You Want The Real ADHD Experience?

Fuck you *hypos your mania*

Are you having a hard time keeping yourself and your brain stimulated? Can you even stimulate yourself at all? Maybe you should try making a Dopamenu!

I made a Dopamenu today by following How To ADHD’s guide.

How To Give Your Brain The Stimulation It Needs (Dopamenu Guide!)

I recommend watching the video and trying to make yourself a Dopamenu as well. I used OpenOffice to make my Dopamenu, it’s a free alternative to Word and it works pretty much the same!

LINK TO MY GOOGLE DRIVE SO YOU CAN GET THE FILE & FILL IN YOUR OWN DOPAMENU YOURSELF

YOU are Bipolar!

a seemingly homemade shirt

found in a goodwill in Columbia, Kentucky

Therapist Red Flags

Therapy is important and can be really helpful, but not all therapists are good at their job. Here’s a few things to look out for when you’re seeing a therapist:

Not listening to what you tell them

Ignoring confidentiality (except in emergencies)

Making you feel judged or ashamed

Ignoring or trivialising your needs

Consistently being late

Making fun of your needs / accomplishments

Being judgemental or critical of you

Not taking your feedback on sessions into account

Condescending facial expressions or body language

Ignoring what you want to do / accomplish in therapy

Talking too much about themselves

Making you feel like problems are all your fault

Being insensitive to your culture or religion

They’re making you feel bad about yourself

Using the phone or getting distracted during your sessions

Attempting to make romantic / sexual advances on you

Making you feel stupid or invalid for what you say or how you feel

Forgetting important details about you / your life

Pushing you too hard before you’re ready

You wondering if their behaviour is a red flag. If you’re looking it up then chances are you already feel uncomfortable in therapy. You should never be forced into seeing a therapist who makes you feel uneasy. There’s no shame in leaving and finding a different therapist.

It’s the masterpost that no one actually asked for, but I really wanted to make. I’ve found a lot of resources, but they were never in one place. So instead of searching all over the place all the time, I decided to make this.

This also includes resources for schizoaffective disorder, which I’ve never seen a masterpost for! I didn’t include things like “Dealing with a bipolar loved one”, but I might make a separate post for friends/family.

Basic information:

About Bipolar Disorder (DBSA)

Bipolar Disorder (NIMH), Bipolar Disorder (Mayo Clinic)

Overview of Bipolar Disorder (pdf)

Bipolar I (WebMD)

Bipolar II (WebMD)

Cyclothymia (Mayo Clinic),  Cyclothymia (WebMD)

What is rapid cycling? (DBSA)

Schizoaffective Disorder (NAMI), Schizoaffective Disorder (Mayo Clinic)

Diagnosing bipolar disorder NOS (verywell)

The secret life of manic depression (pdf)

BPD vs BD (post by homojabi)

Mania and hypomania:

Mania symptoms (psych central)

What is mania and hypomania? (WebMD)

What is a manic episode? (healthy place)

Coping with mania (healthline)

Dealing with this manic episode (living manic depressive)

Behavioral strategies for preventing mania (pdf)

Cognitive strategies for preventing mania (pdf)

How to prevent a hypomanic episode (pdf)

Hypersexuality information post (OP deleted, so it’s on bipolarnet)

Depressive episodes:

Depression in bipolar disorder (black dog institute)

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about bipolar depression (bphope)

Cognitive strategies for preventing and managing depression (pdf)

Behavioral strategies for preventing and managing depression (pdf)

Depression laundry tips (depressionresource)

Mixed episodes:

Mixed episode symptoms (psych central)

How to treat mixed mood episodes (bipolar burble)

Bipolar episodes with mixed features (WebMD)

Schizoaffective disorder:

Living with schizoaffective disorder (psych central)

Living with schizoaffective disorder (brain blogger)

What is schizoaffective disorder?, self care, + treatments and support (mind.org)

Psychosis:

Talking to friends about psychosis ( @therapidcyclist )

Surviving halloween with psychosis ( @mentalhealthwarrior )

How to deal with paranoia when you’re alone ( post by skailu )

How to handle hallucinations (post by schizotiger)

Treatment and medication info:

crazymeds (mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics)

Bipolar medication guide (help guide)

Bipolar disorder - What medication is available? (mind.org)

Bipolar disorder - treatment (nhs)

What to do if your parents refuse to let you have access to mental healthcare (posted by abusedkidproblems)

Self care / executive dysfunction:

Dysfunctional’s guide to functioning ( therapidcyclist )

Grounding kits ( @depressionresource )

What to do when showering is too hard (depressionresource)

lowspoonsgourmet and no-more-ramen

articles on college and bipolar disorder (ibpf)

Fact sheet on recognizing and preventing future episodes

Bipolar self care post (unfortunately OP’s theme is nearly impossible to read, so it’s on bipolarnet)

Apps:

Bipol-app, Booster Buddy, Daily Feats, Daylio, Emoods, iMood journal, Mango Health MediSafe, MoodPanda, Pacifica

note: I’ve tried to make sure all of these apps are free!

This ended up being really long already, but feel free to add to this. If your post was featured here and you want me to remove it, let me know! Please let me know if any links are broken.

I find myself explaining to people a lot recently why using "bipolar" "narcissistic" "psychopath" etc is an issue, because it can be hard to articulate in the moment, so here it is all together:

The terminology that is related to certain conditions, disorders, and neurotypes being appropriated by others to be used in commonplace situations necessarily creates problems for those whose conditions these terms are supposed to belong to and help. It stigmatises certain behaviours, makes them the butt of the joke, or underplays how debilitating they can be.

For someone who has to live with bipolar disorder, people using "bipolar" or "mania" loosely suggests that the actual bipolar people are overreacting, or else that their condition is a joke when in fact this condition not only hinders them in an ableist world, but also brings violence and discrimination against them because of the condition.

Such also is the case for personality disorders and complex disorders like schizophrenia. Using "psychotic" as an insult or a modifier erases the fact that it's a condition which most aversely affects the psychotic person, it stigmatises them as dangerous when in fact psychotic people are the ones more likely to receive violence than inflict it statistically and historically.

Saying psychopath when you mean a serial killer and sociopath when you mean someone who is cruel is also wrong in that same vein because these are ((now redundant)) subtypes of anti social personality disorder, which does not make people more likely to cause harm or to be "evil" or abusive, but rather causes issues in their own lives due to a lack of empathy, which must also not be confused with a lack of compassion.

Narcissistic personality disorder similarly is a cluster of self esteem issues, identity crisis, and a fragmented sense of self that shows itself in certain behaviours. Borderline personality disorder also is similarly stigmatised, when in fact people with this disorder are far more likely to be victims of abuse. Terms like "narcissistic abuse" or "borderline abuse" suggest that these people abused you because of their disorder, which is not at all true, and any idea of abuse can already be encompassed simply by calling it "abuse" plain and simple rather than stigmatizing a bunch of people in the process of this.

All of these disorders, though not curable, still are treatable in that people are trying to get help and adjust to life despite their symptoms. This only becomes possible as long as these symptoms and terminologies are not stigmatized any further by an ableist society. The terms used to describe these disorders are meant to HELP the people with those disorders. Not to become an excuse to treat these people worse and make them feel unwelcome.

sometimes it feels like I ruin everything. I lose things, break things, forget things all the time. It seems like I don’t care, but I do. I care a lot.

Some rando: You should think about stopping your prescription

Me: My pills make me not want to die tho

They: You shouldn’t want to die, that’s not normal

Me: Yeah that’s why I’m taking my pills

manic episode symptoms/warning signs

THIS IS NOT GOING TO APPLY TO EVERYONE!!! this is my own personal experience. mental illness isn't a one size fits all, i'm not claiming to be an expert or know what everyone's mania feels like, this is just what i've experienced

increased irritability

increased energy

change in appetite, not feeling hungry for days and then becoming ravenous

frequent sensory overload

oversensitivity

changes in sleep pattern, sleeping only 3-4 hours or shifting to sleeping more during the day and being awake all night

noticeable increase in productivity, that might start out as good, but you notice yourself being hyper fixated and jumping from several different projects

increase in impulsivity

feeling like you've lost control over yourself and your actions

paranoia

intrusive thoughts

nightmares

talking a lot, rambling, going on long rants

a feeling like you're watching yourself on a screen, like someone else took over your body and you're watching from the outside as they live your life

being aware you're making bad choices or that you are being reckless but not caring or being able to stop

dissociation

impulse purchases and reckless spending

reckless driving

impulse to change appearance or alter your image that can feel like a NEED if it isn't done immediately (for me this manifests in my hair, like cutting it or changing the color at 3 am. it also used to be comorbid with my eating disorder, which led to extreme fasting to try and lose weight)

feeling like you can accomplish things you couldn't normally do, feeling powerful, inflated ego and sense of self. i sometimes would think i was invincible and that nothing could hurt me and tried to act on it to prove it

increase in libido

risky sexual behavior

heightened emotions, everything feels larger than life, the highs feel like they'll never end and the lows feel like the end of the world

for myself this was only in extreme cases, but visual or auditory hallucinations. i've only had visual hallucinations a couple times, but when things got really bad, i would hear things that weren't there, or hear people calling me when i was all alone

feeling like thoughts are racing and you can't stop them, feeling like everything is loud and you're being pulled in a million directions

friends and family noticing uncharacteristic behavior, cutting people off, becoming VERY irritable, or showing too much affection in a way that isn't normal for you

and, inevitably, when it ends: The Big Crash. the depressive episode after that knocks you out