Tagged with Bipolar

TFTD: Kay Jamison quote

“I believe that curiosity, wonder and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers; that restlessness and discontent are vital things; and that intense experience and suffering instruct us in ways that less intense emotions can never do. I believe, in short, that we are equally beholden to heart and mind, and that […]

Manic-Depressive Illness 2nd Ed.

The long awaited Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression, Second Edition, by Frederick K. Goodwin and Kay Redfield Jamison is finally in stores. Hopefully you have the first edition. It is *the* reference book for bipolar disorder. Over the years many of the hypotheses set forth in the first edition have been proven out. […]

Perkins Porkchops

Like many folks on psych meds, I’m obese. I make no excuses. I hate being fat and I’m doing what I can. The other weekend I decided to break my diet and have breakfast at a Perkins Pancake House on a Sunday morning with two family members who are also on psych meds for bipolar […]

Hiding Divya

Bipolar Disorder Daily News Blog: New South Asian (India) Film on Bipolar Disorder Hiding Divya is an English-language film about the stigma against the mental ill in New York/North Jersey Philipino-Indian communities. It’s a must-see.

Remission in Bipolar Disorder

If someone figures out how to “cure” genetics, let me know. You can’t exactly pick up a bottle of Grecian Formula for Brain at the local pharmacy. Remission is another thing altogether. That simply means that you are having an extended symptom-free period. Given that the DSM-IV bipolar criteria only require that the patient have […]

Bipolar Disorder and Sleep

“How many hours do you sleep on average at night, and what is the quality of your sleep?” are two of the first questions I ask every patient on the initial interview and all subsequent follow-up visits. While the hypomanic usually gloats over how little sleep he needs, getting by on 3 to 4 hours a night, the lack of quality sleep can wreak havoc on his mood and decision-making abilities. Sleep deprivation results in feelings of malaise, poor concentration, and moodiness, and even accidental deaths.

Jessica Wants an MRI

This is an expansion on a comment I left on The Zucchini Patch. I think they use PET scans for what you want to do. An MRI isn’t capable of telling the difference between a live brain and a dead brain. It can, however, spot a shrunken hippocampus or amygdala or anomalies in the blood […]

Extrapolated Salary

I graphed my salary from the Social Security Statement this morning. After diagnosis and meds, my salary increase faltered and I began to have steep drops in salary, usually corresponding to a period of unemployment, every three years. Just for giggles I’ve uploaded a gif of the graph. I let Excel do a logarithmic extrapolation […]

Self-Googling again

I suppose I’ll go in to work today for an hour or so. The ADHD got the better of me of Friday and I burnt out at about 5PM. But before I go in, I think I’ll surf the Internets. Let’s see who is linking to me. The Bipolar Planet has been in existence since […]

The Thousand Names of the New God

I have chosen to step out of the darkness and into the cold light of day. I am bipolar. Accept me or fade away. I don’t have time for shadows. I wonder about the wisdom of this decision, to embrace the bipolar disorder as part of who I am. Not to fight it, but to […]

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