January 17, 2019 • Volume 12, Issue 3 Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines Breaking the Cycle Of Depression and Pain Though the reasons for their connection remain unclear, depression and physical pain are indeed closely related. “Sometimes pain and depression create a vicious cycle in which pain worsens symptoms of depression, and...
READ MORE
It’s not uncommon for people dealing with bipolar depression to have a co-existing condition of chronic pain. Here are three ways to get the symptoms under control: #1 Manage your stress. For many, the basic emotion of stress, in any situation, can be an immediate trigger for a pain flare-up. If you’re one of those...
READ MORE
It can be hard to seek inpatient treatment when you feel like you’ve been burned in the past, but it’s worth it! I am not a patient patient. The second I’m hospitalized, I want out. While most of my many hospitalizations have been the result of a gastrointestinal tumor, a few have been psychiatric as...
READ MORE
Fixing relationships with those you may have hurt during a mood episode is never easy, but believe me: it is possible. And you can! Many of us with bipolar disorder make terrible decisions when we are ill, and rebuilding our lives afterward is naturally overwhelming—especially after a massive episode, when extreme mania and psychosis might...
READ MORE
Bipolar depression can feel a lot like a physical illness, such as the flu, because it is a lot like a physical illness. Here is a physiological explanation. You’re pretty much laid up in bed, or at least significantly limited in your capacity to perform daily duties. Your concentration is off, and you’re not...
READ MORENewswise — CHICAGO, Feb. 24, 2015 — A new study published in The Journal of Pain reports an association between a broad range of pre-existing mental disorders and subsequent onset of severe or frequent headaches. The Journal of Pain is the peer-reviewed publication of the American Pain Society, www.americanpainsociety.org. Several studies have shown that headaches...
READ MOREFebruary 1, 2105, LONDON, United Kingdom—People with bipolar disorder experience significantly more pain than people without the disorder, new research suggests. British researchers analyzed previous studies and found that people with the disorder were much more likely to experience physical pain, particularly chronic pain and migraines. The authors concluded that the assessment and treatment of...
READ MORE
Living with bipolar disorder is difficult enough––made even more difficult when you add chronic pain to the mix. Several months ago I started experiencing pain in my neck and shoulders. Initially it was bothersome. But as the weeks progressed, the pain intensified. Thus began a costly and frustrating process of trial and error trying to...
READ MORE
Dealing with the physical pain PLUS the “psychic pain” of bipolar can be difficult to do. But that doesn’t mean that you have to stop living your life as you want to. A few years ago, I started long distance walking. I found that hitting the two- and three-hour mark was the only way my...
READ MORE
One thing Bipolar Disorder does to me is wipeout my self-esteem…Yes, I could say it’s because of the childhood abuse that I suffered both verbally and physically. I mean, I could blame it on a number of different things. But the fact is that as I slowly move down in my mood, I lose the...
READ MORE
So, I’ve been trying to get over the same recalcitrant migraine for over a week now, and it’s getting old. There was a brief period on Friday afternoon when I thought it had lifted, but I was wrong. Today, as I write in my bedroom with the shades drawn yet again, trying to fight my...
READ MORE
DID I SAY I LIKE HUMANS? I look out the window and see raw, cold, and cloudy. I’m about to step out and be enveloped by it…mentally, emotionally and physically. I turn on the computer for the “accurate forecast” and the weather website heralds: Severe weekend storm alert! Then I glance down at a...
READ MORE
Courtesy of Rheumatoid Arthritis Every tendon, muscle, organ, joint, and nerve on fire with raw pain. Fighting a chronic physical illness can be real torture when you’re already at war with Bipolar Disorder. Yep. Flu-like symptoms with fever for days/weeks/months. So now I have to juggle medication (steroids, etc) that won’t interrupt the balance of...
READ MOREWe’ve all had our struggles and been in pain, but some of our scars are more visible than others By Melody Moezzi I’ve been sick in the head and gut nearly half my life. Both my brain and my pancreas have turned on me on countless occasions: my brain with its tendency toward extreme,...
READ MORE
