaboutbipolar.com or you can click “Contact Me” on the Contents menu on the right side of this page and use the Contact Form.

Bipolar disorder can make you feel like it’s you against the world if you don’t know anyone else going through the same thing. I know, because that’s exactly why I started this blog in April of 2009. Once I started connecting with others that understood what I was dealing with, my world changed. I stopped feeling alone, and I started crawling out of my pit of despair. It gave me strength. I felt empowered, and I started really working toward getting better. This made it much easier for me to get through each day. Read more »

Note to Readers as I Rebuild

October 5th, 2011

admin

I would like to thank all of you. I am slowly but surely adding everything back. It’s going slower than I’d like as I do work full-time now. Please know that this has been a significant source of stress, and I do appreciate all the support I have received from my readers. Thanks for sticking it out with me! All About Bipolar will be restored and we will be ready for the 4th annual Bipolar Disorder Awareness Month in February 2012.

New readers: Please, please, please keep checking back. I am working feverishly to add back the pages – 966 of them on last count – but I am having to do it all manually thanks to a web host that disappeared overnight without warning. There are hundreds and hundreds more pages of this site that contain useful information on almost every aspect of bipolar disorder. Many posts containing personal insight and self-exploration, in addition to information on medications, studies and so much more are still being added.

Some of you are seeking information on certain topics or you might have followed a link from a search that isn’t live right now. If you email me, I will provide you with that information within hours. If you can reference a specific post you’re looking for, I will put that post on my priority list and add it ASAP.

If you need any type of support, I am still available to help via email at almost any time. Please, feel free to email me at support@allaboutbipolar.com with any question or concern. As thousands of my readers can tell you, all discussions are confidential and I personally respond to each and every email I receive. Again, thank you for your support as I work to continue to provide the same type of support for those affected by bipolar disorder.

~Amy

Rebuilding!

September 25th, 2011

admin

Due to unexpected issues, All About Bipolar is being rebuilt with a brand new look. All the original content will be restored and the site will be back to normal as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you need to talk to someone about your struggles with bipolar disorder or the struggles of a loved one dealing with bipolar disorder I am always available to help via email at support@allaboutbipolar.com. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this temporary glitch.

~Amy, admin

Celebrities With Panic Disorder

July 21st, 2011

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If you have it, as I do, you’ve probably wondered if there are many celebrities with panic disorder. The answer is yes! There are lots of famous people with panic disorder.

Charles Darwin suffered from mental illness that was believed to be panic disorder accompanied by agoraphobia. This brilliant recluse is responsible for the theory of evolution. President Abraham Lincoln, poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, author Charlotte Bronte, Emily Dickinson, Isaac Asimov, artist Edvard Munch, author Anne Tyler, Author John Steinbeck, philosopher John Stuart Mill, inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla, poet Robert Burns, Sigmund Freud, Sir Isaac Newton, former First Lady Barbara Bush, poet Robert Burns, W.B. Yeats, Winston Churchill, Michael Crichton, and former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane all have panic disorder. Read more »

Bipolar Disorder Awareness Month – LC’s Story

February 3rd, 2011

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It wasn’t until several months after my husband’s suicide and several years after his diagnosis with bipolar that I saw it. I was reading Frederick Buechner’s memoir, The Sacred Journey and had somewhat of an epiphany.

Buechner was describing his life as a child and recounted the many times his family moved because his father, who later took his own life, was prone to changing jobs. I closed the book recognizing the pattern and did the math. Eleven times – eleven times in 32 years of marriage, more than once every three years… That is the number of times we moved. To be fair, not all were related to Steve’s angst over his job, but enough were that I immediately identified with Buechner’s conformity to life with a loved one who deals with bipolar.

It wasn’t until 18 months before his death that my husband was diagnosed. A gentle giant of a man with a generous heart and kind spirit, our only clues to his Bipolar NOS were his random outbursts of anger and a subtle melancholy even when all was going well. It wasn’t until his first suicide attempt that the professionals finally identified that elusive thing we had all been trying to grasp for years. Unfortunately for our family it was too late.

Read more »

Bipolar Disorder Awareness Month – Peter’s Story

February 2nd, 2011

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Peter S K Lynch chronicles his life with bipolar disorder through chapters posted on his semi-autobiographical blog. Peter says:

I’d welcome you to check out my semi-autobiographical account of a young man’s descent into madness. The first chapter is located here:

http://newmanx.blogspot.com/2010/10/chapter-i-sunday.html

Here is an excerpt from the first chapter:

For reasons not quite forthcoming I feel the impulse to create a blog, and even as the thought coagulates in my brain, I hypothesize that I’m not motivated enough to reliably maintain and update it.

Read more »

New Therapy for Depression

October 17th, 2010

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“NeuroStar is an alternative to medication to treat depression in some cases. It is transcranial magnetic stimulation, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of patients with major depression who have not benefited from prior antidepressant treatment. It does not involve surgery or anesthesia, is not taken by mouth and doesn’t circulate in the bloodstream.

TMS sends MRI-strength magnetic field pulses into the cortex of the brain, which creates electric currents in the brain. This stimulates the firing of nerve cells and the release of neurotransmitters.”

NeuroStar is being used to treat depression related to bipolar disorder and is stated to be quite effective. For more information, visit

http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20101017/NEWS01/10170323/Therapy-relieves-depression-without-medication

Duloxetine Hydrochloride

New Warning for Patients Taking Lamictal

August 13th, 2010

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FDA: Aseptic Meningitis Risk with Use of Seizure Drug Lamictal

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning that the drug Lamictal (lamotrigine) can cause aseptic meningitis, an inflammation of the protective membranes (meninges) that cover the brain and spinal cord not caused by bacterial infection. Aseptic meningitis has a number of causes including, but not limited to, viruses, toxic agents, some vaccines, autoimmune diseases, and certain medications, including Lamictal. Symptoms can include headache, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck and sensitivity to light. Hospitalization may be required for some patients with aseptic meningitis. The drug’s manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, will work with the FDA to update the prescribing information and patient medication guide for Lamictal to include this risk.

Read more »

How does alcohol interact with medications used to treat bipolar disorder?

August 10th, 2010

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Amber says:

“What drives me nuts is that no one ever says how medication can interact with alcohol. I know that they can interact, some more than others, but I would like specifics so that I can make an informed decisions as to whether or not I’ll have a couple of glasses of wine. Self-medicating with alcohol is obviously a huge problem, but it’s in a different category.”

http://www.allaboutbipolar.com/2009/08/07/all-about-bipolar-alcohol-and-its-effects-on-bipolar-disorder/

We all know alcohol is a depressant.

Read more »