During college, at an organization's meeting during which I was doing a presentation on "bipolar disorder," I asked the listeners a series of questions at the end. Some of the students in the room were already aware that I had a bipolar diagnosis myself, but others were not. I knew that if I disclosed my [...]
Even though vacations are meant to be relaxing, they can also be stressful, especially for someone with mental illnesses. Changing time zones, overcrowded rooms (hello, entire family in one tiny house), inability to sleep, lack of routine... the list goes on and on. So, what should you bring along with you or do? Here [...]
In a full-blown manic state, I felt this overwhelming sense of urgency, one which was related to helping others, specifically those with mental illnesses and suicidal ideation. As someone who has experienced debilitating bipolar disorder symptoms, including obsessive thoughts of a suicidal nature, I felt strongly empathetic to those who have gone and continue [...]
Dear past in-patient psychiatrists, Imagine having your freedom stripped from you "for your own good." Imagine that consisting of: being handcuffed, placed in the back of a police car, locked in a psychiatric ward for a unspecified amount of time. Being in a psychiatric unit can feel so dehumanizing... In the psychiatric [...]
. Today, I feel normal… . Last night, I did not sleep too much or too little. My thoughts are not excruciatingly slow or shockingly fast. I feel motivated, but not in a grandiose “I am going to save the world” manner. I’m not socially isolated nor am I obnoxiously bombarding friends and family [...]
So many people have an oversimplified idea of what it is like to seek help for mental illness.
A major part of accepting an illness and the treatment required to manage it is also accepting the fact that life is now different. You cannot simply reverse things to how they were before you were symptomatic- there is no magic pill that have time machine qualitiess. You may have to sacrifice certain things for [...]
@ShutUpAmanda, who has been creating Twitter mental health hashtags for the past 3 years, started #TheRealityofDepressionIs following the recent suicides and flood of news/posts/tweets on suicide and depression. Amanda has dealt with depression for years and wanted to kick off a conversation! Below, I share ten tweets using the hashtag: https://twitter.com/ShutUpAmanda/status/1006028840437571584 https://twitter.com/CalculatingMind/status/1007803353974431744 https://twitter.com/lizard_lou/status/1006023561717223424 https://twitter.com/afspnational/status/1006152654261837825 [...]
How many illnesses can be seen in a positive light by its patients? How many have symptoms that make the "sick" willingly give up their meds time after time? This is one reason that bipolar disorder is so fascinating to me. Medication non-adherence may not be that big of an issue with other illnesses, but [...]
Even though I have been reading and writing about mental health for the past 3 years, I still get confused from time to time with the overwhelming amount of acronyms used in the mental health field (job/degree titles, meds, treatment centers, etc). THERE ARE SO MANY. I decided to make a list of some that [...]
The Calculating Mind 