Uncategorized « Straight Talk on Managing Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder II and Psychosis

I call psychosis the forgotten bipolar disorder symptom!

My bipolar psychosis intensified at age 19. I consistently had hallucinations of seeing myself killed and thought it was normal. I eventually learned to manage my psychosis, but it sure would have helped if the health care professionals in my life had explained the symptoms of psychosis and that they were often a normal part of the bipolar disorder diagnosis.

I just received the following question from Mario on the topic:

Julie, I thought that people w/ Bipolar II don’t get psychotic? Or did you have a psychotic depression?

Hi Mario,

People with bipolar II can definitely get psychotic. I’ve had psychotic symptoms since age 16. Mine are usually with depression – as it’s rare for someone with bipolar II to have psychosis [ Read More ]

Bipolar Disorder Curious? Listen to the Bipolar Disorder 101 Coaching Call and Change Your World!

Here I am working on my 2009 radio show!

Click the link below to listen to the Bipolar Disorder 101 coaching call where I condense my bipolar disorder knowledge into one hour. We had over 100 people on the original call- now it can reach even more people. You can listen online or download the MP3 to any handheld device. Here’s a quote from one of the listeners:

“Julie, how did you get so much information about bipolar disorder into one call? It’s the first time my son has ever made it through a whole recording about his diagnosis. I could tell that hearing the facts from someone who struggles as much as he does with bipolar really made a difference. Thank you! I was [ Read More ]

Julie Fast Mental Health Court Consulting

Julie’s coaching practice is currently on hold while she works on her new video course explaining her cannabis and bipolar disorder harm reduction plan. Please feel free to contact Julie at Julie Fast Books on gmail to receive a notification when the cannabis education course is ready for the public. Please note- Julie Fast is not taking any new coaching clients at this time. Please refer to her books and blog for help. She will be back soon. Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder is the place to start for partners. Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder and The Health Cards Treatment System for Bipolar Disorder are the best place to start for family members. Please do read below to hear more about her work. She will announce on the blog when her practice is taking new clients.

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Julie is the reason my son is currently in [ Read More ]

I Made it Thought the Suicide Darkness Once Again and You Can Too

Suicidal depression is the most dangerous illness in the world. It is more dangerous than any outwardly physical illness and is in my opinion far more dangerous than war and natural disasters. How can I make such a bold statement? In all of these situations, you have a self to protect you from harm. When you have a physical illness, you have a mind that says- you will make it through this! When you are in war, you can have training and weapons to protect you or have someone on your side to protect you if you are unable to fight for yourself. When a natural disaster occurs, you can take shelter and literally ‘weather out the storm.’ I am not making light of the death that can occur from outward experiences, but I am putting forth the argument that if we want to [ Read More ]

The Many Faces of Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder Check in…

The mood swings over the past few weeks have been intense, but they are now calmed down.

Managing bipolar disorder is a daily task.

I don’t get a break. Is it that way for you? I’m not saying I’m miserable or in a mood swing all of the time. I am saying that in order to stay as stable as possible, I treat bipolar disorder first in all things that I do. I’m speaking in Atlanta, Georgia on the 18th. I started planing for the trip last week in terms of getting my sleep on the same time schedule and packing ahead of time. If I don’t do this- and believe me I don’t want to!- it will affect my performance!

Julie

Here I am [ Read More ]