1. Health

Are You Conditioned to Depression?

For someone with clinical depression or bipolar disorder, it's not all that difficult to become conditioned to depression. For you, depression has become a norm. When you are conditioned, you may not even recognize depression for what it is.

Depression Hits Hard
Bipolar Disorder Spotlight10

Studying a Link Between Stress and Bipolar Disorder

Monday May 13, 2013
New link between stress and bipolar disorderA newly published study says that having a bipolar parent increases the everyday level of a key stress hormone. This might seem like a no-brainer, but in fact the study results are more interesting than that. For one thing, they weren't looking at young children, but at offspring between the ages of 14 and 28, so many of the study participants were not actually living with the bipolar parent any more - yet the stress effect continued.

"Previous research has shown that children of parents with bipolar disorder are four times as likely to develop mood disorders as those from parents without the condition," said the senior author Dr. Mark Ellenbogen. "The goal of our study was to determine how this is happening."

They already knew that high levels of the stress hormone cortisol often occur in people who later develop bipolar disorder - and that high stress levels can contribute to developing BP. What they found out in this study is that people with a bipolar parent react to both low-level and high-level stress by producing more cortisol than those with the same stress level but no bipolar parent.

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Talking About Mental Illness and Disability Can Be Tough

Monday April 29, 2013
For people who can't work because of their bipolar disorder, Social Security Disability payments can make an enormous difference. Though the application process isn't easy, and getting approval can take a long time (if it is approved at all), it's worth the effort to those who need that income.

But if after going through all that you find people you know looking down on you because you're "mooching off the government," as one person mentioned, what are you to do? Our forum members discussed the question of whether - and how - to tell people where your income comes from if you are on SSDI.

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Andalucia - Balancing Bipolar

Sunday April 28, 2013
Andalusia, SpainAngela sent in this photo from Andalucia, Spain (Andalusia is the English spelling) that she says illustrates the balancing act she tries to do between mania and depression. I've placed it in the "Images of Depression" series because of its somber coloring.

Submit your own image of depression
Submit your own image of mania or hypomania

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Jane's Shorn Head

Saturday April 27, 2013
Jane's Shorn HeadJane has sent in a picture that, she says, is all about how bipolar hypomania affects her. When you read what she has to say about it, I think you'll agree that she is, as she says herself, "kooky." Submit your own image of mania or hypomania
Submit your own image of depression
Learn more or join the conversation!
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