Health Expert John McManamy shares health management news and commentary at HealthCentral.com. 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/profiles/c/15/index http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/15/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/15/index http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/150023/bipolar-question-fo Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:44:00 -0500 John McManamy Do you ever get those feelings that it is the rest of the world that is crazy, not you? Me, too. And the Presidential primary season isn’t helping matters. Let’s start with two simple propositions:   1. Despite increased awareness and understanding and the proliferation of treatments and medications, mental illness is on the rise worldwide.   2. Rates of mental illness are much higher in modern economies than in... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/150023/bipolar-question-fo http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149993/rules-relationships Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:47:00 -0500 John McManamy Following is a slightly longer version of the slideshow, Five Rules for Bipolar Relationships ...   Valentine’s Day falls in February. As we all know, living in a loving relationship poses considerable challenges. Add bipolar to the mix and the degree of difficulty suddenly gets a lot more difficult. How difficult? Imagine Yo-Yo Ma performing a Bach Cello Suite blindfolded while pedaling a unicycle backwards on a tightrope over... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149993/rules-relationships http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149757/epidemic-relevant Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:01:00 -0500 John McManamy Perhaps you have read Robert Whitaker’s 2010 “Anatomy of an Epidemic.” I have given considerable attention to the book on my personal blog, “Knowledge is Necessity,” but I have only made passing reference to it here, which I will explain later. Let’s begin ...   Robert Whitaker is a journalist and outspoken critic of psychiatry. His 2002 book, “Mad in America,” is a scathing indictment of... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149757/epidemic-relevant http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149734/disclose-question Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:38:00 -0500 John McManamy I hate being reminded I have bipolar, and Monday will be one of those days. That is when I report for jury duty. Naturally, I’m looking forward to two burly men in black suits clamping me on the shoulder and politely asking me to leave.   Other people I know send in a note from their doctor. Call me crazy, but I don’t believe that my illness excuses me from fulfilling my civic obligations. But this belief was severely tested... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149734/disclose-question http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149537/prescription-bipolar Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:22:00 -0500 John McManamy Last week, I posted, Marijuana for Bipolar: Treatment or Self-Medication?, which took its lead from MerelyMe’s piece on marijuana for treating anxiety. This post is a response to your responses to my response to MerelyMe. Gotta love these conversations ...   Tabby spoke for virtually all of us in stating:   I’m not for pot over psych meds nor psych meds over pot. There is abuse of anything good or harmful. Yet for many, if... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149537/prescription-bipolar http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149509/bipolar-question Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:20:00 -0500 John McManamy Beethoven lived with bipolar. So did Mahler, Schumann, Handel, and no end of composers and songwriters and musicians. Now that I have set the scene ...    A friend informed me that Yo-Yo Ma and his Goat Rodeo collaborators will be performing in Boston on Tuesday, and that the event will play live at theaters throughout the country. I have a board meeting that evening and will miss it. Curses.   A bit of background: Yo-Yo Ma... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149509/bipolar-question http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149315/treatment-medication Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:00:00 -0500 John McManamy My fellow HealthCentral blogger MerelyMe has just posted a very timely article on marijuana for treating anxiety, which I strongly urge you to read. So - why don’t we take a brief time-out from our series on sex and bipolar and have a quick look at marijuana use in bipolar?   First, let me say upfront: I’m all for legalizing the drug, but this is an entirely different issue than endorsing its use for treating mania or easing... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149315/treatment-medication http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149296/cooking-question Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:04:00 -0500 John McManamy Do you do your own cooking? The other day, I invited a friend to drop by. There were two chicken breasts in the fridge. I decided to do a chicken parm. I tossed some hunks of old bread in the blender and whizzed up some bread crumbs. I cut my two breasts into four, seasoned, egged and breaded the pieces, and browned them in an oiled frying pan. Then I transferred the pieces to a baking pan, poured on a can of crushed tomatoes with some herbs,... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149296/cooking-question http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149101/bipolar-challenge Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:57:00 -0500 John McManamy This is the sixth in our series on sex and bipolar. In this post, we look at the issue of meds. MB speaks for a lot of us when he writes (in response to last week’s piece):   Now that I am steady on my medications, I find my sex drive is lacking. What can I do to get it back?   Likewise, Shelly (in response to an earlier post) recounts:   Unfortunately I had an experience with my first med that made it impossible to... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149101/bipolar-challenge http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149069/unpredictable-week Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:27:00 -0500 John McManamy It is play-off season. The first of four NFL weekend wildcard games is about to get underway. Meanwhile, in that other series of play-offs, Iowa wrapped up its caucuses a few days ago and New Hampshire is about to host its primary. What does all this have to do with bipolar? Read on ...   People who get paid to observe both sports and politics point out that it is all about peaking at the right time. Thus, among Republican Presidential... http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/149069/unpredictable-week