Bipolar Happens, by Julie Fast

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Have you heard of Bipolar Happens?

I have been familiar with Julie Fast for a long time. She has bipolar and had difficulty with medication. She grew frustrated with the symptoms. She developed a system of Health Cards to help her and her family deal with symptoms. The Health Cards help you to recognize symptoms and intervene, and also help you share these methods with family and friends.

Anyone familiar with this? Thoughts?

Here is her website

Home

You can order her Health Cards and books. Her belief is that we should focus on self-care almost more than medication, if not more so.

And here is a video with an overview.

6 thoughts on “Bipolar Happens, by Julie Fast”

  1. blahpolar

    She makes perfect sense to me – I like the way she puts medication first in her treatment strategy. And I totally agree that it has to be about a lot more than meds. I’ve read various bits of writing by her online – the only book of hers that I have access to is Get It Done When You’re Depressed.

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      1. blahpolar

        I haven’t read it, it’s just that it’s the only one of hers I can looks round furtively download free. I’ve got a long list of stuff to read atm, because I can’t focus very well. But I’ll get back to behaving like Pac Man soon enough.

        Here’s the book blurb:
        Everyone knows that depression can lead to guilt, sadness, frustration, and in the case of 15-20% of people with depression, suicide. Because we live in a culture that rewards (and often worships) productivity, when a depressed person can’t meet the expectations of society, the depression becomes worse and a vicious cycle begins. The goal of Getting Things Done When You’re Depressed is to break this cycle. Readers wil l learn: How to prepare yourself mentally for working while depressed. How to structure your environment so you can work more easily. How to work with others. How to prevent depression.

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        1. kbailey374 Post author

          Interesting that the first effect of depression she lists is GUILT, which as you know is something I fight with greatly. Sounds like a very interesting book esp since work is the primary victim (other than myself) of my depression. Thank you v. much for the blurb. You are so sweet. Took me a while to figure out the PacMan reference, I love it!

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        2. Laura Droege

          I have that book, and I can attest that it is very helpful. I have more depression than mania with my bipolar II (along with a good helping of mixed episodes). The part about being one’s own inner drill sergeant was helpful for me: just do it. Just sit my butt in the chair and write (my job, though non-paying). It also happens to be the advice of all the published writers/editors/agents I read, including some with mental illnesses. It’s a great book.

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