Category: Bipolar

Since I am fairly open about my own issue with bipolar (specifically Bipolar II, the “lighter” form), I often get questions related to the topic.  The one I want to address today was short and do the point: Is bipolar disorder caused by inflammation?    Usually the questions are a bit more individually directed by I actually like these.

Because despite the fact that I have bipolar (specifically bipolar II, the lighter form), I don’t really keep up with the developments in it.  I’m medicated, I’m stable, I’m happy and, honestly, I have other things on my plate.  So questions like this force me to get up my own butt and do some research and learn something new.  And in this case I got up my own butt to see if bipolar was in fact and inflammatory condition.

And the short answer is yes-ish.

Now here’s the long answer.

A Couple of Comments about Inflammation

Inflammation has become the new big buzzword in health and, like so many things, tends to carry the connotation of being nothing but a negative. … Keep Reading

So it’s been exactly a year since I hit published one of the hardest posts I ever have made (that was on January 1st, 2015 apparently).  And while I’ve done a number of bipolar recovery updates over the past year with decreasing frequency (primarily because I didn’t have anything new to say) it seemed appropriate to summarize the past year to kick things off.

Winding up 2015

As 2015 had wound down, many things had happened, mostly positive.  Certainly I had been productive in my field in a way I hadn’t been in many years. My therapist had referred to this as MVP: meaning, value purpose and after several years of having none, it was nice to be working on something concrete.

I updated the website most weeks, wrote most of one book (currently on hold) which spun off into the book that is currently crushing my soul, The Woman’s Book. … Keep Reading

So I haven’t done one of these in a fairly long while simply because I haven’t had a whole lot to say and this will probably be fairly short for that reason.  But I figure it will be a nice break from my relentless discussion of women’s specific issues (as I continue to grind, reorganize and over-edit the women’s book).  So here’s a quick overview of what’s been going on in the last few months.

The Bipolar Itself

I know I have mentioned in previous updates that my bipolar swings seem to be very seasonal with my hypomanic upswing happening in the spring and my typical depression being when fall starts and the weather changes again.  Which means that the rest of the year it’s pretty boring and stable.  And this summer certainly was.  Honestly, it just sort of moved along as I was grinding along on editing and re-editing and re-editing the women’s book.… Keep Reading

So it’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these and, since I can’t really come up with anything else to write about at the moment, it seemed like a good time to do another bipolar update.  The last one of these was done quite some time back so it’s really overdue.  You can find all of my other bipolar updates here.  But I’m not going to recap everything over and over again even if it pads out the word count.

The Bipolar Itself

I’ve mentioned previously that both my hypomania and depression tend to be excruciatingly seasonal.  I have typically ramped up around April/May (when the weather changes I think) and sink back down in November (when the weather changes and I run out of gas from hypomania).

The good of this is that I’m at least better able to watch out for impending signs; at the same time it made approaching that time a bit terrifying.… Keep Reading

So it’s been since February that I updated the ongoing recovery from last year, having been diagnosed with bipolar, etc.  I imagine everyone has noticed regular updates to the site, I’ve had a number of people comment on my not being an out of control belligerent a-hole online and anybody on my Facebook feed, page or whatever has seen a variety of excerpts from a current mega-project that I’m in the process of trying to finish (TWO MORE WEEKS GUYS!  HA HA!)

Even when I disagree or argue with people, I make an effort (not always successful to be honest) to be constructive rather than just raging at people pointlessly.  Make no mistake, the old habits are still there and I’ve lost it with a few people (usually who were just being utterly ignorant and pushing my buttons) and/or found myself reflexively writing stuff that I shouldn’t but I try to catch it before hitting post or sending the email.  … Keep Reading