Our award-winning bpHope Blog is a collection of posts written with heartfelt honesty by a group of bloggers from around the world, with each providing their own unique perspectives on living with bipolar disorder. Our bloggers write on issues that reflect their experiences and knowledge of living with bipolar disorder and address a range of topics, including relationships, treatment, symptoms (mania, depression, anger, hypersexuality, impulsivity, sleep), stigma, parenting, and more. Our diverse and eclectic group of blog/vlog authors offer information, inspiration, practical guidance—and HOPE, no matter what your needs are. Whether you have bipolar disorder or have a loved one who does, the bpHope Blog is a trusted community for you to connect with.
Gaining insight into your triggers and treatment strategies to manage mood swings takes patience and dedication, but it can payoff by helping you achieve stability. Getty Images There is a term that is used in the mental health world called “insight.” In the dictionary, insight is defined as, “the act or result of apprehending the...
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My bipolar 1 diagnosis explained my symptoms, but didn’t give me relief. Forget the painful social stigma — I was stigmatizing myself. When people who take psychiatric medications are burdened with guilt and shame from stigmatizing themselves, this is proof of an obvious problem in our world. Sometimes, being diagnosed with a mental health condition...
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Often, the most telling sign that I’m experiencing a relapse in my bipolar disorder is silence — the quiet nature of withdrawal itself makes it easy to overlook. A while back, I received a phone call from someone who wanted to check in on the state of my thoughts. I was having a trying mental...
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It may not be easy, but letting go of hypomania’s false promises and accepting the challenge of committing to treatment can help you manage your bipolar disorder. Sometimes I miss hypomania. If all my hypomanic episodes didn’t culminate in crushing depression, I’m pretty sure I would still be prancing around untreated, oblivious, and fundamentally convinced...
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Shifting from an ‘I can’t’ to an ‘I can’ mindset is key to managing your bipolar — a challenging yet rewarding process. I recently reflected on something I seem to struggle with all the time: negative self-talk. The way we talk to ourselves has a meaningful impact — on our attitude, mental health, our ability...
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It’s important to understand the major differences between bipolar depression and unipolar depression — and to help educate others about the distinctions. Most people know what depression looks and feels like — a lack of motivation, waking up in the morning with the thought, What is the point of my life? and asking, Is this all...
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When it comes to bipolar disorder, what people don’t understand greatly outweighs what people do understand. The internet is filled with posts titled, “What I wish the world knew about…,” filled in with something that, while seemingly common, is actually quite misunderstood. (For example, “What I wish the world knew about being on food stamps.”)...
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With my unpredictable moods, I never felt secure. Caught in a cycle of paranoia and intrusive thoughts, I had to learn to challenge my mistaken core beliefs. I Don’t Trust You — Because I Don’t Trust Myself When we talk about trust in relationships, we rarely address how important it is to trust ourselves. When...
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The varieties of talk therapy can be confusing: Is a counselor required? What’s the difference between CBT and DBT? Do I need a workbook or something? Talk Therapies, Decoded If you’ve considered talk therapy for bipolar disorder, you’ve probably heard of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and its proven benefits for those of us living with...
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If negative experiences have left you wary of relationships, it’s OK. Take the first step towards healing, and open your mind to change. We’ve all been hurt. This is life, it’s hard to avoid it. Sometimes our experiences can leave us distrustful of people, relationships, or situations and can result in the defense mechanism of...
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I recognize the importance of a consistent routine for managing bipolar. But to maintain my stability, it’s crucial for me to have free time for spontaneity. The Importance of Routine When Living With Bipolar We hear it all the time: Routine is so important for people with bipolar disorder! Keep a steady routine to combat...
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Bipolar disorder can interrupt the life you had planned and leave you feeling hopeless, but hope is always there if you look for it. Trigger Warning: If matters of faith trigger you easily, then you’ll want to skip reading this or at least replaces the references to faith within this post with the things that...
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If you’re a friend of someone living with bipolar disorder, you can play the important role of vigilantly helping them watch for symptoms of depression or mania. In a previous article I mentioned “red flags” that can alert you when your friend may be slipping into depression or mania. What are these bipolar red flags,...
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We’re all familiar with the story of the ‘tortured artist,’ but is there a unique creative force in the mood swings of bipolar? By the time I was 16 years old, I’d convinced myself that I was a creative genius. I knew nothing yet of bipolar disorder, but the budding manias of my teenage years...
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Because it’s often associated with violence, some people fear the psychosis that can accompany bipolar manic episodes. But my experience of psychosis made me a better person. Living with bipolar disorder can be challenging and confusing, and some find ourselves at the mercy of one particular symptom: psychosis. There’s a preconceived notion that psychosis always...
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My busy schedule required proper sleep. Every spring and summer, that routine ended — and mania, depression, and anxiety soon followed. Now I know what lifestyle suits my bipolar stability. Springtime Misadventures More light. More possibilities. Who doesn’t get excited about the advent of spring? Yet I didn’t make the connection between springtime and the...
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In the typical fashion of ‘unless you’ve been there, done that,’ you just can’t know. Bipolar is an illness that I work to manage every day, and that includes dealing with past traumas while finding ways to carry on and find happiness. I live with bipolar disorder. It’s not something I signed up for, nor...
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Even though I’m stable, I feel that bipolar depression has permanently changed all aspects of my brain. Here’s what I do to combat those changes. Having lived with bipolar 1 for over 15 years, I’ve been through my share of episodes of depression. But there was one from the winter of 2011 until the fall...
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Living with bipolar isn’t easy — it requires strength. But we can get through periods of stress and maintain our stability. Here are the strategies I use to get through stressful, triggering times. Bipolar and the Need for Support and Coping Skills in Times of Stress Bipolar disorder isn’t an easy illness. We need support...
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People living with bipolar disorder are well aware of grandiosity in thinking — but a lesser-known fact is that many also battle self-doubt. An offshoot of mania, grandiosity can manifest itself in a variety of ways. Many people living with bipolar disorder have accepted a certain level of questioning from society about their life goals. A...
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