Blog Posts
We’re spreading the word about BrainStorm and saving lives…via podcasts
I've been keeping busy these days trying to get the word out about bipolar depression. Check out some of these podcasts and share with your friends. Together we can: Save Lives. End the Stigma. Reduce Suffering. Resilient Stories with Dr. Tommy Watson Book Place Media...
Surgeon General warns of Youth Mental Health Crisis
The New York Times recently reported that the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, “warned that young people are facing ‘devastating’ mental health effects as a result of the challenges experienced by their generation, including the coronavirus pandemic.” As one...
Outlaws from Nature, Part II – The Plague
Outlaws from Nature, Part II – The Plague. We are two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, and while it is hard not to think of it as a plague, its serious nature has been affecting our society.
“Mental Illness.”
The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. I’m advocating that bipolar depression II is misnamed, misunderstood and misdiagnosed when we refer to it as a “mental illness.” If I had a knife in my...
“Bipolar II”
Photo credit: Bipolar II Disorder: Recognition, Understanding, and Treatment, by Ed. Swartz, Holly A.Paperback The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. We drive back to Massachusetts from Florida...
Phoenix Rising
The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. Jim Head was the anti-professor—young, cool, charismatic and infamous on campus. In 1981, when I took his course “Earth, Moon and Mars” (we called it,...
Joe was a Rock
The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. How can a marriage survive when one partner loses her sanity, her sexuality, her capacity to mother, to work, to love and support her lover, to laugh,...
Coming Out, Ending the Stigma, Lifting the Shame
The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. I’m writing this partly because it’s healing for me to tell my story and partly because I wish I had found a guide like this, written from the inside, when...
The Beauty of BALANCE
My friend Jill is a consummate achiever. Mother of four, Yale Law School alum, married 30 years to a successful surgeon. She has numerous professional awards and accomplishments, and a book-shelf packed with hard cover volumes that she’s actually read. A pristine...
The Gut-Brain Connection
Early readers of my memoir BrainStorm, gave me feedback that they wanted more guidance on how to work with their Bipolar Spectrum brains. And I’ve got lots of practice. So I coined the acronym PECS: physical, emotional, creative and spiritual. In part II of the book,...
My circle of friends
The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. I am lucky to have fiercely loyal friends. Joe says I’m the only person he knows who hasn’t lost a friend since kindergarten. A friend who is an...
Losing it
The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. It is 1978 and I am a seventeen-year-old high school senior. I’ve watched my mom wrestling with depression all through my growing up years. The first time...