Bipolar Archives - Bodyrecomposition

Bipolar and Inflammation

lylemcd — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 18:32:39 +0000

Since I am fairly open about my own issue with bipolar (specifically Bipolar II, the “lighter” form), I often get questions related to the topic. The one I want to address today was short and do the point: Is bipolar disorder caused by inflammation? Usually the questions are a bit more individually directed by I actually like these.

Because despite the fact that I have bipolar (specifically bipolar II, the lighter form), I don’t really keep up with the developments in it. I’m medicated, I’m stable, I’m happy and, honestly, I have other things on my plate. So questions like this force me to get up my own butt and do some research and learn something new. And in this case I got up my own butt to see if bipolar was in fact and inflammatory condition.

And the short answer is yes-ish.

Now here’s the long answer.

A Couple of Comments about Inflammation

Inflammation has become the new big buzzword in health and, like so many things, tends to carry the connotation of being nothing but a negative. … Keep Reading

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Bipolar Recovery Year in Review

lylemcd — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 14:48:43 +0000

So it’s been exactly a year since I hit published one of the hardest posts I ever have made (that was on January 1st, 2015 apparently). And while I’ve done a number of bipolar recovery updates over the past year with decreasing frequency (primarily because I didn’t have anything new to say) it seemed appropriate to summarize the past year to kick things off.

Winding up 2015

As 2015 had wound down, many things had happened, mostly positive. Certainly I had been productive in my field in a way I hadn’t been in many years. My therapist had referred to this as MVP: meaning, value purpose and after several years of having none, it was nice to be working on something concrete.

I updated the website most weeks, wrote most of one book (currently on hold) which spun off into the book that is currently crushing my soul, The Woman’s Book. … Keep Reading

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Bipolar Recovery Update 7

lylemcd — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 13:43:05 +0000

So I haven’t done one of these in a fairly long while simply because I haven’t had a whole lot to say and this will probably be fairly short for that reason. But I figure it will be a nice break from my relentless discussion of women’s specific issues (as I continue to grind, reorganize and over-edit the women’s book). So here’s a quick overview of what’s been going on in the last few months.

The Bipolar Itself

I know I have mentioned in previous updates that my bipolar swings seem to be very seasonal with my hypomanic upswing happening in the spring and my typical depression being when fall starts and the weather changes again. Which means that the rest of the year it’s pretty boring and stable. And this summer certainly was. Honestly, it just sort of moved along as I was grinding along on editing and re-editing and re-editing the women’s book.… Keep Reading

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Bipolar Recovery Update 6

lylemcd — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:33:34 +0000

So it’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these and, since I can’t really come up with anything else to write about at the moment, it seemed like a good time to do another bipolar update. The last one of these was done quite some time back so it’s really overdue. You can find all of my other bipolar updates here. But I’m not going to recap everything over and over again even if it pads out the word count.

The Bipolar Itself

I’ve mentioned previously that both my hypomania and depression tend to be excruciatingly seasonal. I have typically ramped up around April/May (when the weather changes I think) and sink back down in November (when the weather changes and I run out of gas from hypomania).

The good of this is that I’m at least better able to watch out for impending signs; at the same time it made approaching that time a bit terrifying.… Keep Reading

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Bipolar Recovery Update 5

lylemcd — Wed, 06 May 2015 13:52:23 +0000

So it’s been since February that I updated the ongoing recovery from last year, having been diagnosed with bipolar, etc. I imagine everyone has noticed regular updates to the site, I’ve had a number of people comment on my not being an out of control belligerent a-hole online and anybody on my Facebook feed, page or whatever has seen a variety of excerpts from a current mega-project that I’m in the process of trying to finish (TWO MORE WEEKS GUYS! HA HA!)

Even when I disagree or argue with people, I make an effort (not always successful to be honest) to be constructive rather than just raging at people pointlessly. Make no mistake, the old habits are still there and I’ve lost it with a few people (usually who were just being utterly ignorant and pushing my buttons) and/or found myself reflexively writing stuff that I shouldn’t but I try to catch it before hitting post or sending the email. … Keep Reading

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Bipolar Recovery Update 4

lylemcd — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 14:33:50 +0000

So this will be the last of these updates for a while since it will catch everything up to where I am more or less right now (I’m writing this in the third week of February, 2015) following what I wrote in Part 3.

Note: I want to make it very clear that everything I’m going to talk about is meant to be descriptive NOT prescriptive. This is simply a look at some of what happened to me, what’s happening now, etc. So don’t read anything I’m writing as a recommendation for self-treatment or anything like that. This is only about me.

Changing Old Habits

At this point, about the second week in January, I was now back in Austin, freezing my ass off (I’d get the furnace fixed in about a week) and wondering what would happen next. As part of my interest in my field, I’ve actually looked into the topic of habits, how they do or don’t change, what drives them, etc. … Keep Reading

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Bipolar Recovery Update 3

lylemcd — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 14:34:23 +0000

So continuing on from Part 2, I was still in Nashville, I’d done the initial intake with a counselor, psychiatrist and nurse practitioner, gotten some sample pills of Depakote and started treatment. That’s where we pick up.

Starting Depakote

I had been instructed to take Depakote at bedtime to help with my sleep. And it had the entirely opposite effect. I went from broken sleep to wide awake, no way in hell are you sleeping non-sleep. I tried it the second night, same effect and I called the nurse practitioner (NP).

She said to take it earlier. … Keep Reading

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Bipolar Recovery Update 2

lylemcd — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 14:21:48 +0000

So last week, I outlined where all of this started, the initial crash out of hypomania into deep depression, crawling a little bit out of it into less deep depression, heading to Nashville to finally address an issue I’d been skirting around for a while. That’s where we pick up.

Home Again, Home Again Part 2

So it was about the middle of December and now I was back in Nashville for an indeterminate time; as I mentioned there is something about Nashville that I don’t like (I’m about the only one, everyone LOVES Nashville but me) and being home was a bit of a stressor itself.… Keep Reading

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Bipolar Recovery Update

lylemcd — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:23:11 +0000

I’ve debated whether or not to write more about topic since my previous post. I’ve written fairly extensively about previous depression and that, along with finding ways to avoid having to write content related to the site, this seemed an easy way. I want to talk about my bipolar recovery process.

The Hypomanic Episode

The one topic I’m actually not going to detail is the original hypomanic episode, primarily because some of the aftermath from it is still ongoing and I do not feel the need to talk details. It’s also just not that relevant. … Keep Reading

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An Open Apology to the Internet

lylemcd — Thu, 01 Jan 2015 20:07:08 +0000

I’m not even sure where to start this as I sit here contemplating what was (I hope) the single worst choice of my adult life (semi-jokingly, I can only hope to find no way to top it). One that will have an impact on my life, my future, my career, my reputation for years to come, if not forever. And I’m trying to figure out how I got here.

Actually, there’s a fairly short answer to what got me here: I suffer from some form of bipolar (aka manic depression) disease (probably Bipolar II).

Yes, I said it (well wrote it) and no it wasn’t easy. I know I’ve talked about my depression before, usually because that has, historically, had a worse impact on my life but I also have the other “half” of the condition as well: mania. Well, hypomania anyhow.

I haven’t talked about that so much and there are a number of reasons for that not the least of which being that hypomania is, frankly, kind of awesome. … Keep Reading

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