I Want More Than Stability in My Bipolar Disorder

Excerpted from by Nataly Kogan, published on Feb. 8, 2022 by Sounds True.

Like many fellow “Zebras” or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) patients, my diagnostic odyssey took around 15 years — from initial physical symptom onset to a formal diagnosis at age 35 last February. In those 15 years, I was repeatedly disbelieved, discredited, belittled, patronized, and gaslighted by the medical professionals who were supposed to be caring for me and helping me. Instead of helping me, they subjected me to unforgivable levels of iatrogenic harm — harm caused by the medical profession. Their lack of clinical knowledge, inability to manage complex patients, and downright ignorance delayed my diagnosis for years on end. By blaming my “mental health” for everything I experienced, they absolved themselves of any responsibility for finding out what was happening with my body.  For years, doctors didn’t believe that anything was actually physically “wrong” with me, and they repeatedly told me, “It’s all in your head.” My doctors told me that what I perceived were “physical” problems were categorically attributed to “psychological causes” as aftereffects of severe childhood abuse and trauma.

It all started when my mother took a piece of loose-leaf paper, held it against my back, and used a fluorescent yellow highlighter to trace my spine. “Your spine is literally curving,” she said to me.

Challenges, both big and small, can affect everyone — no matter what walk of life you come from. As a person with cerebral palsy, even the most basic daily tasks can be a struggle. At 35 years old, I still struggle day-to-day with simple things, like putting on shoes and tying them and making my way up and down any flight of stairs. The majority of individuals with CP often face the harsh reality of chronic pain on a daily basis, and I am no different. Sure, I’ve learned to hide my pain most days, but I can never fully escape it. Some days, it is my legs in pain; other days it’s my back that hurts. I hurt just as much on days when I sit on the couch and do nothing as I do on the days when I’m on my feet for an eight-hour workday. For me, unpredictability is often one of the most frustrating things about living with cerebral palsy.

post-vacation stress and depression are uncontrollable or to be expected. The good news is that with some healthy coping skills these feelings can be managed and we can get ourselves to a more optimistic viewpoint.

When I first arrived in Australia from the UK in early 2012, I witnessed the WEIRDEST thing….I was driving along a country back road ‘out bush’, when I noticed the Department of Parks and Wildlife trucks making a roadblock.  A tunnel of thick black smoke filled the hot summer air just beyond them, billowing and undulating aggressively as if it was sent by the Devil himself to annihilate all life on Earth.I stopped at the roadblock, mesmerized by the ferocity of nature, when I saw the weird thing…Men and women, wearing fluorescent yellow onesies were deliberately setting fire to the bushland. Deliberately!They were holding ignitor devices that looked like flame-throwers, casually walking along the roadside, and pouring flames onto the bushland.I was incredulous.Terrified.Angry.“What HOOLIGANS!” I screamed inside my head, slapping my steering wheel.I sat there with my mouth wide open wondering what I should do about the flame-thrower-wielding nut-bags.I could not believe the destruction that was unfolding in front of me.Black smoke billowed into the air, a swarm of Eagles, Kites, and Kestrels circled above, occasionally diving to the smoldering ashes to pick off the fleeing reptiles and rodents.“OMG the animals!!! The plants!” I wanted to run into the fire and save everything.The searing orange flames incinerated the gum trees, grasses and shrubs with every lick, and made the wind swirl like mini-tornadoes around my car making the heat even more unbearable than it already was in my old banger with dodgy air-con. What on earth was going on?? Should I call the Police? Had these Government workers gone rogue? I was about to rage out of my car and perform a multiple citizens arrest, when one of the male flame-throwers politely

It was 5:15 AM on a Friday morning in 2015. Karissa, my girlfriend, was heading off to the early morning yoga class that she taught. As part of our ritual, half asleep, I muttered “Have fun at yoga”, then rolled over and went back to sleep.

What if stress could be your friend?

For the past while, it has felt a little bit like the world is somehow sliding back into a less tolerant age, even while marginalized people such as the LGBTQIA+ community are publicly accepted more than ever. And perhaps that’s the curse of living in a social media echo chamber, where confirmation bias is king. I certainly know that I surround myself with queer people and fellow allies because I believe in the diversity of gender and sexuality, and quickly prune any such people I find morally repugnant.

Recently, our youngest baby girl turned one. It also marked the one-year anniversary of my COVID-19 diagnosis. Yes, one of the best days of my life was clouded by the virus that has plagued our lives for nearly two years now.

I found myself completely flat on a beer-stained floor with the weight of a foreign body pinning me to the ground.

These Animal Farm quotes will remind you to always check your privilege and to think of what can happen when you use power to harm others.

When you live with a health condition, hygiene can become an uphill battle. Teeth go unbrushed, showers may be forsaken, and for a lot of people, hair becomes a challenge. Sure, to some people, hair is just hair. For others, it’s not that simple.

How to renew yourself All of life’s challenges are opportunities in disguise. When you feel , it is actually the perfect opportunity to renew yourself. It’s your chance to realize that, as Tony says, we grow so that we can give. Self-renewal is an essential part of our .

Creating a passionate work culture Modern workers want . They often look to their jobs to provide them with purpose and meaning. If they don’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll move on.

ADHD in adults is very real. And ADHD exists in women, too.According to the 5th edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, ADHD symptoms may fall into three subtypes: predominantly hyperactive, predominantly inattentive, and combined type.

February 25, 2022Suicidal behaviors and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) are more prevalent among first-year college students with ADHD compared to undergraduates without ADHD, according to a new study published in the Journal of Attention Disorders.1The study found that undergraduate students with ADHD had more than double the rate of suicidal ideation (44.8% vs. 21.7%), three times the rate of suicide plans (26.6% vs.

Soar, a summer camp that works with kids with learning disabilities and attention issues. She was searching for ADHD camps for her nine-year-old son, Wilson.“He’s never been successful in day camps,” she says. “We tried them all — academic, enrichment, and sports-related camps.

Great job! You have just taken the plunge and started working towards a new goal, but now you wonder how you can create momentum.

There are so many things a parent has to remember. Some of them are tangible things like remembering to get all the things you need to bring to wherever you and your child are going. Others are how to respond to your children in different situations.

one-mind view, maybe you, I, and everyone else have multiple personalities.Richard Schwartz (2021), the creator of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy model, suggests we have all been born with many sub-minds interacting with one another.Haven’t we all heard conflicting inner voices saying “Go for it” and “Don’t you dare” (Sweezy & Ziskind, 2013)?This article explores how the IFS model helps treat individuals and couples by directing these inner players, while introducing several tools and techniques to help the process.Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Self-Compassion Exercises for free. These detailed, science-based exercises will help you increase the compassion and kindness you show yourself and give you the tools to help your clients, students, or employees show more compassion to themselves.The idea that “the mind is not a singular entity or self, but is multiple, composed of parts” is at the core of Richard Schwartz’s internal family systems (IFS) model (Sweezy & Ziskind, 2013, p.

“Overthinking ruins you. It ruins the situation. And it twists things around. It makes you worry. Plus, it just makes everything worse than it actually is.” ~Karen Salmansohn

There are many theories on emotions. Some research suggests that there are only 6 core emotions, while others suggest only 4.

Sex after sexual assault or sexual abuse is complicated. When my abuse memories began flooding back in my late 30s, I was unprepared for how triggering sex became. If I’m honest, it had always been triggering but I never really recognized it because I was actually dissociating during sex, something that took a lot of reconciling and processing for both myself and my husband. But once the proverbial cat was out of the bag, I couldn’t engage in any kind of sexual intimacy without having flashbacks. I ended up taking a long hiatus from sex while I did intense trauma therapy to process my abuse.

“Patriarchy is the expression of the immature masculine. It is the expression of Boy psychology, and, in part, the shadow—or crazy—side of masculinity. It expresses the stunted masculine, fixated at immature levels.” ~ Robert Moore & Doug Gillette

With our ongoing “What Helps Me” series, The Mighty is leaning into what sets us apart from other health sites: We aim to provide real health advice from real people who live it.

“If you don’t use it, you’re going to lose it.”

With our ongoing “What Helps Me” series, The Mighty is leaning into what sets us apart from other health sites: We aim to provide real health advice from real people who live it.

Dear NMOSD,

When I was just 13 years old, I was diagnosed with an eating disorder and entered an outpatient program for children and adolescents with eating disorders. What should have been my last year of middle school before entering high school that following year signaled the beginning of a string of long-term institutionalization.

When I knocked on their doors in the late 80s, some medical providers listened to me, but most thought they knew everything they needed to know about postpartum depression and anxiety. They believed symptoms of perinatal distress landed on two ends of the spectrum. Either women had severe symptoms, were unable to care for their children, and were possibly at risk of harming themselves or their babies, or every new mother who presented with symptoms of overwhelming anxiety and tearfulness pretty much characterized our culture’s antiquated expectation that “all new mothers feel this way.” Very few health care providers took the time to learn that there was something deeper going on with new moms’ mental health.

narcissistic personality disorder. Many people exhibit a narcissistic trait on occasion, but that’s not enough for a diagnosis. Clinical assessment is needed to accurately diagnose and identify narcissistic personality disorder.It’s also important to note that narcissistic personality disorder is relatively rare.

Independence is a life skill that we value as adults, but how do you teach your children to be more independent?

It may look like I’m taking my disorder passively. I stay in bed a lot. I seldom leave my house. It’s true I don’t exercise or go out with friends or hike in the woods or volunteer at a charity or arrange spa days for myself or sleep under a weighted blanket. Those may be good, proactive things people can do in terms of elevating their mood and practicing self-care. But, I don’t do any of those.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), about 2.8% of Americans, or 7 million people, live with bipolar. Formerly called manic depression, bipolar disorder causes abnormal shifts in mood, which can last several days or weeks. During a “mood episode,” the sufferer often isn’t aware of how their actions affect themselves or others.During a manic episode, people may: ADVERTISEMENT Living with bipolar disorder may feel like an uphill battle each day.

If you are a parent of a child with sensory processing disorder, this article might help you. That being said, this piece is not just for you. It is also for the adults out there who have always struggled with regulating their senses, both diagnosed and undiagnosed with sensory issues, also known as sensory processing disorder (SPD). It can also be for those out there who have never heard of sensory processing challenges and came across my writing by happenstance, but are suddenly intrigued to learn more.

Hyper-independence is something that I struggle with. From a young age, I witnessed women and elders in my family “do it all,” never taking into consideration asking for help. Sometimes they didn’t because they knew it wasn’t available, but mostly because they didn’t trust others to get what they needed done correctly. Add in my first hand experience with trauma and abuse, I became a one woman machine – never ever breaking or stopping, afraid that people would see that I’m not some super hero, and instead that I’m just human.

in this post).And today I'd like to share other people's perspective on negativity and on how to handle it. These are 80 of the most powerful negativity quotes that will help you to live a more positive and successful life.I hope you'll find something uplifting and perspective changing here.And if you want more help to overcome negative thinking have a look at this post containing my top tips and this one that will give you boost of positive energy.“If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.”Michael Jordan“No one can create negativity or stress within you.

Mental wellness is something most people take for granted until they begin having issues. There are a plethora of mental health problems and disorders that can rob a person of their joy. One of the most common mental health ailments in the world is bipolar disorder.

After my diagnosis nearly a decade ago, I thought I’d never live a “normal” life again. I certainly never thought I’d work. I just didn’t see myself as capable any longer. Whether that was because of society’s expectation or my own predisposition remains to be seen. I just didn’t see it as a possibility, however remote. I had been cut down and what was expected of me, by those around me, had drastically changed. It’s not that the people I surround myself with didn’t believe in me, but they had been told certain things and had been made to believe in certain realities, which didn’t harbor room for upward growth or change.

When people ask, “Why are you sad?” there is no answer. I shrug my shoulders. The reason is there is no reason.

Neuron published these findings on October 14, 2021. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT For many years, neuroscientists have studied a fluctuating brain wave known as the alpha rhythm in humans. This signal seems to reveal whether a person is attentive or inattentive.

January 20, 2021Just 19% of American youth diagnosed with ADHD are receiving medication treatment, according to a review and meta-analysis published in The Journal of Attention Disorders.1 Findings from the study suggest that, for every overtreated or improperly treated American youth, there are three more undertreated youths with ADHD.The study rose from a debate over whether pharmacological treatment for youths with ADHD is overused or underused in the U.S. Researchers screened more than 25,000 potentially relevant studies, and retained 36 studies of 104,305 individuals.

It is indeed possible to have a personality disorder and be on the autism spectrum. Many of us autistics have a background loaded with trauma, especially those who grew up undiagnosed or with an intersectional minority identity (LGBTQIA+, BIPOC). There are also overlapping features between borderline personality disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Here are some overlapping features that come from not only research, but my experience of living with both conditions:

Do you have a lot of fears in life? Are you struggling with the fear of failure, the fear of uncertainty and the fear of success?You don’t have to be in fear all the time! Learn how to deal with uncertainties and take control of your mind to become courageous in life in this episode of the Lifehack Show.We can all live a life we love. It all starts with transforming yourself into the person you want to become.

Help get your mind and heart aligned with these third eye quotes.

These Jury quotes will give you more familiarity and understanding about a concept that many argue is a cornerstone of American democracy.

https://www.healthline.com/health/narcissistic-victim-syndrome#self-blamehttps://www.betterhelp.com/advice/stress/what-is-post-narcissist-stress-disorder-pnsd/https://m1psychology.com/do-you-have-post-narcissist-stress-disorder-pnsd/