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/15/93814/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 http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/90974/misdiagnosis-stories Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:37:53 -0400 John McManamy Two days 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?The eight responses I received so far are extremely illuminating, and serve as excellent case studies for what our population has to go through. Let’s go down the list, one by one:Kad writes: “In the past I had been sort of diagnosed with depression by various... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/90974/misdiagnosis-stories http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/90781/question-misdiagnosis Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:56:14 -0400 John McManamy More than ten years ago, in the throes of a suicidal depression, I sought out a psychiatrist, who diagnosed me with clinical depression. The antidepressant he prescribed flipped me into mania, which made a bipolar diagnosis a no-brainer. I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Many continue to lead miserable lives for years with their misdiagnosis, enduring the heartbreak of one failed antidepressant after the other.   Question: Were you... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/90781/question-misdiagnosis http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/89879/illness-awareness Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:39:20 -0400 John McManamy This week is Mental Illness Awareness Week. Okay, let’s get aware. Following is a random traverse through history:   790,000 BC, give or take a few years - Discovery of fire. Anyone crazy enough to take a burning tree into their cave and find a practical application had to have been dealing with bipolar. So, you nonbipolars out there, listen up: We give you the gift of civilization, and how do you thank us? That’s right. You... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/89879/illness-awareness http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/89140/depression-bipolar Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:02:22 -0400 John McManamy Ticadoo writes:"[My best friend] and my husband have told me I need to be checked for bipolar, but everything I've read, up until finding your site, showed I did not have all the symptoms, which is the mania - having ups. I never have those."Thank you for writing, Ticadoo. You have raised what I would characterize as bipolar's biggest myth - namely, that to rate a diagnosis you need to be dancing on tables.   Ticadoo mentions that she has... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/89140/depression-bipolar