March 30, 2017 • Volume 10, Issue 13 • Subscribe to Hope & Harmony Headlines
It’s World Bipolar Day
With all the random magazine quizzes out there, it would be great to come across this one: “What do you really know about bipolar disorder?” There’s so much misinformation and so many misperceptions out there, we need every event like World Bipolar Day that we can get.
World Bipolar Day, which is observed annually on March 30, has this mission statement: “Stigma is a reality for people with bipolar disorder, it hinders their ability to achieve wellness. Our goal is bring to the world population information about bipolar disorders that will educate and improve sensitivity towards the illness.”
In a study of Argentinians with bipolar I or bipolar II, published in 2013, more than half believed that the average person is afraid of people who have a psychiatric diagnosis. French researchers who surveyed public attitudes toward bipolar disorder and other chronic brain-based disorders reported in 2012 that fewer than 70 percent of respondents from the general population could name specific characteristics of the illness—and most identified the media as their main source of information.
It’s not surprising that when bpHope blogger Gabe Howard wrote “What I Wish The World Knew About Bipolar,” he started with this: “I wish most people knew any actual fact about bipolar that wasn’t based on something they saw on TV.”
He doesn’t stop there, though, and his essay might be useful to pass around to the people around you or others you’d just like to educate. Read “What I Wish The World Knew About Bipolar” >>
A new book from Kay Redfield Jamison
If there were a Bipolar Hall of Fame, it would certainly include Kay Redfield Jamison, PhD. The highly respected academic has made huge contributions to destigmatizing what she prefers to call “manic depressive illness” in popular books like Touched With Fire and her memoir An Unquiet Mind.
Now she’s back in the media spotlight with a new book: Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire. The famous American poet serves as a case study for Jamison’s longtime interest in how mania, depression and creativity are related. The portrait she crafts is of a man whose extraordinary discipline enabled him to shape art from the ferment of mood episodes.
In her own life, Jamison’s fears about losing a perceived manic edge turned out to be absolutely false. She has said that committing to a medication regimen after a decade of tumult increased her creativity and productivity enormously. Read more about this hero in “Kay Redfield Jamison: Risk and Reward.” >>
Bipolar and Families – Different Approaches to Help (video)
Many times family members of those with bipolar disorder do not fully understand what their loved one is going through. Research has shown that education can be an invaluable tool in promoting the loved one’s response and support, thereby enhancing the recovery experience for the affected individual. Watch Karl Shallowhorn’s video blog >>
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