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Surviving and Thriving with Bipolar Disorder: Tips from a Survivor
Surviving and Thriving with Bipolar Disorder: Tips from a Survivor
Surviving and Thriving with Bipolar Disorder: Tips from a Survivor
Ebook54 pages50 minutes

Surviving and Thriving with Bipolar Disorder: Tips from a Survivor

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This self-help book describes how I’ve managed to survive and thrive with bipolar disorder for over 25 years. It offers tips on how to pick a good psychiatrist, how to handle depression, anxiety and insomnia, and how to help a loved one who’s going through a manic episode. It shares with you the lessons I've learned, sometimes the hard way, over the years and also explores the “good crazy” side of being bipolar--and yes, there are some good sides, believe it or not. Many with this disorder are good artists, writers, and musicians. Many are also well-organized and have good sex lives. As the best psychiatrist I ever had told me, “You’re lucky. You’re in good company.” It’s all up to you--the person who has bipolar disorder--to decide if you’re lucky or not. To decide if your glass is half-full or half-empty. I sincerely hope my book will help you and your loved ones. It has received Five and Four Star Reviews.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 15, 2013
ISBN9781301983506
Surviving and Thriving with Bipolar Disorder: Tips from a Survivor
Author

Blanche Belljar

For years, my family and friends have urged me to write books about my experiences with having bipolar disorder. "Maybe you can help other people who are going through the same thing," they suggested. I was first diagnosed with this disorder in 1985, so it is like "an old friend" to me. I had put off writing about it for many reasons: it was too depressing; too weird; too embarrassing; and too strangely humorous. I finally started writing about it after my brother died. One of the most helpful coping mechanisms my brother had ever taught me was to try to see the humor in some of the distressing things that have happened to us in our family. Ultimately, my books are about hope: you will get better after you are first diagnosed with bipolar disorder. My books are also about accepting your illness and how to cope with it; not just for yourself, but also if you have a loved one who is having a bad manic episode and you are trying to help them without going crazy yourself.

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Surviving and Thriving with Bipolar Disorder - Blanche Belljar

Surviving and Thriving with Bipolar Disorder: Tips from a Survivor

Blanche Belljar

Copyright Blanche Belljar 2013

Revised March 2016

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1—One of Those People

Chapter 2—Father Knows Best versus Mad Men

Chapter 3—Hypersexuality

Chapter 4—The Gang of Famous Bipolars

Chapter 5—Well-Organized

Chapter 6—The Best Psychiatrist

Chapter 7—Choosing a Good Psychiatrist

Chapter 8—Bad Chemicals

Chapter 9—My Tips for Handling Anxiety

Chapter 10—Meds for Life

Chapter 11—How Watching My Brother Die Eased My Health Anxieties

Chapter 12—How to Deal with Scary Medical Tests

Chapter 13—Helping a Loved One Who Has Bipolar Disorder

Other Books by Blanche Belljar

Introduction

For years, my family and friends have urged me to write a book about my experiences with having bipolar disorder. Maybe you can help other people who are going through the same thing, they suggested. I was first diagnosed with this disorder in 1985, so it is like an old friend to me. I had put off writing about it for many reasons: it was too depressing; too weird; too embarrassing, and too strangely humorous. I don’t want people to know I have it and am very good at disguising it. It is my own boogeyman whom I keep locked away in my closet. I’m still so hesitant to let people know I have it that I am writing this book under a pen name.

So why now? Four years ago, my brother and sister died within 3 months of each other. All of the reassurances that I had told myself about wrestling and subduing my old beast were no longer working. Both deaths were a devastating loss to me, my surviving sister, our spouses, and their children. My younger sister left behind 3 teenage daughters and my brother was financially supporting a daughter and her three children who were all living in his house. I cried every day for a year and a half. How were they going to get through this? How was I supposed to? I’m still trying to make sense of everything that has happened after their deaths.

Writing it all down is therapeutic. I wanted to approach this book through the eyes of a hopeless optimist who sees the silver lining in every dark cloud. I wanted to stand aside and watch myself from the sidelines to have a little distance from it. I’ve tried to approach this as if I were a character in a play or a book, which is easy for me since I was an English Major in college.

What could possibly be the silver lining in my dark clouds of struggling with this disorder? It’s that I’m in good company, as the best doctor I’d ever had told me after I tried to commit suicide in 1985. Feeling lucky is the last thing you’d think of when you’re going through this. It is quite a challenge! I hope that by writing this book, maybe I can help some poor soul out there who is scared and overwhelmed when they hear the diagnosis of bipolar disorder for the first time. You can get through this, but—fasten your seat belt—you are going to have quite the rollercoaster ride.

I couldn’t have survived the ravages of this disorder without the love and support of an amazing husband who has been my best friend and lover for 40 years. I’ve left the last chapter, Helping a Loved One Who Has Bipolar Disorder, for him to tell, in his own words.

Chapter 1—One of Those People

Have you ever felt like you’ve hit rock bottom?

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