Mania is not a Positive….. Sorry! Arg! Not fair!

 

So many of us with bipolar want to lose the depression and keep the euphoric mania.
 
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Mania is a sign of illness just like depression is a sign of illness.
 
Maturity around bipolar management means that we accept we have to let go of Mania if we want to be stable.
 
Aargh! It’s no fun! It’s not fair! But it saves our lives and our relationships.
 
Mania is one side of the bipolar coin. Depression is the other side. Same coin. Same illness. I wish our mania paid us in Bitcoin!
 
Julie
PS: I am posting more in Instagram. Please join me @JulieFast
Comments are closed



Posted on June 23rd, 2020 | Category:

Three Tips to Ease Money Mistakes with Bipolar

 

Oh my! I have lost SO much money due to this illness. Whether it’s manic spending or losing money because I can’t work, my finances are deeply impacted by bipolar. I think about this topic often and wanted to share what I do today to help myself maintain as much financial stability as possible…. This article from the wonderful Bp Magazine explains my system. 

Three Tips to Ease Money Mistakes with Bipolar

In the moment, manic spending feels good and depression spending feels uplifting. It’s no wonder that we get caught out even after 20 years of managing bipolar successfully!

Bipolar Disorder and Financial Fallout

Is there any illness in the world that picks up and throws a person around like bipolar? I don’t think so! I’ve spent all of my adult life in either the plus or negative column financially due to bipolar disorder, and I would like to share the plan I use to prevent the biggest bipolar financial disasters. This is not a new topic, but I hope that my 20-plus years of experience managing money while alternately manic and depressed can help those new to the illness find balance a lot sooner than I did!

#1 I Face the Reality That I Don’t Think Clearly When in a Mood Swing.

If this is reality, doesn’t it make sense that there is simply NO way to make smart financial decisions when in a mood swing? Even after all of this time, I’m shocked that mania creeps up on me and I buy five stuffed animals because they would look really great in my next video. I have people in my life who know what I spend, and I give them permission to ask me questions and help me if they see my spending patterns change. I am always upset and embarrassed that mania grabbed me once again, but I do listen eventually!

Click here to read the rest of the article on the Bp Magazine website. 

Julie 

 

Comments are closed



Posted on June 22nd, 2020 | Category:

Julie A. Fast has a Bipolar Disorder Instagram Account

I hope you will join me on Instagram. I’m focusing on succinct posts that give strategies you can use immediately.

I’m @JulieFast.

Stop by and say hello!

Julie 

 

Comments are closed



Posted on June 22nd, 2020 | Category:

Panic and Anxiety from Wearing a Mask in Public

I lived in Japan for over three years in the ‘90s and regularly saw people wearing masks. It’s a part of the Asian culture and has been for decades. When the flu would hit the schools, all of the masks would come out on the trains.  I was always told that people wore masks to prevent from spreading their own illness to others. If you love K-Pop as I do, masks being worn by dancers during a performance as a part of a stage costume is very common.
Masks have now come to our culture and I wish I could say I find wearing one easy.  Nope. It has not been easy at all!  My desire to wear a mask is there.  I don’t want to get sick or make anyone else sick, but I can tell you that as a person with bipolar who also lives with severe anxiety, wearing a mask in public has been a nightmare!
In case this is the same for you, I’ve come up with a way for us to learn to wear masks without increasing our anxiety.
1. Know that you’re not alone! I thought I was the only one going through this until I asked my Facebook community if anyone else had the anxiety problem.  People replied within minutes:
Julie, I feel suffocated! 
My normal claustrophobia is now a lot worse. 
I get hot and sweaty and can’t breathe!
I feel so much better knowing it’s not just me! I recently had to return an item at a UPS store. It was a simple procedure, but when combined with wearing the mask that always makes me act as though I can’t breathe, it was a disaster! This was when I realized I have to find a way to live with masks.
2. Regulate your breathing. Anxiety is a breathing issue. Regulating breathing is the number one way to reduce anxiety. We have a few options while wearing a mask in a store. One, walk back into the parking lot for a few minutes and breathe normally while talking to ourselves about keeping the breathing stable when we walk back into the store. We can also pause in the moment inside the store and say to ourselves, “I can breathe just fine. The mask doesn’t prevent breathing. This is anxiety. All of this mask wearing is new in my culture. I will adapt. Right now, I am going to self regulate my breathing!”
3. Give yourself time. Please don’t avoid going places if the mask makes you anxious!  Masks will be a part of our future now. We do need to learn to wear them without anxiety. If you stop going out during the first round of wearing these masks, it will affect your movement if we are asked to wear masks again in the future! Going out is healthy.
Let’s prepare ahead for a life of using masks.
Writing this blog led to my thinking about change in general.  People all over the world had to change behaviors over night and in many cases, people lost their work and even their income. We were then asked to put a mask over our face in order to protect society. These changes were stressful for stable people – it’s pretty obvious to me now that these changes might create absolutely havoc in the bipolar brain. And yet, I didn’t see it this way in the moment. Instead, I was hard on myself for being WEAK and unable to just BREATHE! It took me much longer than you would expect to connect the dots that wearing the mask was creating intense anxiety.  My mind was in one place- I want to wear this mask and I will wear this mask to keep myself and everyone else safe during a pandemic, but my brain? Oh, it had a mind of its own.
What is on my face!
I can’t breathe!
Danger! Danger!
Anxiety is complex. It’s a combination of the physical as well as the mental. It can take over the mind and body in seconds. The way to counteract this anxiety reaction is to prepare ahead. Anxiety responds really well to natural treatments such as breathing and cognitive behavioral therapy.  I definitely have to work on my mask wearing ability.
 I asked my mother if she had any breathing problems or anxiety due to wearing the mask. She said, “No! Do you?”
I’m glad I asked. It’s a reminder that my bipolar/anxious brain simply isn’t like a regular brain. I need to remind myself constantly that I am different and might need more help in new situations, such as suddenly having to cover my mouth in order to go into the grocery store!

Julie 

Comments are closed



Posted on June 6th, 2020 | Category: Uncategorized

How Writers with Bipolar Can Make a Difference

An example of how we can all use images to show the real world of bipolar disorder.

I rarely comment on events outside of our bipolar community on my pages, but our current world situation needs to be addressed. I would like to share one way that the bipolar writing community can make a difference in our current times. Ten years ago I realized that almost all stock photos used on my online writings were white, young females with perfect hair and teeth. What the heck!
 
Bipolar disorder is the same all over the world- it has no racial profile at all. And yet, the articles and posts from the very beginning used images that only showed one element of the population.
 
I made a decision to specifically ask for the following when working with large websites that publish online mental health articles.
 
It is a big shocking I had to ask to be honest, but all were willing to comply.
 
1. All ages. These young, white females were not representative of the age range of bipolar. I asked for people older than 40. I had never seen this on any articles – and I started in this business in 2002.
 
2. I asked for every article to show a range of people. At first, I focused on the community I knew well from living in Asia for a long time as well as my African friends, but I eventually realized that even I was leaving out Middle Eastern and other nationalities. It’s a live and learn situation for all of us.
 
3. MORE MEN! And while we are at it – more non white men.
 
Here is an example. Look at the difference it makes simply by asking for a picture to represent ALL people with bipolar! As always, thanks to BP Magazine for Bipolar for being so open to my requests.
 
It is hard to know what to say or how to help or create change in any community, but one way I can definitely say all of us can make a difference is by thinking carefully about the images we use to represent our work.
 
Thank you,
 

Julie

Comments are closed



Posted on June 5th, 2020 | Category:

What it’s Like to Work when You Have Daily Bipolar Disorder

I live with daily bipolar disorder symptoms. This is called ultradian rapid cycling bipolar disorder. I was born with ultra rapid cycling bipolar disorder, but moved into ultradian due to medication side effects. Ultra rapid cycling means I have weekly- or monthly mood cycles. Ultradian means I have a mood swing on most days.

If you’re new to bipolar disorder, this is an ancient genetic illness that has not changed in 1000 years- but what HAS changed is the increased use of SSRI anti depressants as well as ADD meds for those of us with mental health disorders and like many people, taking these meds in the 1990s before enough was known about their effect on bipolar greatly increased my mood swings. It was thought these meds helped depression and increased productivity in people with bipolar. Nope. They just created more mania and rapid cycling.

My rapid cycling greatly affects my ability to work.

Work is a passion for many people. Animals work. We build and create and destroy and build again. For some, this includes working at what we would call a regular 9-5 job while others like myself have to make a living with entrepreneurial work due to the stresses of the regular work environment. I can say that work is the most difficult thing in my life and if I had one wish from a genie it would be to work with ease. (Well, first I would wish for the bipolar to be gone! So that would take care of the problem as well. 😉 )

My goal is to help people manage bipolar disorder from day one so that they don’t have to go through what I experience daily when I try to work! I share my story as a cautionary tale.

 This is an illness that will progress if fueled by outside events including what we put in our bodies- and if the illness progresses,  our ability to work and support ourselves will change as well- and not in a positive direction!

 

Work is about productivity.  Depression takes away our ability to be productive with ease while mania often makes us so productive we’re more like a popcorn machine spitting out ideas and the beginnings of projects instead of a final, cohesive project. This includes everything we do in life. Mood swings affect all work- from keeping a house and car clean, taking care of the needs of children and actually working for money.

My daily life is focused on work as it is my main love in life. I get great pleasure from working and creating. Having bipolar TAKE this from me on a daily basis has always been the biggest struggle in my life. It continues to this day.

Don’t be like me! Keep away from SSRI drugs and ADD meds- even if it means telling a health care professional she or he needs more education about bipolar! Avoid cannabis marijuana with THC as it greatly increases so many of our symptoms.  Go to sleep on the same day you woke up to keep your melatonin and serotonin balanced.  I didn’t know to do any of this the first 20 years of my illness. Now, in many areas, it’s too late for me to change my brain back to how it was.

Learn from me. I wrote Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder from a place of experience. I was in a relationship for ten years with a man who has bipolar one (I wrote Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder for partners as I have a lot of experience as a partner!)   I’ve had bipolar symptoms since age 16. I also have a separate psychotic disorder to complicate things!

 

Work is about stability. It’s hard to work when you have daily bipolar disorder, so do what you can to manage bipolar disorder. I have a simple saying…

 

Treat Bipolar First

 

… that I use every day.  If you’re new to bipolar- if you or a loved one was just diagnosed, read Take Charge and truly do what it says. It will help you work and support yourself and those you care about. I can tell you that trying to forge your own path  – such as staying up at night because you’re a night owl- or letting the mania thrive in order to work and then just waiting out the inevitable depressions that follow will not work in the long run. I tried it! If you have bipolar and you want to work successfully, it can’t be a work experience based off mania. That simply won’t last.  You will crash and burn. Work towards stability. It is NOT boring. I promise.

Decide today that treating bipolar first is your main goal in life.  Learn to manage bipolar so that you CAN WORK!

Julie 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments are closed



Posted on June 4th, 2020 | Category: Uncategorized
Older Entries »  
  « Newer Entries