Today’s Throwback is from March 13, 2014 Average Life Expectancy The life expectancy of those with bipolar disorder is 9.2 years less than the U.S. national average, but don’t sit back and think there’s nothing you can do about it. The likely reasons for the shorter life are: Higher suicide Greater Risk of Chronic Disease […]
I woke this morning with a heavy heart. I’m sickened, and ashamed of our nation. That is something I never dreamed I would ever say. I do not jest when I say that Maurice and I have already begun searching for a new home. Canada’s immigration laws are too restrictive. Certainly there is someplace we […]
I take 6 pills every day for my bipolar disorder. That may sound like a lot to some of you and for some of you it may sound next to nothing. I have friends who take well over a dozen pills each day. What meds do they take? I’m not going to tell you. What […]
Mood Despite my optimism, my winning streak of good weeks came to a close. It wasn’t depression or mania that got me. It was anxiety. I mentioned it had been nagging at me, but it finally exploded in my face. It started early Sunday morning. I was scheduled to be an usher at our church […]
This Throwback was originally posted in January 2014 The second most lucrative drugs sold in the United States are those used to treat depression. (Drugs to prevent heart disease are first.) Abilify, an antipsychotic and antidepressant, is the 4th largest selling drug in the U.S. with 5.2 billion in sales. I regularly take Abilify, but […]
Welcome to the Halloween edition of Bradley’s Weekly Wrap Up Mood Overall a good week. The second in a row. No mania; no depression. Unfortunately, my anxiety was worse. As always it was there, but it had a stronger hold on me than usual. I mentioned the anxiety last week, but it’s more severe this […]
This weeks throwback is from November 2014 If you Google symptoms of mania there’s one thing you’ll find on nearly every list – sex. For example, the Mayo Clinic website states “Increased sex drive” as a symptom of mania. Webmd goes a step further and says “more and sometimes promiscuous sex.” Despite this simple fact, […]
This past Sunday I participated in the Los Angeles AIDS walk. Along the route was a wall where red ribbon stickers were available to write a loved one’s name. My husband, Maurice, asked if I wanted to stop and put up a sticker in honor of Eric. I told him no. His name was Eric, […]
Last week I was overwhelmed. Despite how good things have been going, I couldn’t escape my old friend anxiety. Like some of the other symptoms of bipolar, I’ve had to learn to adapt and tolerate it the best I can. Why was the week overwhelming? Well, that’s easy to answer. I was overwhelmed because I […]
Mood Skies are blue again. I had one of those wonderful weeks where I felt so well that I thought I was “cured.” That’s okay, I know that’s not true, but I’m not going to focus on the negative. Right now, I’m going to savor every second of this feel-good period. I did get a […]