Pt 2..Help for Bipolar Depression: Getting Out of Bed in the Morning

Thanks for all of the great comments on the post below. It’s obvious that getting out of bed (and not getting on the couch) is 100% essential for people with depression. We just can’t lie there.  We just can’t. Or the day will get away from us.  I have a motto.

Beds are for sleeping.

And I stick to it.

Here is a great comment from Rebecca:

” I have learned that the best thing I can do for myself is to get up immediately out of bed, the minute my eyes open…if I stay in bed one more second I become depressed.  This may sound so simple, but it works for me…I get up and make myself a good cup of coffee and then begin my day…I’m on disability, so I have to create my days.  I try to make each day productive in some way…just going to the store is a major event [ Read More ]





Posted on April 30th, 2011 | Tags: , , | Category: Depression

Julie Fast Video: Feeling intimidated by your bipolar disorder doctor?

I recently did a series of interviews for a large mental health website called healthyplace.com. Here is one of the first videos I recorded. I’d like to set this up a bit before you watch it. I went through a terrible experience in 1994 when my partner Ivan got very sick and was in the hospital for three months in a manic/psychotic episode. I was scared, overwhelmed and very confused about what was going on. I never met his doctor when he was in the hospital! The nurses were wonderful, but no one actually explained the illness or why he was so sick. I literally had to do everything on my own. Things have changed a lot of course! I wrote books on this experience myself- so the information is more out there now. The video below is a response to the question of what we can do to work successfully without health care professionals [ Read More ]





A thank you from Julie

I got very, very sick today. I would say the depression was a 9 out of 10. Hospital style depression. It’s now 9PM and I have it down to a 4. I worked hard for that 4! I did a lot today to take care of myself and will write more about that later.

Before I go to sleep and sleep off the rest of this terrible mood swing- I want to say thank you for the amazing comments of support I get from all of you. You know how it is when you get really sick- you just get so worn out. I cried off and on all day and I’m now physically tired….. bla! My mom and friends helped a lot- I am glad I was able to get on with my day as best I could. The odd thing is that there was no obvious trigger. It was what my coauthor [ Read More ]