Get It Done When You’re Depressed

Dear Miss Fast,

I want to say “thank you.” 

I have read every textbook,  self help book,  etc. and was still beating my head against a wall until I read your book.  I can tell you that Strategy 11,  Expect Brain Chatter from Get it Done When You’re Depressed,  was the answer to prayer.  I don’t know what it was about this specific chapter,  but it opened up serious dialogue after 14 years of marriage.  This chapter gave me a simple way to explain the on-going dialogue and loop of music in my head and why it is so painful.

 Thank you again.

 Sincerely,

 Betty

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Posted on January 25th, 2012 | Category: Bipolar Symptoms, Depression

Comedy Movies: a cure for the down times

I’ve recently been re-watching my favorite comedies. These help on the dark days. I was watching a lot of drama shows from England and it was just getting me down. Here are a few comedies I like: Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion The Castle Bowfinger There’s Something About Mary Team America. (Warning- this is a very adult puppet movie! ) Zoolander

These are laugh out loud movies. There are not many good comedies in the theaters these days! It’s hard to do an adult comedy.

A friend of mine watches a lot of afternoon TV –  junky stuff and it really gets her down. It makes no sense to do this when you have bipolar disorder. It just makes the illness worse.  Why not watch a comedy!

I’m not trying to sound like a mother, but I know that watching comedies makes [ Read More ]





Posted on January 16th, 2012 | Category: Bipolar Symptoms, Depression

Depression Management Secret: Every day has a plan

  Depression has been my unwanted companion for many years.  I work hard to make sure it doesn’t take over my life. I’ve noticed that free days where nothing is schedule are a problem for me. Because of this- I try to schedule myself out a week in advance.  This doesn’t always work. Would you believe there are people who aren’t this crazy about scheduling and say, ” Let’s see what happens?” ;)

I know what works for me. Scheduling and being with people. This is especially true on Friday and Saturday night. Do I wish I were different and more ‘fluid’ with my scheduling? Of course! But I’m depressed a lot- and this is what helps.   Julie





Posted on December 12th, 2011 | Category: Bipolar Treatment Tips, Depression

Mancession: Depression in Men During a Down Economy

Men and women are different- so it makes sense they would get depressed differently as well. Here is an interesting article on men and economic change.

Male depression is expected to become a factor for more Americans in the coming years because of growing social and economic pressures.

http://www.thirdage.com/news/depression-expected-hit-more-american-men_3-1-2011

I can’t stress it enough that depression is treatable. Especially with the right medications.  If you are a guy with depression, you have different pressures than women. Find a male therapist if that will work better- talk to other guys who are depressed and read books by men who have managed the illness.

Julie





Crying

I just received an interesting question: Julie, why do some people with bipolar disorder cry and cry when they are deoressed while others don’t cry at all? I am not sure why people cry.  Melissa.

I am not an expert on this, so I asked my coauthor Dr. John Preston for his explanation.

Hi Julie,

Crying likely serves several purposes. The first is crying as a distress signal. Babies do this, and the result is that loving parents are alerted to their discomfort and feed them or rock them. Likewise, crying is a social signal that may elicit support for others. Additionally, crying has been found to result in significant emotional relief. There are basically two types of crying: one is an aborted crying spell; here the person tried not to cry…they hold back tears and this is often accompanied by a flood [ Read More ]





Posted on November 30th, 2011 | Category: Depression

Bipolar Disorder Medication Woes

I’ve been on my medication (Lamictal- generic Lamtrigine) since 2005.  Unfortunately,  the Lamictal has stopped working three times  in the past six years. Well, it hasn’t stopped working exactly- if it did I would be suicidal pretty quickly. I should  say that it is not working as well as it usually does. 

All medications have an average/recommended dose as a guideline for prescribers. But this is only a start.  People have such different brain chemistry that the dosage can be all over the place.

My problem is that I’m on the highest dose as possible for the Lamictal. 700mg. When the lower dose stopped working last year, my prescriber and I upped it to get me out of a really serious rapid cycling depression. (A few mood swings a day- waking up crying in the middle of the night, etc. )

And now it’s happening again. I can’t raise the dose. I use the management plan I write [ Read More ]





Posted on October 23rd, 2011 | Category: Bipolar Symptoms, Depression, Lamictal, Medications
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