a2z Bipolar - A Personal Journey
The book market is awash with publications linking hypomania to creativity and listing the significant historical and modern day individuals who share success with bi-polar. I also wanted to talk about the public’s perception that bi-polar is great because it makes you creative and that to take medication dulls that creativity. Apparently after Stephen Fry’s…
I am actually appalled at how I managed my pregnancy or rather did not manage it. In fact I am appalled at how I have managed my life until very recently. Like most young educated women I worked to try and get a so-called career and fit a pregnancy around this. In my early thirties…
Of course I do not really need to explain the stress of dropping a 4-month-old baby off at crèche before racing into the morning traffic. A vivid memory is of scraping the ice from the car in pitch black at 06h30 while that precious bundle slept in her Maxi Cosy, to be given to a…
I think many of us suffering with a mental disturbance are so utterly consumed by what is happening in the brain that we pay no attention whatsoever to our physical wellbeing. A certain amount of naivety and arrogance is to blame for ignoring physical complaints and there is that feeling that they will go away…
A huge problem for me has been wondering if my alcohol abuse caused the bi-polar or did having bi-polar mean that I abused alcohol. I think this will always be a case of chicken and egg. There are many articles on this and it would seem that whilst alcoholism/ alcohol abuse and bi-polar commonly occur, substance…
Now I never thought in a million years that I would be writing about caffeine. What a dull topic, but it is very relevant as it has become clear that I am also addicted to it in the form of tea and diet coke or anything artificially sweetened. Bloody hell, talk about addictive personality! Living…
Cognitive behavioural therapy is a common type of mental health counselling (psychotherapy). With cognitive behavioural therapy, you work with a mental health expert to learn how to become aware of inaccurate or negative thinking, so you can view challenging situations more clearly and respond to them in a more positive way. It can be a…
Parts of my childhood and upbringing are referenced throughout the book as obviously all our neuroses and characteristics, good and bad, are formed in our early years. A genetic disposition and a neglectful father clearly have played their part but I also want to make it clear that, once my father was out of the…