Bipolar Expert John McManamy shares Bipolar management news and commentary at BipolarConnect.com. The HealthCentral Network, Inc. (www.HealthCentral.com) is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15 http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15 http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/95683/coping-holidays Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:30:52 -0500 John McManamy Next week is Thanksgiving and before we know it we'll be bracing ourselves for Christmas and Saturnalia. For three years running, the holidays have represented an extreme challenge to me. Around this time in 2007, in a sharepost here, I observed:Life doesn’t come with a trouble-free warranty. A year ago exactly, I was stuffing my personal belongings into six or seven shipping cartons. My marriage of three years had just broken up, and I... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/95683/coping-holidays http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/95447/question-week-holiday Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:16:43 -0500 John McManamy This is the season in which we are reminded to count our blessings. But a lot of us are in no position to think that way. This can be a very painful time of the year for our population. Question:   How are you holding up?   Please feel free to fill us in on what you are doing to cope. http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/95447/question-week-holiday http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/94743/god-turn-back Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:28:20 -0500 John McManamy In my most recent Question of the Week, I asked:Andrew Solomon in his book, "The Noonday Demon," observes that depressions are like snowflakes, no two are alike. Everyone of us has a different experience of depression, a different story. Question:If you had to describe your depression in 15 seconds to the person riding the elevator with you, how would you describe it?Nothing could have prepared me for Tabby's response, whose answer in full was... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/94743/god-turn-back http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/94498/question-depression Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:35:36 -0500 John McManamy Andrew Solomon in his book, "The NoonDay Demon," observes that depressions are like snowflakes, no two are alike. Everyone of us has a different experience of depression, a different story. Question:   If you had to describe your depression in 15 seconds to the person riding the elevator with you, how would you describe it?   Please feel free to add extra "lobby time."     http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/94498/question-depression http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/93814/listening-patients Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:53:10 -0500 John McManamy One of the tragedies of our illness is how it rips apart our families. Check out the various posts and questions and comments from readers on this site and you will find all the proof you need. From a family member's perspective, it's as if the mother ship abducted their precious loved one and substituted him or her with an alien impostor. Meanwhile, a patient suddenly finds him or herself a stranger in a strange land.   Neither party... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/93814/listening-patients http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/93667/question-favorite Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:54:06 -0500 John McManamy Everyone has an opinion on this, so l expect to see a full mailbag this week:   What is your favorite food?   Mine is peanut butter. Natural and crunchy. Never mind the bread, just give me a fork to stick in the jar.   Your turn. Go for it ... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/93667/question-favorite http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/92816/misdiagnosis-readers Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:01:44 -0400 John McManamy When it comes to your illness, you (patients and loved ones) are by far the the best experts. You have no further to look for proof than to the comments that began with a recent question of the week, Diagnosis and Misdiagnosis, followed up with another Question of the Week, How Long Did it Take?, and elaborated on in two shareposts based on some of those comments, Eight People Tell Their Stories, and Misdiagnosis - The Dialogue Continues.No... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/92816/misdiagnosis-readers http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/92808/week-responsibility Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:47:41 -0400 John McManamy This installment has no easy answers, much less right ones or wrong ones. It's all about what level of understanding you expect to receive from people close to you and those you face in the wider world.Question: How much allowance, if any, should those close to you make for your illness-related behavior? Should your colleagues at work and others you run across make similar allowances?Loved ones and others: Please feel free to jump into the... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/92808/week-responsibility http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/91979/misdiagnosis-dialogue Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:31:44 -0400 John McManamy I go to the same conferences psychiatrists do. I read their journals. I read their books. The information I have received over the years has been invaluable. But the best source of information, by far, comes from you - patients and loved ones.Two weeks ago, as a Question of the Week, I asked:Were you misdiagnosed with depression or something else? How long did it take before you finally received the correct diagnosis?Your answers - 18 to date... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/91979/misdiagnosis-dialogue http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/91719/question-week-long Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:46:00 -0400 John McManamy In last week's Question of the Week, 18 of you shared your story of being misdiagnosed - often by a doctor who failed to listen or ask the right questions - and the long difficult journey - typically taking years - in arriving at the correct diagnosis.   This time around, I'm asking you to cast your mind further back, years and perhaps decades, to the time when it became clear to you that something wasn't quite right.   So this... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/91719/question-week-long