Browse Category by Depression

Articles on Depression

Depression, Learn, Mania, Mindset

The Myth of Dry Land.

Images by Ben Ngapo

With bipolar moods become immovable.

Thoughts and emotions will combine to recreate our perception of the world for brighter or darker. A stubbornly grey day may transform into a world of fun and laughter and endless possibilities. A beautiful holiday can be a leaden prison of self-hating apathy. I think it is actually pretty amazing how much our brains colour how we see the world and ourselves.  Amazing or terrible, agonising or blissful, these big moods that shape our bipolar life are definitely disruptive. It is as if Continue Reading

Depression, How To, Learn, Mindset

Learning to recognise depression and build a ramp out of it.

Images by Ricardo Gomez Angel 

This article teaches how-to recognise and get out of depression using a strategy called ramping. Depression is frustrating: it draws my energy away and eats up whatever momentum I had. Depression is a landscape of heavy gravity, inertia, and greyness. Depression in the media is sometimes portrayed as deep sadness but for me it is more of a nihilistic numbness: my world feels small, dark, and utterly inconsequential. Continue Reading

Depression, Learn, Mania, Mindset

Don’t ever forget how amazing you are!

Image by Gabriel Silvério on Unsplash

People can be so courageous. Living with bipolar is hard, whatever the intensity. When you add in careers, relationships, families, goals, dreams to live up to; the illness permeates everything. This means that sometimes everything in life can become a little bit harder, or a lot harder, or maybe it becomes absolutely insurmountable. Nonetheless we try. Continue Reading

Depression, How To, Learn, Mania

Five priorities for creating a healthy bipolar life.

Images by Adi Goldstein

We cannot make progress unless we act on the importance of our well-being to prioritise bipolar health. I was once offered an amazing opportunity to work for a whole year on an isolated tropical island in the pacific ocean, thousands of miles distant from any civilisation. This island is an active volcano, we experienced thousands of earthquakes, and were bruised by intense sub-tropical storms. With a population of only seven, we had to be able to cope independently.

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Depression, Learn, Mania, Mindset

The six episodic phases of bipolar disorder

Images by Ben Blennerhassett

I have read dozens of definitions of bipolar, previously known as manic-depression, over the past decade. I have heard it described as a mood disorder, a brain disease, a mental illness, brain damage, even karma. What I have learned is that bipolar is unique to each individual: everybody has a different experience with it, and at the core bipolar is highly personal. Continue Reading

Depression, How To, Learn, Mania

When your emotional compass is broken, steer by kindness.

Images by Priscilla Du Preez

What do you do when you can no longer trust what your heart is telling you?

I remember standing in a park, with the girl I loved, watching her simply being herself. I was completely filled by hurt and rage. She hadn’t done anything, but my body was shaking with anger. My heart was poisoned by resentment and I remember exploding in a wrathful way, a way which was designed to hurt the one I love. Continue Reading