"Thank you for bphope’s e-newsletters! They help by educating me about my bipolar and give me tips and ideas to share with my wife and loved ones. Keep them coming please!" —Bill W.
September 19, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 38Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Free Yourself From Auditory Overload Glasses clinking. Dishes scraping. Conversations overlapping. A simple dinner party can sweep you into auditory overload—sending you out of the room to deal with what can be an assault on the ears. In a study...
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September 12, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 37Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Controlling Impulsive Behaviors Spontaneity is one thing. Impulsivity—a hallmark of bipolar—is another. “Impulsivity is seldom a good thing,” says Ann C. Holm, MS, a professional certified coach. “It is one of the variables that lead people toward high-risk behavior. It...
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September 5, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 36Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Planning For Your Next Bipolar Depression We like certain things in our lives to be reliable—like our cars, for instance. The depression that follows a manic episode? Absolutely, positively not. But there it is, showing up on cue, disappointingly dependable....
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August 29, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 35Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Getting Control over Bipolar Anger At its worst, anger is destructive—it hurts others and, when turned inward, ourselves. It also seems “bipolar anger” can be a different animal altogether, unlike the common emotion of anger, which can be a healthy,...
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August 22, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 34Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Coming to Terms with Work Limitations In a survey by the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, almost nine out of 10 people with bipolar said their bipolar had affected their job performance. More than half said they had to change...
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August 15, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 33Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Self-empowerment Includes Asking for Help You’ve probably heard the saying, “If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?” (And you may have rolled your eyes.) But it’s true that confidence and strength are necessary to reach our full potential—and that’s...
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August 8, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 32Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Understanding The Stories Created by Our Paranoia “Horror” stories belong in movies, or in books—not in our minds, although for many of us, the ones created while we are in an episode of severe mania or depression can be at...
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August 1, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 31Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Tracking Symptoms to Prevent Episodes How are your sleuthing skills? If they’re rusty—or nonexistent—it’s time to get out the polish, because being your own detective when it comes to tracking mood swing symptoms can help manage, and perhaps prevent, an...
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July 25, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 30Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Taking On Abandonment Issues Do you judge yourself? Do you stay focused on your mind and disregard the feelings in your body? Do you seek comfort in addictive behavior, or make other people responsible for what you’re going through? All...
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July 18, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 29Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines The Power of Friendship Friendship is a two-way street. And as you know, sometimes traffic patterns get a bit confusing. There’s unanticipated construction, for instance, or too many cars on the road on a holiday weekend. The point is, friendship...
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July 11, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 28Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Pay Attention to Sleep Disruptions For three out of every four people with bipolar, it is said, sleep troubles are the most common warning sign that mania is on its way. We might not even miss the need for some...
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July 4, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 27Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Silencing The Self-Defeating Inner Critic You can do nine things right and one thing wrong, and what you’re left with at the end of the day is a bunch of negative self-talk about that one wrong thing. All the right...
READ MOREJune 27, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 26Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines When Bipolar Depression Hits Home Depression is a scourge for anyone. But given that bipolar depression is difficult to diagnose, and therefore difficult to treat, it can be exceptionally distressing—especially since it can be even more debilitating than mania, lasting...
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June 20, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 25Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Navigating Rapid Mood and Energy Shifts Most people think of bipolar in terms of extremes. High, low. Hot, cold. But the reality often is more murky. In fact, approximately 40 percent of people with bipolar experience mixed episodes—defined as a...
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June 13, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 24Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Taming the Lure of Hypomania Hypomania may not lead to the same level of harm that full-fledged mania can bestow, but that’s partly why the lure is so strong. The writer David Lovelace, in his memoir Scattershot: My Bipolar Family...
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June 6, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 23Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines What Friends and Family Should Know About Bipolar We can be really happy—or really irritable—without being manic. Sometimes we need space. And people who don’t have bipolar will never—no matter how hard they try—be able to fully understand what it’s...
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May 30, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 22Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines How Getting Active Helps Fend Off Depression Your memory is better and your mood is better, as are other aspects of your daily life. This is your brain on exercise. Research for years has confirmed a link between exercise and...
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May 16, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 20Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Learning to Cool Down When Anger Strikes You might get a little squeamish from the title of the popular children’s book Everyone Poops by Taro Gami. In the book, which describes how creatures throughout the natural world—including humans—deal with the...
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May 23, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 21Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Taking the Reins on Spending Sprees Tidying expert Marie Kondo may be the world’s most famous decluttering diva; however, not all of us can relate to her wisdom: “Quests to faraway places or shopping sprees are no longer necessary. All...
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May 9, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 19Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Even More Reasons To Make Walking Part of Your Routine Philosophers are masters at rational inquiry. So we should believe Friedrich Nietzsche’s declaration: “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” He said it in 1889, so it’s not exactly...
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