When Your Dreams Prove Stranger Than Fiction - The Bipolar Question of the Week
I’m working on a novel just for the fun of it. I’m in the middle of a chapter where my hero has a dream foretelling his own death that features Gustav Mahler. Gustav Mahler, in turn, has a dream foretelling World War I featuring our hero.
We all dream, but literary and cinematic heroes have a way of dreaming in fantastic ways. We go along with it because every once in a while we, too, have a weird and crazy dream. Case in... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 4, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Apathy, Anhedonia, and Depression - Sorting It All Out
Last month, one of my readers, Crystal, asked me to write about anhedonia. You got it ...
First, I went to my secret research site - Wikipedia. There I read:
Paul Keedwell, MD, then of King's College, found that the brains of participants who were clinically depressed had to work harder to process rewarding experiences.
I checked the footnote only to discover someone was citing something I had written myself. Maybe I... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - March 31, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Passover and Easter - A Meditation on Deliverance
We are in a time of high holy observance for two faiths. Religious belief and practice is not the theme of this piece. The deep human yearning that these celebrations tap into is what is central to this discussion, which in turn translates into what we may feel when we emerge from the hopelessness of depression.
"Why is this night different from all other nights?" the youngest child traditionally asks at the Seder, the meal that... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - March 30, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Your Wisdom, Your Insight - The Bipolar Question of the Week
You are looking at the Carrizo Badlands - part of Anza Borrego Desert State Park in Southern California, in turn part of the vast desert system extending throughout the Southwest. Yesterday, we went hiking several miles into splendid desolation. We distubed one bird along the wash we followed in. That was it. No other signs of vertebrate life, not even a lizard.
But check this out:
Life has a way of making a... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - March 25, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Diets That Have Survived the Test of Time
Let’s continue with our food theme from last week. Switching to a healthy diet is as confusing as it is daunting. Too often, we go in with the best intentions based on the best information, but we fail anyway. Then we are left wondering: Maybe omega-3s aren’t as good as they say, maybe carbs aren’t as bad as they say.
What we’re missing is context, and I got a great insight into this in an eye-opening book I read... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - March 22, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
But You LOOK Just FIne
When you open a book and the first sentence in the first chapter is something that you wrote (that’s me), well naturally you’re going to keep reading. Here’s my 15 seconds of fame:
“We excel at wearing masks. We fool our friends, our loved ones, our colleagues, even our doctors,” says John McManamy, an award-winning mental health journalist and author of Living Well with Depression and Bipolar Disorder.... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - March 22, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Mood-Trackers, Yes or No? - The Bipolar Question of the Week
I need your help on this. Today, in a conversation, the topic of mood-trackers came up. Back in the old days, the cutting edge technology was pencil and paper. Then, came various ways of downloading desktop software and charting moods online. More recently we have smartphone apps.
The principle behind mood trackers is flawless. Several years ago, I talked to Frederick Goodwin, co-author (with Kay Jamison) of the definitive... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - March 19, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Food for Thought - Paying Attention to What We Eat
Back when I started this blog on HealthCentral some seven years ago, I regularly wrote on the mental health benefits of eating healthy. I even used to post recipes. We are what we eat. All the food we eat is brain food, for good or for bad. We really need to be smart about this.
But, of course, there were a zillion other things to write about. The eating healthy posts grew further and farther between, then disappeared altogether. I think... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - March 17, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Child Bipolar - Known to Parents and Children, Unknown to the DSM
The publication of the DSM-5, due out in May, has presented an excuse for us to cast a critical eye on how the experts choose to define our illness (see eg Duration Criteria). With the one exception of widening the criteria for mixed episodes, DSM-5 bipolar will look very much like the current DSM-IV bipolar. The situation for early-onset bipolar, however, is a lot different. Let’s take a look: The DSM-IV came out in 1994. At the time,... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - March 2, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Depression Question: What Does Your Depression Look Like?
In my Bipolar posts here on HealthCentral, I post a "Question of the Week" (almost every week). The inspiration came from a feature MerelyMe used to run here in Depression. My posts are less frequent here, but your involvement is just as important. Vital, would be a better way of putting it.
As you may have gathered from sampling my posts here, a depression is not a depression. We sort of know what depression is, but my description for... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - February 28, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Depression: Situational vs Clinical, Mind or Brain
In a 2007 article, Gordon Parker of the University of New South Wales observed:
Depression is a diagnosis that will remain a non-specific "catch all" until common sense brings current confusion to order. As the American journalist Ed Murrow observed in another context: "Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really understand the situation."
Let's get confused:
According to conventional wisdom, the DSM-III of 1980 heralded... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - February 28, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Didgeridoo Meets Yirdaki: I "Dhid" It
Please indulge me. I have a passion for this. Here I am (the one with the hat), on Saturday, in Palm Springs, at an all-day didgeridoo workshop.
More precisely, a yirdaki workshop. Didgeridoo is a white man’s word that is applicable to anyone blowing through a hollow tube. Yirdaki describes an instrument made by the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land at the top of Australia. The yirdaki is made from the trunk... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - February 26, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Duration Criteria and the DSM: Much Ado About Nothing?
If your mania lasts only six days instead of seven, is your condition normal? What about hypomania? Should three days be regarded as normal? A strict reading of the DSM-IV (psychiatry’s diagnostic bible) would be yes to both. But does this make sense?
Nearly two years ago, I attended the Ninth International Conference on Bipolar Disorder, put on by the Western Psychiatric Institute and the University of Pittsburgh. A panel from... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - February 23, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Dancing to Your Own Drum - The Bipolar Question of the Week
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a piece on what brain scan studies are finding out about the benefits of meditation. The piece was based on a TED talk I viewed. Your comments suggested that a follow-up piece was in order, this time related to rhythm and movement. As it turned out, I had just viewed a TED talk directly on the point. Let’s get started:
At a TED-x talk delivered at the Burning Man festival, Tending the Sacred Fire,... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - February 18, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Functionality - Not Exactly Clear-Cut
Two weeks ago, in my piece, Mania vs Hypomania and the DSM, I observed that the key distinguishing feature is severity, which translates to the issue of functionality vs non-functionality. According to the DSM-IV, for mania:
The mood disturbance is sufficiently severe to cause marked impairment in occupational functioning or in usual social activities or relationships with others, or to necessitate hospitalization to prevent harm to... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - February 17, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
