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Amanda_HP
When a parent dies by suicide, children are left with lots of questions. The stigma associated with suicide commonly causes survivors to hide the truth and suppress their anguish. Suicide often becomes a secret that the surviving parent and other family members don't talk about. And when children don’t have answers to their questions, they tend to come up with their own, which can be incorrect and scary!
My name is not Cristina Fender. It’s an alias I use when I’m writing. I use an alias because I’m afraid of what would happen if my real name was revealed. Would I be ridiculed for being bipolar? The stigma of having bipolar disorder is so great that I stay in hiding. I stay in hiding mostly for my family’s sake. What would happen to my children if I came out of the closet?
Do you ever feel like you have taken on so much in your life that there is just not enough time in the day to do it all? Lately, I am constantly behind on assignments. Every time I turn a corner I see half-finished projects, things needing to get in the mail, "overdue" pop-ups on my computer, etc. I have so much to do, yet I am sitting here not even sure where I should start and feel like I am just wasting valuable time.
It's easy to think of solutions to fix your life—even easier to read about them—but not so easy to put the solutions into play. Let's look into ways to get a handle on ADHD even when it has a handle on us.
Bipolar disorder brings with it such negativity (Anxiety and Negative Thoughts: How to Get Rid of Them). It’s amazing how that negativity draws you down to the ground. It’s important to feel positive so you can pick yourself up and start fresh. I still recommend affirmations and meditation for bipolar disorder to bring you up, but there are a few other tips I can give you to become a more positive person.
I used to believe an eating disorder was a choice. I thought extreme food choices and overblown beliefs about food and weight and the body as eating disorders, by definition. I thought these weird food choices needed to be dealt with by explanations and logic and stern words. It was clear to me that people who fasted half the day were internalizing their moral asceticism and people who dieted and then overate were more silly than anything.
Amanda_HP
For most Americans, our experience of someone living with Schizophrenia comes via seeing some street person who appears "out of their mind" or watching tv news and finding out a person with schizophrenia has killed someone or wrecked havoc (Schizophrenics Find Stigma Is Even Worse Than the Disease). That's why it was amazing to watch our interview with this week's guest, Kristin Bell, who sat there calmly sharing her story like anyone else.
Once again high motivation proved to be instrumental in transforming my life. I've since used this technique with success in other areas. I cut through the ADHD distractions, prune them down to a few cherished activities, then go forward with hyper focus engaged, determined to see my goal to the end.
In our society, it is widely known one should wait until after their first trimester before breaking the good news of pregnancy to friends and family. This is because after the first trimester, the risk of miscarriage significantly decreases. The idea is that if you tell people you are pregnant and then miscarry, that it would be painful to have to tell everyone that you lost the baby. It's a way to protect yourself from pain. After spending the day in the ER with the suspicion of having a miscarriage, I realized doing this may prevent additional pain but it also shuts out the opportunity to feel love and support.
The road is hard to ride on, but it gets easier as you go along. In this video on bipolar disorder treatment and recovery, join me as I update you on my progress to bipolar wellness.
Thank you for your comment. I'm sorry you're having such overwhelming experiences. That sounds hard.
I would say that when I get really wrapped up in talking to myself because of hypomania, it's similar but I don't feel like I'm in an imagined place or dreaming. That's the part that may be concerning.
If you're experiencing distress because of these experiences, you absolutely should tell your doctor -- and make it clear that it's causing your distress. It does sounds like it falls into the mild psychosis category, but that doesn't occur with cyclothymia. That only occurs in bipolar I. Of course, you may be experiencing bipolar and psychotic symptoms, just in an unusual way. (There is a category of bipolar disorder for this called "Other Specified Bipolar and Related Disorder.") https://www.healthyplace.com/bipolar-disorder/bipolar-types/what-are-the-types-of-bipolar-disorder
Experiences like that are normally treated with antipsychotics. A low dose of one of those medications may be just what you need. Antipsychotics are serious medication, though, so you want to carefully consider whether you think it's worth taking them. Thoroughly discussing your options with your doctor should help you make that decision: https://www.healthyplace.com/thought-disorders/schizophrenia-articles/antipsychotic-medications-for-treating-psychotic-illness
If you choose to go down the medication route, go slowly and continually assess along the way. There are many antipsychotics available, so it can take time to find the right one for you.
It's really good that you've recognized these issues in yourself. Now you can work on lessening them.
Good luck.
-- Natasha Tracy