Please visit Julie’s new website at www.JulieFast.com
Welcome to BipolarHappens.com
This is the original website for bestselling author, speaker, media consultant, mental health trainer and coach Julie A. Fast. Julie is the author of Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner, Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder, Get it Done When You’re Depressed, The Health Cards Treatment System for Bipolar Disorder and the top Kindle eBook Bipolar Happens! Julie is also a columnist for Bp Magazine for Bipolar, a blogger for Psychology Today and the Huffington Post, a member of the People Magazine expert registry and a regular media pundit on the topic of mental health disorders. Julie was the original consultant to Claire Danes for the TV show Homeland. BipolarHappens is the only place to explore Julie’s Health Cards Treatment Plan. You will also find free articles and podcasts on BipolarHappens.com filled with highly original opinions about the signs, symptoms, treatment and management of bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder. Julie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder two at age 31. She then received a more accurate diagnoses of schizoaffective disorder once she better understood her symptoms. Julie lives with daily mental health symptoms that she manages with the ideas you can read about on this website and in her books.
Latest News from Julie A. Fast
A note from Julie: Welcome to Bipolar Happens! Maybe you are in one of the following situations:
- You have a bipolar disorder diagnosis and want to know how to manage the illness.
- You are in a relationship with someone who has bipolar disorder and need a plan both of you can use to keep your relationship healthy.
- You are the parent or caregiver or someone with bipolar disorder and you need a plan to keep your head straight while helping someone stay stable.
- You care about someone with bipolar disorder who refuses treatment.
- You are a health care professional looking for tools to better help your clients who have bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder.
In 1994, my partner Ivan went into a manic and psychotic episode. I went through his hospitalizations, court ordered committal and the reality of how long it took for him to get better when he came home. The next year I was diagnosed with bipolar II. It was quite a surprise.
Two people with bipolar disorder in one relationship need a plan.
As Ivan got better, I became worse. 23 medications. Trouble working. Wrecked relationships, weight gain and unhappiness. Then I finally said Enough! and wrote The Health Cards Treatment System for Bipolar Disorder you will find on this site. Ivan and I stabilized by using this plan. I was then well enough to write and work and this website was born.
Whether you have the illness or care about someone who does, I hope you find all of the information on this site helpful. There are free articles, podcasts, a link to my blog, videos, and my books. Think of this as a one stop website site for all of your bipolar disorder questions and needs.
Bipolar disorder can be treated successfully. Whether you are a person with the illness or care about someone with bipolar disorder, BipolarHappens.com shows you the tools needed to succcessfully manage bipolar disorder.
Family Member or Partner?
Julie is currently taking a break from coaching. If you are a parent, family member, friend or health care professional, please visit Julie on her closed Facebook group The Stable Table.
If you are a partner, please visit The Stable Bed on Facebook. This is a closed group for partners of people with bipolar disorder and schizoaffective.
If you are a parent or partner of someone with bipolar disorder and are in crisis or just need more tools to help the person you love, my coaching may be for you. Here is the link to read more: Julie Fast Parent and Partner Coaching. The following is an article for parents who support an adult child with bipolar disorder.
The Hijacked House by Julie A. Fast
Whether you have the illness yourself or care about someone with bipolar disorder, my goal is for you to feel better, less confused and more powerful once you read the information on this site. Bipolar disorder is a treatable illness. It’s strong, but we can be stronger!
Julie
What’s New with Julie?
Is Kanye West Just a Grandiose, Attention-Seeking Rapper? The difference between bragging and grandiose manic/psychosis.
Julie writes about Kanye West and Bipolar Disorder for Psychology Today.
Excerpt:
“For those who don’t understand bipolar disorder, his behavior appears similar to the bragging grandiosity cultivated in the rapping world. For those of us in the bipolar world, we can easily see the signs of mania and psychosis. How can the general public tell that this is bipolar disorder and not just his rap artist persona looking for publicity and attention?
By understanding the typical patterns of bipolar disorder and how profoundly different manic/psychosis is from the much loved and cultivated bragging of the creative rapper.”
Click here to read the article about Kanye and Bipolar Disorder.
Bipolar, Cannabis and Psychosis: A Private Coaching Session for Parents and Partners
Click here to read more about Julie’s individual coaching for parents and partners.
Julie A. Fast article for the Huffington Post. I loved Chris Cornell. His suicide doesn’t fit with our typical idea of why people kill themselves. I share my story of medication induced suicidal episodes and pose the idea that we need to look at suicide as a chemical brain reaction that is no different than a stroke or a heart attack. Then, we can get people help in the moment and save the people we love. RIP Chris Cornell.
Click here to read Julie’s Huffington Post Article on Chris Cornel: When Suicide Doesn’t Make Sense
Julie recently spoke at Oxford University in England at the Oxford Union
The event The Student Mental Health Crisis – What Next? was a great success.
“25% of adults suffer from mental health conditions; this figure doubles among Oxford students. Many believe that drastic action is needed to respond to this crisis in care, engaging with both the general stigma and failing institutions.”
As a person who flunked out of my first college due to my untreated mental health disorder, I’m passionately committed to helping students succeed in school. I eventually received a degree eight years after I started. It doesn’t have to be this hard. Universities, parents, students, health care professionals and teachers can band together and create a system that works for those of us who need extra assistance to get our degrees. I also want to encourage those of us who have gained weight or experienced physical changes in life to still get out there and shine. Our message matters!
Julie was interviewed for an article in Good Magazine, Kanye West Let Out a Cry for Help, We Just Weren’t Listening by Kristin Marguerite Doidge. Julie was asked, Does Kanye West have bipolar disorder? Her answer is explained in this balanced and compassionate piece on celebrity, creativity and mental health symptoms.
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