Fluctuations in energy levels in bipolar disorder can be a challenge to manage, at least, in my experience. What I find, is that my energy fluctuates throughout the day in unusual and very bipolar ways. These hourly energy changes require care and interrupt what I want to do. It might be due to the fact that I tend to cycle very rapidly (when I truly cycle, which is rare), but from what I can tell, bipolar causes energy level changes throughout the day.

Physical pain in bipolar disorder is one of the hardest bipolar symptoms to treat (and, of course, not everyone experiences this). The physical pain in bipolar disorder is known as neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain is commonly associated with spinal cord injuries or amputation but can occur in psychiatric disorders and in other illnesses as well. This neuropathic pain, physical pain in bipolar disorder, can be debilitating but there are options for treatment.

I know it sounds weird when a blogger says “don’t talk to a blogger for help.” After all, aren’t we in it to help? Don’t we want comments? In fact, it’s true; I do hope to help people and I do love to see the comments of my readers. But if you’re in serious mental illness distress, you need to take an action step and not talk to a bipolar blogger.

I’m in bipolar-related pain almost all the time but, of course, my job is to ignore the bipolar pain. This is a tall, huge, gigantic, herculean order (Anticipating Bipolar Pain Is Good?). It is not a small thing to ignore the pain you are in – regardless of type but, perhaps, brain pain is even worse than, say, the pain of a broken leg because at least there is some relief from the broken leg when you lie down and elevate it. This is not the case with bipolar pain. That said, these eight tips for ignoring bipolar pain might help.

If you’ve read some of the comments here, you know what some other people think of bipolar disorder. Some people think that those with bipolar are manipulative, angry, abusive and some even say we’re downright evil. And it’s easy to internalize what others think of bipolar disorder. It’s easy to believe we are these things. But you are worth more than a single, negative descriptor. You are not what other people think of bipolar disorder.

Tomorrow is Bell Let’s Talk Day and you can help raise funds for mental health initiatives with a simple tweet or Facebook share. Since 2010, Bell (a Canadian phone company) has committed $100 million to mental health programs and you can help raise even more.

The best of Breaking Bipolar 2015 shows what you were talking about and reading about this year with regards to bipolar disorder. Topics range from difficulty in decision-making (a symptom of depression) to what it's really like to stay in a mental hospital. Here, I count down the top five articles and the best of Breaking Bipolar 2015.

The holidays are here and one of the issues people face when spending time with family is that some loved ones don’t believe in mental illness. This lack of belief often upsets people with mental illness tremendously and makes them even doubt themselves and their own experiences. This lack of belief can be very detrimental, indeed. But you needn’t be so harshly affected when your loved ones don’t believe in mental illness.

When I was working full-time at a fancy software company, I would have never taken a mental health day from work because of bipolar. I would only take sick days when something catastrophic happened and I absolutely couldn’t work. But that didn’t mean that I couldn’t have used a mental health day, here and there. In fact, when you have bipolar disorder, I would suggest that mental health days from work are very important.

There are so many reasons why I hate having bipolar that I could have a whole blog just on that alone and I’m sure other people could join me in their hatred of bipolar disorder, too. I do realize that hating an illness is normal and that enumerating the reasons why one hates a disease is a bit of a rant, but, what can I tell you, this is my space and I’m going to tell you why I have having bipolar disorder (Bipolar Is Unfair).