bp Magazine for Bipolar

My interest in yoga developed slowly—not the “pretzel” kind, which I found intimidating—but the stretching, holding, and breathing kind. When the pandemic hit, I craved certainty during uncertainty and calmness during chaos. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why yoga helped me through; I just knew that I felt more balanced and less edgy. Turns out, it was the breath that grounded me. So simple, so life changing. In “Finding the Yogi Within,” Joy S. boils it down: “Really, any yoga helps calm my racing mind. I think it’s more about the breathing than the movement.” And research supports this: Adding yoga to our bipolar management helps not only with mood swings but also anxiety, that common co-occurrence of overwhelming worry that shares symptoms with, and feeds into, bipolar depression…

Bipolar disorder is a treatable illness marked by extreme changes in mood, thought, energy, and behavior. Bipolar disorder is also known as manic depression because a person’s mood can alternate between the “poles”—mania (highs) and depression (lows). The change in mood can last for hours, days, weeks, or months. What bipolar is not Bipolar disorder is not a character flaw or sign of personal weakness. Whom bipolar disorder affects Bipolar disorder affects more than 5.7 million adult Americans and 440,000 adult Canadians. It usually begins in late adolescence, often appearing as depression during teen years, although it can start in early childhood or later in life. An equal number of men and women develop this illness. Men tend to begin with a manic episode, women with a depressive episode. Bipolar disorder is found among all…

PEAK PERFORMANCE I COULD RELATE to all three of the “dynamos” in the article “High Achievers” (Summer 2022). Like Maj. Gen. Martin, I was diagnosed later in life. Awareness is a big part of balancing symptoms—a fact brought out in the article. —Eileen, FLORIDA • WE NEED TO hear more stories of highly successful people living with bipolar. They prove it can be done! They inspire and encourage me. Medication management and proper sleep hygiene are key. —Kristi • I REALLY ASSOCIATE with this article. I’ve had periods in my professional career where I exceeded my own expectations. I worked so hard and never burned out. Then I crashed and it took me a couple of years, and a hospital stay, to recover. Rest, exercise, sleep, and a proper diet all played a huge role…

AGE: 51 LOCATION: CHICAGO, IL OCCUPATION: WRITER AT DAYSLIKETHESE.LIVE AND BARISTA DIAGNOSIS: BIPOLAR I (1994) • • • FAVORITE SONG: “Best of You,” by Foo Fighters. RECOMMENDED READ: Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez, or anything by Raymond Carver. BELOVED PET: Katie, my cat of 17 years. Her name is tattooed on my arm. FIRST JOB I HAD: Working for my father during middle school at his drugstore. MOST TREASURED ITEM: A notebook and black pen. I WISH PEOPLE KNEW: How hard I have worked to find “me.” TO UNWIND: Looking at the water (even if it’s a drippy faucet), or sitting on our deck viewing the flowers my husband has planted. BEST INDULGENCE: For many summers, I have eaten Italian ice at Mario’s Italian Lemonade in Chicago almost daily. I’M GRATEFUL FOR: Finding group therapy this past year. REAL-LIFE…

‘‘The days that you have that are really hard, or weeks, or months—it’s important to remember that there will be good times. … If I can do it, anybody can do it.‘‘ —Pro wrestler Kamille Brickhouse, women’s champion of the National Wrestling Allliance (NWA), sharing with UK-based Soundsphere Magazine how she copes with bipolar depression. Another tip: “Try your hardest to think about things you are appreciative for.” Plus, take it slow if necessary: “Sometimes, you just need to be still.” • TAKE A MINUTE A short text may do more than you think to help a friend New research shows that we have no idea how much it means when we reach out casually—even by text—to someone we care about. The science of happiness (yes, that’s a thing) has documented that humans thrive through social…

Brain changes may link to resilience in those at high genetic risk for bipolar October 1, 2022, RANDWICK, Australia —Teens and young adults at high genetic risk for bipolar disorder appear to make more demands on an area of the hippocampus involved in emotional regulation, a new study suggests. Australian researchers used diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) to examine the brains of people ages 12 to 30 who had either a first-degree relative with bipolar (the high-risk group) or no family history of mental illness (the control group). The dMRI procedure was then repeated two years later. The researchers found that compared to the control group, those in the high-risk group experienced significant increases in a measure of white matter in the right cingulum, indicating that the area was getting more of a…