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3.  Antidepressant Drugs Aim At Wrong Target?

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5.  Mediterranean diet cuts depression risk

6.  Twitter Feud: A Bit of Fry Without Laurie

We have all been taught throughout our years in school that health is based on, roughly, two important principles:

1.  a good diet and

2.  regular exercise.

To the surprise of many, these principles aren’t lies. Both diet and exercise DO provide our bodies with the necessary nutrients and activity to keep us living a balanced life. In addition, getting good amounts of sleep and staying away from harmful chemicals (Drugs and Alcohol) can add to our health. These are indisputable facts, so live with it. If you want to be healthy, do these things. Based on the observation that you are surfing this website, I am assuming two things: 1) you are in some aspect of your life affected with Bipolar Disorder or depression and 2) you want to learn how to successfully live with either of them.

Well, believe it or not, it involves everything about health mentioned above.   Not only useful for people not afflicted, if you are dealing with Bipolar Disorder or depression,  these facts about healthy living become exponentially more important to you. Bipolar Disorder is, at its nature, a disorder that involves disrupted biology in the brain, which in turn causes the mania and depression swings that make life difficult. Sleeping, eating, exercise, drugs and alcohol all play into this biology.

I could go into some of the biological mechanisms of each of these factors, but let’s keep it simple.  When you don’t get enough sleep, how do you feel?  Crabby, sluggish, and worn-out?   How do you feel when you go to walk upstairs and you have been sitting on the couch watching TV and eating McDonald’s? Exhausted?  The slightest over exertion can actually make you feel sick.  In the case of alcohol, it is by its very definition a poison.   Alcohol has the potential to kill you, your body doesn’t want in you and it has a huge effect on your biology—the same goes for most drugs, as well.    So, it makes sense to treat your body right by getting adequate sleep, exercising regularly, eating right, and not putting drugs or alcohol into your system, but the fact of the matter is this can be tough to do.  School work, daily chores, and myriad of other things can get in your way of staying healthy. Plus, playing video games and other extra curriculars can be a lot of fun too.

So, the question is: how do you incorporate healthy ways of living into your daily life?   One way is to rely on schedules and routines, which aren’t all that fun all the time.   For instance, you can start by setting a bed time, and then add into that schedule a time to exercise, do homework, have a snack, take medication, etc.   By doing this, you are allowing your body to learn what is normal (and healthy) and setting a consistency that will not disrupt your biology.  We at Flipswitch call it “Regimented Living” and it is a large component of what we call “dealing with your disorder effectively.” Here at Flipswitch, we have a motto that says, “You’re either dealing with your disorder or your disorder is dealing with you.” No matter what, then, you are dealing with Bipolar Disorder.   When you wake up in the morning, it’s a part of you.  When you eat, it’s a part of you.  When you exercise, it’s still there.   Any decision you make during the day will not only have an impact on you, it will also influence the Bipolar Disorder  or depression you are dealing with. So, in order to deal with your disorder and limit the negative effects it has on your life, you have to try and live as healthy as possible. While this isn’t the easiest thing in the world, it’s the only tried and true method, because like I’ve said, there are no magic bullets to living a healthy life.

Ryan

To get us all moving on our new format, it’s important to get back to the basics….the very foundation of the whole endeavor.

I ask the question: If nothing else is learned from Flipswitch save one thing and one thing alone, what would that one thing be?

I think I definitely have the answer to that question.  It was part of our first show.  It is the thing that unites all other aspects of show, all other issues.  I am certain that every show we do in the future will be, underneath, really about this one basic message.

That message is our issue for this week. Let’s state it explicitly.

YOU’RE EITHER DEALING WITH YOUR DISORDER OR IT’S DEALING WITH YOU!

That’s a nice bumper sticker way of stating our issue this week,  and it’s all shiny and catchy and whatnot, but it really is meaningful for each and every person out there trying to come to terms with their own dark depression or out of control recurring manias.  It does roll off the tongue, but stop and think about it: what would happen if you did absolutely nothing at all to deal with your depression or bipolar disorder? Likely, not a very good outcome, I bet. Worse, probably a pretty scary and just outright painful outcome including more of the same deep well of pain that comes along with feeling so low in depression or the out of control manias and morbid lows that come with bipolar disorder.

Now stop and think, REALLY THINK about it.  What would happen if you did EVERYTHING possible to deal with your mood issues? Yeah yeah yeah. I know a lot of you are mumbling, “It’d all still be horrible.  Nothing matters.  I can’t do anything anyway.”  That’s the sadness talking, and it’s founded on an error of logic.

No, I’m willing to stake virtually anything on one simple fact:  I bet that you’ll do remarkably better by dealing with your disorder rather than doing nothing. And I’m willing to bet you’ll feel at least a little better.

The reason I’m so confident about this central message is simple:  if you don’t deal with your disorder, it will continue you unabated (that means full steam ahead, smartypants). It will fester and thrive, at least being as powerful as it ever was.  Unchecked, you’re playing a dangerous game.  In short, your issues will deal with you if you don’t deal with them.

But that’s a larger point that we’d like to make, part of that central theme of our show.  Our whole point out of all of this is that as bad as you feel, as hopeless as things seem, as painful as it all can be, the indisputable truth of the matter is that you CAN effectively fight against mood disorders.

Depression, bipolar disorder, dysthymia, cyclothymia, etc….these things work along a certain set of principles just like everything else.  And if that is true, then there are certain conditions that must be present for these disorders to thrive and get worse, conditions that if thwarted (ie if you actively take charge of your health and act against them) it becomes more and more difficult for them to continue to exist.

Now, that, of course, is a LOT easier said than done.  A LOT.  But the alternative is to let your  mood disorder ravage you which likely entails you feeling awful and out of control of your own life.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  You can change things.

So that’s it. That’s what we’ll be pounding on this week:  You have the power to control your health.  Deal with your issues or they’ll deal with you.

What do you think?

Let us know,

Chris

We’ve got some interesting changes coming down the pipe here on Flipswitch.

From here on out, we’ll rarely be doing 30 minute shows anymore.  Instead, we’ll be doing something a bit more concentrated.  We’ll be rolling out a new issue here on the blog each week.  That’s one new issue each week.  And we’ll be publishing both blogposts as well as segments in support of that issue over the course of the week.

Think of it like this:  on Monday, we post a blog at 10 am about our issue of the week, let’s say for “catastrophic thinking” for instance.  The blog post would roll out some thoughts on that issue that we’ll be looking at over the course of the week.  At around 2pm or so that day, we might publish our learning the terms segment where we’ll define exactly what catastrophic thinking actually is.  On Tuesday, one of the co-hosts would do another blog about the topic of the week, while on Wednesday, we’d publish a segment giving practical examples of catastrophic thinking.  Thursday, yet even another blog post or segment.  And on and on until the end of the week.  Then, on Monday, we’d start with an all new issue, doing the whole thing all over again.

So, our new method of doing the show will have much shorter segments published more often and we’ll be making more use of our blog as well.  Stay tuned. It’s going to be quite interesting!

In other news (literally!), we’ll be making Mood Disorders In the News its own recurring weekly segment, typically posted on Wednesdays or Thursdays.   Things happen every day in the world of mood disorders.  It only makes sense that as part of our podcast we consistently bring you the current happenings in the world of mood disorders.

To sum up, more blog centric podcast spaced out in shorter segments over the week with a stand alone Mood Disorders In the News every week!  It’s going to be something.

The Flipswitch Team

We also introduce guest co-host Jenn.

Recently, we did a show on Anti-psychiatry. Twice. So far, I think this has been my least favorite show–partly because it causes me stress leading to a headache which mostly stems from the frustration that I get from the topic in general.

Anti-psychiatry -> stress –> symptoms of stress –> frustrated/sad/unhappy Emily

I think the most frustrating part about the Anti-psychiatry movement is that I don’t necessarily disagree with everything about it.  It’s hard to be one-sided with this matter.

It’s like this: I know what’s right in my mind and I agree with almost everything having to do with psychology; BUT then there’s that smidge of opposition in my mind. For example, the 3rd argument of the Anti-psychiatry movement: Drugs are bad. A lot of the time when dealing with prescription drugs of any kind, the whole process of prescribing in itself is sort of an experiment because a doctor doesn’t really know whether a particular drug will work for that specific person or not. What the doctor and patient have to do, though, is try it out, because there is a chance the drug may help. However, sometimes a drug can do more harm than good. It’s very difficult to pick sides with this issue, because sometimes, the Anti-psychiatry movement does have a point, especially when they say drug companies aren’t solely motivated by caring and health, but also profit.

Despite all of the headaches this topic has caused me, I do think it’s important to talk about it because if it isn’t brought up, if people don’t hear both sides, then they won’t be able to determine what they believe in or agree with on their own; and then they’ll just settle with the only side they’ve heard, and THAT certainly isn’t fair.

Emily

Here’s a quick list of some bad mojo that’s gone on in the name of psychology:

Drapetomania: slaves are messed up because they don’t like being slaves.

Homosexuality: Up until at least the 70’s and actually even the 80’s, the gender of the person you had sex with could determine if you were mentally ill or not.  It took years of political activism by homosexual advocates to get the American Psychological Association to reverse its position.

Lobotamies: They used to push a spike into your frontal lobe, making you into little more than a zombie.  At the time, the inventor of this process was hailed as a genius for his “humane” treatment of mental illness.

Institutionalization of undesirables: At one time, it was not uncommon for unwed teen mothers to be such a shame to their families that they would be shipped off to mental institutions.  It was also not uncommon for “unruly” wives to be deemed mentally ill.

The horrid nature of institutions: In the 1970’s, an institution serving the mentally ill named Willowbrook was investigated for it’s horrid conditions.  It was one of the first times that photographic evidence of the nature of just how bad things were at such institutionswas recorded.  Films on Willowbrook are still available and it was the case that made Geraldo Rivera a household name.  Sadly, this was not an isolated incident.

And on and on.  There are a million of these little factoids in the annals of psychology.  The critics say these alone should be sufficient cause to cease and desist all psychological practice.

But the greater point that such critics make is that, all too often in the past, society has used the word “mental illness” to do horrible things to people that had done nothing wrong save make society a little uncomfortable.  Further, they point out that it is a society that would ship pregnant women to asylums in shame that are disordered.  Today, this is only a matter of degree.  These positions have been made quite public by philosophers and psychiatrists such as Michel Foucalt and RD Laing.

“You’re messed up because you’ve got depression.  It’s you.  It has nothing to do with the fact that you can’t get a job because the economy has tanked.  No, it must be you.”

You know what, say the anti-psychology people:  It’s all a scam!!!

On the one hand, they claim there is no such thing as mental illness, and so, any therapy that looks to cure it is simply wrong headed.  In addition, this side claims, the idea that simply talking to someone for one hour a week is somehow changing all that much is kind of ridiculous, and they point to a certain segment of studies that support that notion.  Oh wait, one thing does change, they say:  you’re out a hundred bucks after a visit to the learned “talker.”

On the other hand, another section of the anti-psychology crowd, claims that while there are no mental illnesses, we cannot deny that people have problems, be they life problems or whatever, and helping people come up with ways that they can overcome these problems is valuable.  This side of the argument points to the fact that, throughout time, there have been various versions of what are now known as psychologists or counselors; someone you would talk to about the issues you’re dealing with.  As well, they recount the myriad of instances of people that have been helped.

That being said, both sides of the anti-psychology crowd agree that in a better world, psychotherapy would look quite different.  It would, if it existed at all, focus on ways to be honest with one’s self and ways to take responsibility for one’s own behavior and would never in any way be forced upon anyone.  And certainly, it would not just always be about sitting in a room simply talking.

Still there remains a huge contingent that just says, “Look, save yourself all that money and just go and get a good friend to listen to you complain.  Then straighten up and take responsibility for your life.”

If you couple this argument with the previous argument that disputes the existence of mental illness, this position isn’t that surprising.   After all, why would you take a mind-altering substance for an illness that doesn’t exist?  And of course,not to mention, it’s all a scam!

But the anti-psychology supporters don’t just rest there.  They take their case a step further by claiming that drugs are not only useless but actively harmful long-term to the average person.  They claim that drugs alter the brain in such a way that it was never meant to be altered, thereby, setting up the brain to react negatively biologically to the intrusion of these drugs.

Think of it this way: if you keep throwing little pieces of metal into a running engine, that engine may continue to run for a while, but it will, sooner or later, get bent out of shape and just kind of stop all together after a while of running very poorly.  So it is with the claims of the bad effects that psych meds have on people.  Each medication, so the claim goes, is like throwing little spikes into the pathways of your brain, slowly but surely causing your brain to burn out.

Plus,  they say, there are a huge amount of side effects that can cause problems at least as bad as the original reason for seeking treatment.  If an anti-psychotic makes you unable to walk well or makes you gain 40 lbs; then, not only will you be upset about what was going on in your life, but you’ll be upset that you’re overweight and having trouble walking as well.  And in some cases, the side effects can even kill you.

But mainly, so the anti-psychology argument goes, psych meds just don’t work.  They have little effect that’s better than a sugar pill and what studies do show benefit from them were done with questionable science conducted mainly with large amounts of money from the drug industry that just wants to, once again, separate the sucker from his hard earned cash.

As the argument goes, illness is a medical concept based on the biology as used in medical practices, practices that have the ability to confirm and deny the existence of illness based on very strict physical scientific tests.  Yet, psychology can identify conclusively no causative origin of “mental” illness in the body.  Psychologists can’t look at the brain and say, “that’s where the depression comes from. take that part away and people will go back to a nice happy state of being.”  Nope, it’s a sham!

Instead, say the anti-psychology crowd, what they’re doing is suggesting that “acceptable” behavior is what the body must be like when it’s working, and if someone misbehaves, it must be because their body is out of whack.  So, to the anti-psychologist crowd, what we’re talking about is not “illness” in the traditional sense, but “behavior” and the ordinary natural problems of life that occur.  And this goes all the way to even the most extreme of cases.  The mania of bipolar disorder?  Not an illness but an expressed choice.  The disorganization of word salad versions of schizophrenia?  Not a an illness but a bad way of dealing with the world.

So, to these people, there is no reason to stigmatize people as somehow “disordered” or “mentally ill” if their grief over the loss of a loved one lasts a long long time.  Grieving is normal even if it takes a long time.  There is no such thing as a mentally ill slave that want to escape the slave master.  And there is no such thing as depression clinically.  It’s just people understandably getting upset about natural life problems, even if they have a hard time expressing it.  Unfortunately, they say, we’ve chosen to use medical metaphors to describe behavior, metaphors that we have come to believe are real; falling for our own hype about being psychologically scientific with diagnosis.

Flim-flammery!  Shennanigans! Hocus pocus!  Baloney! Snake oil! Hoax!  Fraud! Suckers’ game! and on! and on! and ON!  Yep, this is THE central thing that anti-psychology types keep coming back to over and over again.

Psychology is “supposed” to be full of learned experts that can peer into the human mind and unravel it for you in intricate ways that they can offer to you in order to tell you quote “the truth” unquote and “heal” you.  Just one problem, they say.  None of that is true.  After all the years of training of your average psychologist, there is virtually nothing that they know that can’t be learned over a weekend with a send away kit from the ACME “Make Me a Psychologist” Company.  Their so-called “treatments”  don’t work, and never have, all too often making things at least worse if by nothing else than separating the unsuspecting sucker that buys into this smoke and mirrors from his or her hard earned cash.  Nope, these people are simply trying to feel superior to the rest of us by saying they’re experts of the mind, while stigmatizing normal behavior by saying it’s a “brain abnormality” when what they really mean is that society simply doesn’t like such normal behavior.  They cozy up to drug companies who are all too happy to dope us all up on the prozium du jour so that we sleep instead of take charge of our own lives.

And the antipsychology crowd turns to the past for its arguments as well.  “Have you even seen the horrible abuses that happened in the past because of psychology?  They used to say slaves were “mentally disordered” because they wanted to escape slavery.  We’re supposed to trust these folks?”  And much much more.

No, these people are modern day priests in a growingly secular society.  You see, it used to be the preacher that told you what was okay in the religion practiced by a society.  Now, with the rise of science, it is a psychologist that determines what reality is and, more important to our discussion, what it is not.  But of course, they have no more insight than did the charlatan preachers of old.  Perhaps much less in fact.

Instead, the anti-psychology crowd say two things: first of course is our trusty old mantra of “it’s all a scam!”  But further, to them, the ultimate goal of this scam is social control of people by a small group of elites and the apparatus of the state.  Not to mention, separating a sucker from his money!

Why?  Because sooner or later, someone dealing with a chronic mood disorder will run into someone listing many of these same arguments or at least some variation of them.  If the average person has never considered some of these arguments, it can be tempting to unadvisedly completely discontinue treatment, even when discontinuing that treatment may have disastrous consequences.  In addition, such claims often make people feel quite guilty (guiltier than is already common with a mood disorder) for not being able to adequately and quickly come up with responses to such claims.  A person dealing with bipolar disorder may feel in their heart that they well are aware of what effect their medications are having on them and how well they’ve helped, but simply cannot express well enough anything to counter such claims.

But it’s also important for everyone to decide for themselves what is right and wrong.  The anti-psychology movement has made good arguments here and there that must be considered, regardless of views of the movement in totality. Unfortunately, the little war that the anti-psychiatry movement has with the mainstream anti-psychiatry movement has all too often been marked by the mainstream simply ignoring any points of the anti-psychiatry movement regardless of their merit, while, in turn, the anti-psychiatry community has amped up its rhetoric, making outrageous charges at times that can only lead to people dismissing them as cranks.

With that in mind, we’re doing this series to roll out five of the biggest claims of the anti-psychology/anti-psychiatry movement.  These are by no means all of the arguments that their movement makes, but they are the most representative of the flavor of arguments to which one will find one’s self responding.

Here at Flipswitch, we openly admit that we have a bias against many of the more outlandish claims of the anti-psychiatry movement.  We are disturbed by the seeming hero worship in that community, the use of linguistic gymnastics to make points and the vast oversimplification of complex issues that occurs all too often with some of their claims.  That being said, we still will try to be as fair as possiblto the spirit of their arguments.

We will by no means go to the extreme depths of detail that some of these positions entail, instead giving you broadbrushed strokes of ideas.  In that spirit, we’d like to emphasize that this is not a forum to proselytize for or against the movement.  Instead, we’re much more interested in how such discussions affects a person with a mood disorder, how the rhetoric of such conversations can be ratcheted down, and how one can move forward to take control of their own health.

In the end that’s what it’s all about.

In the next few day, each day, we’ll roll out one of the arguments from our show that we highlighted in text form, so you can get a flavor for the intormation.

The Flipswitch Crew

We always defer to the knowledge of your doctors, and suggest you consult him or her if any of these arguments resonate with you.  Asking questions is always a good thing, but get another informed opinion before you start making any major decisions like discontinuing treatment.

Andy talks with us about everything from his own struggles with compulsive buying and compulsive sex, to his experiences with the pharmaceutical industry.  Andy minces no words in his brash, in your frace style.

I was just surfing the internet, for something to do when I found myself at CNN.com and an interesting article on the United States Representative Patrick Kennedy was highlighted. According to the article, he has been struggling with Substance Abuse for most of his life in conjunction with depression, which any of you who are continual listeners of Flipswitch will know is very typical, and has decided that he needs to check himself into his local hospital to better treat his illness.

Kennedy commented in the article that he decided to make this public because it is going to be a significantly longer stay than he expected. He felt his admission could also help to alleviate some of the stigma that a lot of people struggling with mental illness and addiction face when getting help. I think this is very courageous on his part, if he is doing it for the right reasons, and I also feel that his admission can help all of you to realize something important when dealing with your own illness.

You can be successful and still suffer from mental illness. It is not an easy road, but most things in life aren’t easy. You may have a more severe form of Bipolar Disorder or Depression, which may limit the successes in your life; however, there are still things that you can accomplish and be successful at no matter how severe your illness.

Anyway, here is the link to the article.

It’s not long. Take a read. You may find yourself thinking, as I did, that he has a sense of pride in admitting he needs to enter the hospital’s program. This may seem strange to you, but I think what you must realize is he is proud that he is dealing with his problems. He is happy he is getting help and confronting his issues head-on. It’s the appropriate feeling he should have, too. Each and every one of us should feel happy and proud when we face the issues in our lives, no matter what they are, because we are making ourselves better and taking personal responsibility.

Peace Y’all! Ryan

You can embed it on your own page or just check back to the depressedteens site online.  Also, friend us on myspace where we also have a player.

Of course, there are invididual episode players on the depressedteens.podbean.com page and you embed them as well.  Now, more Flipswitch easier!  Hooah!

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve written here. Part of that was because of school…finishing up senior year being a bit stressful, and part was because of my laziness, but that’s finally ALL OVER NOW (maybe not the laziness). Yes, I graduated high school! Wooo party!

But not really. I’ll actually be spending most of my summer having to be responsible. In other words, I got a job (as a day camp counselor). But there’s still fun to be had this summer, and before I know it, I will be starting out as a freshman all over again in college.

That aspect about the near future has got me thinking. I remember my friend Andrew said something referring to this in his salutatorian speech at graduation; he said something along the lines of, “I remember just four years ago that we were all starting off as nervous little freshmen. And to most, we’ll be doing that all over again.

Now, I remember I loved being a freshmen in high school…I thought it was the coolest thing ever and I never really knew why the other kids hated freshmen so much. I’d say we were pretty awesome. Later on, I “saw the light” so to speak, and I grew to hate freshmen. They all just seemed so immature and annoying…which made me start to think: are the older students in college going to think the same of me when I start this fall?

Now, I know that I shouldn’t really care what people think because “it’s not supposed to matter.” I am my own person…I guess. But the people in college aren’t going to be like my parents; they’re not going to love me “no matter what.”

So, I guess what I’m trying to say…or more so ask is: why do I constantly hear the same advice about how I shouldn’t care what other people think about me? Right off the bat, I know that advice is complete nonsense. I mean, I judge people daily, so how can I expect people aren’t doing the same with me? That’s right, I can’t.

Also, I think my first question should be restated, because, really, I could care less what the older kids in college think about me. I’m going to care about what the people my age think. They’re the ones that I’m going to have to make a good impression on. They’re the ones I’m going to want to be friends with. They’re the ones that I’m mostly going to talk to for the next four years.

Unfortunately, this is a blog mostly comprised of questions, and I can’t really give advice on the matter since I’m going through it myself, (which is why I’m writing about it here right now). I guess all I’d have to say is, yes, that you should be your own person and not try to conform to other people too much. Hang out with who you like and try to avoid those that you dislike; it’s worked out for me pretty well so far. And also, I think it’s good if you don’t go out of your way to impress someone…because then you or whoever else looks like you’re/he’s trying too hard and that’s kind of lame. So, (yeah, people give this advice alot too, but really) be yourself, and  you’ll fin d your own niche. People aren’t always going to like you, me, or that other guy. That’s just how life is.

Emily

How is everything going? I hope everyone is enjoying their summer break even though it’s still a little chilly out here in the Sunny (read sarcastically) Midwest.

On this week’s show, we did a show on disclosure. Emily, Ryan, and I discussed the different questions and concerns we had regarding when to tell someone about your depression or bipolar disorder. Disclosure entails how much information to tell, who to tell, and when to tell. We didn’t have a clear-cut answer for you guys, but WE DID say that you should tell someone who you trust. Telling someone about your problems helps relieve some of the stress you hold in while worrying.

The reason I am talking about disclosure today is this weekend my sister’s friend’s fiancé had a drug problem and the day before his wedding he overdosed on cocaine.  When we talk about disclosure, we don’t just limit it to depression and bipolar disorder. You should find someone you trust to disclose any information to. Telling someone your problems helps you; it is all about self-help!

I hope you guys take this into consideration and please let us know about any questions or concerns you may have. Enjoy the rest of the week guys!

Gopi

It’s ironic that it’s six months earlier around January 1st, then, that people start making resolutions for the year.   Not that there isn’t a lot going on then too, but the change in the air of summer just seems to much more palpable.

Perhaps it has something to do with the sunny, warm, relaxing nature that is so often associated with the season.  Flowers in full bloom, beach trips, fun with friends; there are a ton of different things going on that all point to growth and vitality.  Maybe under such rosy conditions, the world calls for us not to think too hard about things.  After all, why think about the future or doing things better at all?  Things are rosy.

But I’d suggest that, indeed, summer is the perfect time to review one’s patterns in life.  It is a perfect time to recommit one’s self to living a more scheduled structured life that fights against the onset of depression or the exacerbation of cyclic bipolar disorders. Think about it.  Conditions are perfect.   Need to get into a good exercise program?  You’ll feel a lot more like doing that in the warm weather than the freezing cold.  Need to refocus on planning for the coming year?  A lot of people are getting out of school with a little time on their hands perfect for planning.  And on and on.

In addition, the summer offers an often unique set of challenges that are practice for staying committed to one’s own health.  For instance, the summer is a time when many people fall into the habit of not going to sleep at a good time, since there’s often no early class in the mornings or new friends demand that you go out with them at night.  As well, new changes in time commitments often cause people to fall into a pattern of aimlessness in how they manage their time.    And woah, the parties that often happen.  It’s a microcosm of the pitfalls of all life wrapped up in one season.

But this is no time to slack.  It’s an exciting time to put your commitment to your own health into practice.   It’s a great time reaffirm that you are in control of your own life and your health by doing what you know is best for you.  It’s a great time to reassess how your decisions related to health are doing and figure out what else you might be able to do to get further down the road to good health.

Remember, you can never reach the point where there is absolutely nothing you can do to get better.  That goes for everyone.  Nobody is perfect, but we can try to always get better.   And as I always say, if you focus on taking control of your health, in the end, you’ll feel better than if you hadn’t taken control of your health and just ignored doing what you can to get better.  That’s just the way it is.

Good luck out there.

Chris

So, the other day, I’m at work and it’s getting to be around lunch time, so I want food. I didn’t bring any lunch with m like I should, because money is always an issue in college. Thus, my options were limited to being hungry, getting McDonald’s, or getting Subway.

To let you all know, I don’t make decisions very easily and choosing between McDonald’s and Subway became the difficult decision of the moment. I weighed the pros and I weighed the cons—McDonald’s is tasty and unhealthy, and Subway doesn’t put enough ingredients on and is healthy (depending on what you get).

After choosing Subway, eating it, going home, sleeping, waking up, and then thinking about a blog topic, I realized this is a perfect example of life. We make choices constantly, most of the time subconsciously, and they affect the way our day goes, who we see, what we say, and how we act. My decision to go to Subway consequently did all of these things. I was no longer able to say to someone, “I had McDonald’s for lunch.” I also missed the chance to run into a friend at McDonald’s, though I also allowed for the chance to run into one at Subway.

This all may seem trivial, and kind of silly, but it’s true. If you are suffering with depression, you don’t even want to make daily choices, but in reality that is a choice—you chose to not choose. What are the results? Sometimes you are stuck in bed all day, you don’t run into friends, you don’t get the chance to talk to people, and you don’t get the chance to actively deal with your illness. If you are suffering from Bipolar Disorder, you may be making the wrong choices. What happens when you decide to go over to a friend’s house or dorm and you know they drink a lot? You take away the options of hanging with other friends who don’t drink, and increasing the likelihood you will drink, dealing with your disorder in a negative way.

Whatever the situation, I now realize that even simple decisions are affecting my life in pretty significant ways. Like this morning I chose to sleep in a little extra, giving myself less time to do what needs to be done.

Cheers, Ryan

So, I wanted to talk about something a friend of mine brought up a month back. She stated that people who suffer from depression choose to be in that state; however, she also mentioned that they should want to get better if they wanted to come out of the depressive state of mind.

As we’ve previously discussed the first comment is FALSE, but I believe the second comment has some truth to it. Depression drains your energy, hope, and drive, making it difficult to do what you need to make feel better; but the key to recovery is to start small and build from there— ie. self-help.

Self-help consists of taking action and setting goals; but just the thought of getting up to do something may seem intimidating at first. Getting up to see friends and exercising may seem impossible but start small and stay focused. Start with a few small goals and try to find some friends or family members that can help you carry them out and build on them.

Here a few self-help tips about building relationships I found online:

1. Talk to one person about your feelings.

2. Help someone else by volunteering.

3. Have lunch with a friend.

4. Ask a loved one to check in with you regularly.

5. Accompany someone to the movies.

6. Call or email a friend.

7. Go for a walk with a buddy.

8. Schedule a weekly dinner.

9. Join a club.

10. Confide in a counselor or therapist.

These are just some tips I found, so try to find some that can work for you. Remember to start with small goals and then build on them.

The key thing to remember is to take care of yourself and enjoy things you like. Take care everyone and hopefully we will hear back from you.

Chris and I just finished recording an episode on Procrastination, which will be episode 47 (be sure to catch it), and it got me thinking: It’s been a long while since I’ve done a blog. I could lie to you all and say I didn’t have time and things just began to pile up with school and the MCAT coming up, but let’s be honest—it only takes about 10 minutes to sit down and write. So, I sit here reflecting, much like Gopi (not to as great an extent, though), on how I let procrastination turn an easy 10 minute task into a learning experience.

Procrastinating is an easy thing to do. For me it can take a simple half hour TV show that gets me derailed from what I am supposed to be doing, and let me tell you I caught a couple of them not writing this blog. I also find myself making up excuses like I need to clean my room in order to study. To be honest with you, my room is usually a mess and when I don’t have anything to do it doesn’t make my priority list. So, why do I do it?

Simple anwser: I don’t know. It seems to happen to everyone, especially the people I know at school. Everyone puts off big papers, big projects, and simple homework assignments until it’s almost too late to even get them done. This makes for a hectic time around the end of the year, and with it comes a whole bunch of complaining. I complain, my roommates complain, my neighbors complain, my classmates complain, and it always centers on two things: One, I shouldn’t have done this, what was I thinking?! And two, what was this teacher thinking. He/She assigned too much, this is outrageous to ask me to do, and what is the point of having me doing this anyway?

What does this equal? A WHOLE LOT OF STRESS and it’s all unnecessary. After I go through a hectic period that is caused by my procrastination, I vow to myself that I will be on top of things next time, and not go through this again. What actually happens, though, is Sportscenter is on and is far more appealing than starting to study for the MCAT, and I once again get stressed out.

It’s something I can’t shake, sometimes I am better than others, but procrastination usually pokes into my life at some point and I am left scrambling to get things done.

After doing the show, however, there are several things I can do. I will do my best to implement them and let you all know how it goes!

Cheers, Ryan

Also, we talk to noted author Lizzie Simon, whose famous book, Detour: My Bipolar Roadtrip in 4D, features her interviews with a lot of people that have dealt with bipolar disorder and been successful in life.  (note: this is an edited 10 minute version of her interview.  Her full 20 minute interview will be posted by itself next week).

Shira stops by from the tech corner to talk about checking your own responsibility at a site.

The last week of my semester was pretty brutal because I procrastinated ona lot of things I knew I had to get done. I had:

2 lab presentations

4 finals

1 final lab report

….all due within a week and a half.

Obviously,waiting until the last minute was not a smart idea, trust me! I guess I had some trouble staying motivated; I didn’t avoid procrastination and it led to a lot of stress because of the time crunch. But like I promised, I tried using one of the stress tips I gave in a previous blog—meditation. I clearly remember, Monday morning I was so stressed out from all the last minute studying and writing that I had to take ten minutes to just sit and relax. I sat on the ground, took deep breaths, and cleared my head. It sounds silly, but it helped me regain focus.

My point is, people: do not procrastinate! You may think to yourself, “Hey, I have plenty of time,” but after saying that to yourself for 4 days, there really isn’t that much time left. The best advice I can give is: try to make a schedule and follow it! As you all know I love to write things down and use an agenda, but like any college student I “slipped”.

Procrastination got the best of me; trust me it was not a good feeling.

Please listen to me and just try to write things down and follow them. After I realized I was running out of time, my “game plan” definitely saved me. Invest in an agenda…lol!

Gopi

I wanted to discuss a topic that we will be doing a show on later: how to have fun with out going out drinking and partying. I know this may sound a little hypocritical of me, but there are many other ways that high school and college students can have fun, trust me!

I have not gone out to a party in about a month, but I’ve still been able to have fun while going out to dinner, going to the movies, hanging out with my girl-friends, and hanging out with my family. The reason why I am bringing this up is that as we previously mentioned, it is important for those of you who are suffering from bipolar disorder and or depression to stick to a regimented style of living.

Chris, Ryan, Emily, and I harp on this idea all the time, but this time I am stressing that having fun can consist of many other things instead of drinking and partying. My friends call or text me every Friday night to see what club I am going to, if I say I’m not going out they usually try to persuade me to go out. I just say no because I have other things to do.

My point is that, in college, many kids will try to pressure you to do things, but you need to decide what is right for you! Please let us know if you have any questions because as I mentioned earlier we are going to record a show on this and we can answer any questions you may have.

Well I must get back to studying for my P Chem Final…not fun!!! Take care and please let us know about any questions and concerns you may have.

Gopi

As well, we’ve updated our sound equipment, so the sound will be much better on our upcoming teen round tables.  We hope to roll it out for you in about a month.  In the meantime, we’ll be finishing up our last teen round table sets, finishing with a show on our overall impressions of the whole experience.  After that show, we’ll release both round tables in their relative entirety, with only minor edits for time.  So, you’ll get to hear the round tables uninterrupted, as well as some of the stuff that didn’t make it to air originally.  Good stuff!

We’re excited to be moving forward at Flipswitch and hope you are too.  Let us know what you’d like to hear or what you’d like us to cover.  We list to ALL of your suggestions.

Excitement!!!!!

The Flpswitch Team!

Chris, Ryan, Gopi, Emily

The good answer is that I have quite a few years of training in the psychological area and so know my stuff pretty darn well.  The other good answer is that our co-hosts all know what the stresses of high school and college are like first hand currently.  They don’t have to remember…they know.

The not so good answer is that it’s really hard to account for both the amazing amount of things that come up when someone is stricken with a mood disorder as well as the sheer momentum of a mood disorder.  By that, I mean it is easy to say things like “Get good sleep or it will eventually trigger a depression or a mania.”  But in the grips of a depression and especially in the grips of a mania, that sentence is just a string of words put together.  It becomes much like telling someone to get over their lifelong pet dog that was run over that day.  It just seems impossible if not absurd to suggest something so obvious and so, at the time, seemingly shallow.

Because of those things that are hard to account for with mood disorders, it’s often hard for us to convey a real taste of what true depression, true mania, true bipolar disorder, etc looks and feels like.  Worse, it’s sometimes hard for our co-hosts to think about because, indeed, they are a motivated bunch that, generally speaking, things are going pretty well for right now.  However, sometimes life clears all that away for you, and puts you face to face with the genuine souls that must deal with the stark realities of a mood disorder, the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all.

That’s exactly what happened with Claire.  We became aware of Claire after she asked permission to use part of one our videos in a movie she was putting together for Youtube.  After seeing her video, we knew we had to get her on our show, as her video was a perfect example of someone taking matters into their own hands to make things better for everyone.  In a word, it’s advocacy.

Upon meeting Claire, we were struck by the sometimes harrowing story of her depression:  thoughts of suicide, more than one long stint in a hospital, disruptions with school, interpersonal issues, etc.   Any one of the parts of her story would have been a lot for any of us to handle.

After hearing her story, one might well have expected Claire to be a reclusive and morbidly quiet person, almost crying when she had the energy.  But that wasn’t Claire at all.  She was quite different.  She was full of life.  Full of hope.  Full of desire to let us all in to her world in order to get the message out that things don’t have to be hidden, that there’s no shame in falling prey to a mood disorder as it happens a lot in this world.

And that is what passion for an idea can do for you.  It can give you the drive to think past the bad things that have befallen you in order for some greater purpose. In this instance, Claire’s passion was for bringing the specter of depression out of the stigmatizing dark world of “hide it at all costs” and making it something we could all talk about. Claire was/is trying to make the world better by making videos about mood disorders that shed light on the world.   And she’s got one golden rule going for her:  if you’re feeling something, it’s likely someone somewhere is also feeling the same thing.  Sharing your world with others really does help.

And that’s what really changed all of us at Flipswitch:  We got to see someone up close and personal that not only struggles and makes mistakes while dealing with depression, but also strives to overcome it and to be better.  Not to say that she always succeeds, but that she detests being depressed and the stigma that goes with it, aiming to fight it with every ounce of her being.  We got to see that fire.  It became quite real for us.  And we’re all better people for it.

In my next blogpost, I’ll talk a little bit about the actual video itself that became our centerpiece for the advocacy show and the things Claire did to make it and help get people talking about the all too often hidden problems of depression and bipolar disorder.  If you’d like to check out her video, it’s broken into three parts on youtube.  Just go to http://www.youtube.com/depressionfree.

Until next time, find your own way to bring light to the darkness.

Chris

Another week has passed and I am one week closer to finals, and one year closer to graduating college. It seems like it hasn’t taken any time at all to get to this point in my life, yet when I look back on it I see almost 16 years of school done. It’s a scary thought, for all 16 of those years I knew exactly what my future plans would entail. Starting with elementary school and following the course laid out by others to college, so I would be qualified to function in the real world, but what happens after this?

I am currently faced with more options than I have ever been in the past. I am planning on going to medical school, but if that falls through I could still go to graduate school. If I feel like it I could try and wait a year on the sidelines and find a job to clear my head and get a better understanding of what might be best. In the end though, I feel like I don’t have enough information, haven’t been able to weigh the pros and cons about what will work for me, and thus I am facing a situation I am under-prepared for.

For this situation, all I can do is be as prepared as I can be. Get most of the important information and go from there. It is not the most ideal place or situation to be in, but it’s reality and it must be dealt with and a decision must be made. As long as I am true to myself and do the best I can, I am confident that most everything will take care of itself.

Sometimes in life you are dealt a poor hand, whether its brought on by you or chance, and the best you can do is face the situation. It will take a lot of courage, but face the situation and do the best you can.

Until I type again, Ryan

1)Click the “Off the Rails” episode in the full episode section of the site.

2)When the show comes on, hit pause, and then hit resume when you hear Emily hit the play button.

The online episode has 30 second commercials every now and then. If you watch the episode on dvd or on rebroadcast on air, you’ll have to pause the podcast for around 2 minutes and make sure we’re talking about what’s currently on-screen.

Throughout the commentary, we’ll talk about the situation of Silver, who is later discovered to be bipolar, and we’ll comment on the accuracy of the portrayal. Also, we’ll be mentioning the often typical things that can happen with bipolar disorder that may or may not be addressed on the show. And, of course, we’ll just be having a lot of fun.

In our commentary, we’ll talk about what the show got right about bipolar disorder, what it didn’t get so right, and some associated topics that someone like Silver might have to deal with regardless of whether or not it occurred on the show. Gopi and Emily will join Chris for the track.

A quick word on how to use this particular dvd commentary track. 1st cue up our podcast commentary. 2nd, cue up the episode of 90210 “Off the Rails” (we watched the episode directly on the CW website online). We have a little bit of an intro before we get into the show, so listen to the podast and when Emily clicks play on the episode, you do to. We also notify you when there’s a commercial break. Online, breaks are usually 30 seconds long, whereas on television, they’re typically 2 minutes long. If you watch the episode online, you should be able to follow along without any maneuvering. If you watch a rerun of the episode on the air or on a dvd collection (or even a vcr taped copy!), you’ll likely have to stop the podcast when we mention what’s on screen in the show and the commercials on your tv haven’t aired yet.

This commentary is something fun and new we’re trying and we hope you all will enjoy it. Look for it tomorrow.

Life has been getting pretty hectic lately, considering the school year is starting to wind down and I have finals coming up. With all this extra work to do I have stopped working out, which makes me feel a little guilty, but it frees up much needed time. Not only has exercising gone completely out of the window (hopefully I can get back on it in a week or so), but being a college student my diet isn’t all that healthy either. Like all of you, McDonald’s calls my name pretty frequently and homemade meals consist of Mac’N Cheese, maybe a can of vegetables, and a hot dog. I don’t usually pay too much attention to my diet, but once again my Neuroscience Seminar opened my eyes.

It was this Tuesday when I got to hear another speaker from Loyola’s medical school. Her presentation was on Parkinson’s disease (a neurological disease where individuals loose their ability to move freely, sometimes lose memory function, and they shake a lot…if you want to know more just type it in Google. It is pretty fascinating, and you may know Michael J. Fox has this disease.). What she mainly focused on was treatment of the disease and how right now there really is no known cure; they can only treat the symptoms. Her research has found, though, very convincing evidence that diet can play a huge role in preventing and even possibly treating the disease. She has found that blueberries have a significant impact in keeping the brain healthy.

I don’t know about you, but this made me a little scared. Fruits aren’t something I come across daily, especially blueberries. But don’t fret too much about it, the point I want to make concerns you and me. Bipolar Disorder is also an illness that effects the brain of the individual living with the disorder, and while neurons aren’t necessarily being attacked they still need to be taken care of. There are specific nutrients (the good stuff in food, like vitamins and minerals) that brain cells need to function properly. Thus, it would make sense to eat healthy and take care of your brain.

Now just to throw out a disclaimer, I am not suggesting blueberries, and eating healthy, is going to 100% protect you from brain illness or cure you. All I am suggesting is that both you and I need to take care of our bodies and our brains, and eating healthy is a very important part of helping them stay healthy. By eating healthy, you give the brain all the nutrients it needs to run as close to normal as it can!

Until next time! Ryan

It’s Emily here. The past few days have been pretty hectic because I’ve been getting back into the swing of things with school.

I actually find myself being more productive lately; I don’t know if that’s because I’ve been following my schedules that I’ve been making or if I’m just excited to get out of school. Whatever it is, it’s good to be not procrastinating as much. And since I haven’t been procrastinating as much as before, I can fit more things into my schedule, like exercise. This has been something I’ve really been happy with because exercising really does make me feel better and more relaxed in general. Like Gopi mentioned before, I also think exercising is an exceptional way of relieving stress. I know, at first it may seem to do quite the opposite and all it will make you feel is tired, but after awhile you get used to it and actually start enjoying moving around!

How’s everyone doing? I don’t know about you, but this week for me went by super fast and now I am just really looking forward to graduation.

I have some bad news, I have not tried that distress tip that I gave—you know the one about meditating. It’s fortunate that I didn’t feel the need for it because I haven’t been feeling stressed out, however I’m sorry because I don’t have news for you guys about whether or not it works…yet!

So I was talking to Chris this past week about how I’m ready to finish the semester and just graduate. I have about 3 weeks left and it is so hard for me to focus, sometimes I just want to sit and do absolutely nothing. And he asked me: “Well what keeps you motivated?” Honestly, I don’t have a cookie cut answer; I know that I have to finish off the semester strong because in the end I will get graded on my performance on finals and presentations. Ultimately I keep telling myself “it’s almost over and just hang in there.” Think about the benefits in the long run, and you will realize that even though there are a few weeks left, they do matter.

Staying motivated or even getting that initial motivation to do something can be kind of difficult. Usually for me, it’s the initial motivation that boggles me. Now tell me, how do you guys usually approach a situation like this? Do you simply do what I do, tell yourself that no matter what, the job needs to get done? I’m curious because who knows, maybe one of you guys may have come up with something that is more effective.

I look forward to hearing back from you guys. Enjoy your weekends because I think it’s supposed to be nice and sunny…finally!

Gopi

Getting frustrated sucks, even if it is something as simple as me not being able to express myself through this blog. Lately, it has caused me to not even want to think about what I might want to write, which hasn’t helped me solve the problem of getting an idea across to you guys. The experience though has given me something to write about. When I am first confronted with frustration I resolve myself to persevere, so in this case I thought harder and harder about what I could write about. Every idea though seemed too high minded or altruistic, and after about 3 days of thinking about what to write I finally decided I would come back to it later. I figured I would let myself think about it without having to write about it right away, but the frustration kept mounting and eventually I found myself hesitant to even sit at the computer to try and type.

I am sure you have all faced more intense frustration than this example (I know I have), but you can look at simple examples in your own life and find patterns to how you react to certain situations. In this case, I found out that after butting my head up against a problem and not being able to solve it, I became unwilling to want to deal with it anymore. How does this help me? Right now, I’m not sure, but I am able to predict before hand when I might become overly frustrated now. Knowing this I might be able to take myself out of the situation before the frustration completely gets to me that way I can come back to the problem sooner and less discouraged.

I don’t know what you will take from this, or if it even made sense, but at the least maybe the next time you get frustrated or angry you can look back on the experience and learn something from it. Analyze it a little bit, find some lesson and don’t just chalk it up to chance. Like triggering mania or depression, there are triggers to becoming angry, frustrated and irritable. Sometimes you can’t help it, but there are some situations you can take yourself out of before you have to experience these emotions.

I know my example seemed trivial, but think about Newton and his discovery of gravity…it all came about because an apple fell on his head!

Until we convene again! Ryan

It’s Emily here. I haven’t really been up to much lately–mostly, I’ve just been trying to get back into the swing of things with school since break ended this week. Teachers have been giving us no mercy, despite the fact that we’re seniors, but life isn’t fair.

What’s really been bothering me lately (well, mostly just today) is the fact that I have trouble telling people when enough is enough in regards to academics. I’m sure you know the situation. A teacher assigns a project and then assigns you to a group. And of course, you are the one stuck doing the entire project yourself. This has happened to me twice in one class already and I am really sick of it. It may be my fault because I am generally the only person in the group who cares about the grade and therefore doesn’t trust anyone, but usually my group takes advantage of me so I will do the entire thing myself.

So my advice to myself and everyone else is…don’t be afraid to tell people no. One of the worst things that happens is getting taken advantage of, whether this is in a big way or small. Getting taken advantage of always puts me in a bad mood and then this causes problems between me and my friends because I would end up taking it out on them. Always do what you’re comfortable with–and this is something I have to work on too. I guess there is just something about some of us…we have this certain need to please everyone else even if it affects negatively.

Hope this wasn’t that much of a downer! Have a good week!

–Emily

I hope all of you guys had a great spring break and got to unwind a little. My spring break definitely helped me relieve some stress and unwind a bit, I was in Costa Rica for a while and it’s definitely a serene place.

I was kind of in a jam this week, because I really didn’t know what would be a good topic to discuss; so I decided to Google “how to relieve stress.” I discovered that most sites just give you a list of steps you should follow. For example:

1. take a deep breath because this is your immediate defense against stress, 2. communicate- talk to anyone whether it’s family or a friend, 3. laugh to rediscover your sense of humor, 4.get fit– my personal favorite, 5. be organized because stress arises from being overwhelmed, 6. soothe the senses by lighting a candle or playing soothing music, and 7. do nothing- take a break and just mediate.

What do all of these really mean? Well, we have discussed some of these stress relievers on Flipswitch such as 2, 4, and 5. I am a firm believer in communicating with others because expressing yourself helps you realize what’s wrong and it helps relieve some burden that you have. As I previously mentioned on a blog, that communicating for me took some learning; so start practicing! As for the other ones, I think that 1 is more of a short term and “in the moment” stress reliever. Number 3 is also one of my favorite ones, because I myself have realized that laughing helps me feel less overwhelmed whenever I’m feeling a little stressed. Another one I usually do without realizing it is number 6; I play my favorite music and just dance it out. I have never tried number 7, but since I am throwing this idea out to you guys I will do an experiment. The next time I am feeling a little stressed I am going to mediate and I will keep you all posted.

Now here’s what some of you guys can do for me, try a couple of these out and let me know what you think, please!

Once again, I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break and hopefully we get some 60 degree weather. Take care and please let me know what you guys think.

Gopi

But dealing in the sometimes controversial area of mood disorders and mental disorders in general, I’ve run into a whole lot of people that have taken my old skepticism about things and amped it up about 10 notches. Mood disorders in teens? “Nahhhh, doesn’t exist. Teens are just spoiled and therapists are looking to make money.” Bipolar disorder? “Nahhh. It exists, but is usually confined to an extremely small population in psych hospitals, much smaller than we’re led to believe anyway.” Medications? “Nahhhh, simple mind control by _____ (choose your boogeyman: government, medical industry, psychiatric industry, monkeys with tasers, etc.), trying to keep us all in line.”

And those are just the most obvious things. Some people will simply deny anything outside their own field of vision, even questioning the existence of things they can clearly see (could be an illusion. It’s philosophically called solipsism). After dealing with enough of these people, I now understand why some of my friends want to kick me from time to time.

I don’t bring this skepticism up to talk down about skeptics; rather, I realize that in life, there are so many constant naysayers on virtually every possible thing you can think of, that it becomes hard to know who to believe or what to do. I mean, every possible road you choose is possibly false according to a zillion people, right? And I’m a full grown adult that is control of more of his life than the average person in high school or even college. I can’t imagine the confusion that must be swirling around out there.

Skepticism is healthy, and the critics of life and the area of mood disorders more specifically, are a welcome benefit in helping us understand what we’re getting right and what we’re missing. But the question, after all is said and done is, “What do I do?” or “What do I believe?” That’s not an easy question to answer.

I can tell you, that after living on this rock for a while and after studying psych for many years there are some things that do seem to be true, regardless of how much criticism seems to come your way. These things related directly to what we talk about on Flipswitch.

1. The earlier you take charge of your health, both physically and mentally, the better off you’ll be. This means not backing down, cutting corners, or hiding from your problems. Eat all you want and whatever you want, there’s no way you’re going to fool the weight scale. Keep boozing it up all you want, but sooner or later, it’s going to take a toll on your life. Totally ignore getting good sleep, the research consistently finds that you’re putting yourself at risk for slipping into a depression or triggering a mania if you’re afflicted with bipolar disorder.

2. Being informed is always more helpful than not being informed. I’ve never run into or heard of anyone else running into information that wasn’t more helpful than not knowing the information. Sometimes painful information can hurt like finding out you’ve got diabetes, but not knowing and doing things that push that diabetes into even worse condition is a whole lot scarier. Never be afraid to learn as much as you can about your own health and the world in general.

3. Doctors are not infallible, but more often than not, they’ve got a point you should consider. I’m not saying everything that doctors say is right; rather, I’m saying that I’ve seen quite a few people that have gone from doctor to doctor only to complain that the doctors don’t know what they’re talking about. These people get hung up on the technicalities. A person I once met that had seen tons of doctors about his alcoholism comes to mind. He would complain that one doctor told him he had family issues which is why he drank, while another told him he simply had social anxiety which caused him to drink which was a problem, and yet another said he was drinking to combat loneliness and that it was a problem. He nitpicked and never faced up to the fact that, somewhere in there, they were all sort of saying very similar things. You’ve got issues, and to deal with them, you’re drinking and your drinking is causing a problem. Sure, be skeptical of doctors and their pronouncements, but maybe try to listen to them too.

4. Everything is related to everything else. This was what our first show was about. It is the defining feature in my mind about what wellness is. Sleeping too late? That’s causing you to be tired. Being too tired leads you to be cranky. Being cranky leads others to think you’re kind of mean. Other people thinking this leads to you having strained friendships at school. Strained relationships at school make you feel bad about yourself. Feeling bad about yourself makes you unable to focus fully on school work, your grades suffer, your parents get upset, so you get upset, so you got to bed late and sleep late and are cranky and on and on. And that’s just a direct line. There are not so obvious connections from one part of your life to every other. Perhaps that “you just don’t like to read” comes from the fact that you identify books with the fact that you did poorly in school which caused stress which led you to sleep late and become cranky etc etc etc. It’s ALL related. ALWAYS. Anyone that says different hasn’t searched enough.

There are more immutable truths in this world and any skeptic would be hard pressed to take issue with at least 3 out of 4 of those. And those are HUGE. So take charge of your health as soon as possible NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE TELLS YOU OTHERWISE. Wait…..you’re not being skeptical are you?!

Doh!, Chris

I feel like it has been a while since I have posted something up here, but it’s only been about a week or two. Anyway, I was in my Neuroscience Seminar class (where different speakers from biology and medical departments come to discuss their research), and we had a very interesting topic brought up about pain and the different nerves and cells that are involved with certain pathways.

So not to get to deep into it, but the researcher discussed why we feel pain (physical) and how we can manage it with certain drugs and how those certain drugs act. Well, as he was going through specific drugs, like morphine, vicodine and what not, he showed a very interesting chart. The chart had the different drugs plotted on them and the two axis’s had been labeled with the severity of pain (low to high) and side effects (mild to harsh). After he showed this, he also commented on how morphine and other strong painkillers don’t really prevent the pain’s effects, but act on the brain so as the person doesn’t care and is in a certain “utopia.”

Anyway, this got me thinking about the individuals who struggle with Bipolar disorder and how their medications work. Mainly, I was thinking about how painkillers give the patient a certain type of feeling that often relates to them feeling “out of it” or not really apart of what’s going on. I have also heard similar complaints from a lot of individuals who use psychotropic drugs. That they do not feel like themselves, or that they are somehow detached from life.

You may think I am going to preach on how that doesn’t matter and you need to listen to your doctor and remain on your medication (which is still strongly encouraged), but I would much rather give the floor over to you guys to help educate me. I am curious to understand what/how you might be feeling with regards to being on medication. Does it make you feel detached? Are there side effects that make you really angry? Or perhaps it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Either way, I want to know, so leave your responses here.

Peace,

It’s Emily here. So far I’ve been really happy and that is pretty much because I have been on spring break for the past week, but that is all coming to an end…tomorrow. Unfortunately. However, I’m actually sort of surprised that I had a good spring break this year because for the past three years, I’ve had teachers assign a ton of homework over break. This year, on the other hand, something weird happened and I ended up getting zero homework.

Because I haven’t had any homework, I haven’t really had to follow any type of schedule so that means that, no, I have not been attempting to reach my goal of following a schedule. This week though, I promise things will be different! I’ll make a schedule every day and try to follow it. If I don’t then I will…punish myself somehow. I actually don’t know if I didn’t follow a schedule because I didn’t have to or if that I didn’t follow one because I subconsciously try to push myself to see how much I can survive by doing the bare minimum. It’s an interesting thing to think about, but I’m not really sure if I can go that much into depth on it since I haven’t done any real thinking in the past week.

It’s really strange, though, to not have been stressed lately. I think the most stress I’ve had was possibly being late to a friend’s house to then do nothing once I got there. I have to admit, it will be kind of nice to go back to school because I do think I actually need a certain amount of stress to make sure I still get stuff done. Ah, I don’t know. I guess I will just have to wait and see.

Until then, goodbye Emily

Gopi made the interesting point of referring to her parents as her “social support system” and by opening her feelings up to them it has become easier to talk about her feelings. This is a very good thing, we all need to talk about our feelings good, bad, or ugly because, as we have addressed on our show, feelings affect your stress levels and consequently your health. But the question I want to address is why it has taken so long, and why, as Gopi pointed out, 100% of our High School and College roundtables avoid telling their parents, their friends, or in general their “social support system.”

We have discussed the worry/fear factor that plays into this scenario. We don’t want to let our parents down and we don’t want them to worry about us non-stop, but I want to offer an addition to this idea, and one other factor that I don’t think we have hit on too much.

First the addition, this is only speculation and could probably use some discussion; however what if we are scared to tell the ones we love what is going on in our lives not because we think they will worry too much, but because we fear they won’t have an answer. When you go to someone for help you are expecting some sort of relief, an answer to why something is happening or why you are feeling a certain way, but what feelings will you experience if you go to someone and they can’t provide that. It’s a scary situation to face, but if you think about it letting them know gives you someone in your corner to help you battle through your struggles even if all they can provide is moral support and love.

Secondly, I believe another looming factor for why we are extremely hesitant to express our feelings is trust. Your feelings are at your core, and putting them out in the open allowing someone access to them makes you very vulnerable; can you trust someone to help you and not use the way your feeling to hurt you? This is tough even when it comes to the closet people in our lives. For Gopi and myself that tends to be our parents, for any number of you it might be the same, but for many others it turns out to be their grandparents, friends, etc.

What I have learned though, and it seems to be the same for Gopi, is that the first really personal thing you share with these people is hardest thing to share, because you do not know how they will respond. After that though, it becomes easier because the trust starts to build if they have helped you and not hurt you. And if in your gut, deep down you honestly believe that they love you and care about you, it’s probably a good bet they will help you. It’s not easy, and the words never come out how you want them to. Often times you end up crying your eyes out, but its all for the good.

The hard part is that you have to risk the chance they might hurt you, but like I said if deep down you believe they love you and care about you the risk is probably very minimal and the reward much greater!

Until next time, Ryan

I usually think of interesting questions when I’m “supposed” to be studying and today while studying for Physical Chemistry I thought to myself, “why are teenagers so scared to tell their parents how they feel?” I’m sure I can speak on behalf of all you when I say that I don’t like telling my parents because I do not want them to judge me or worry. I automatically assume that my family will judge me; however, I have improved on this. Lately I have been more open with my mom, I feel like I can tell her a lot of things that I was scared to tell her before. My family is my support system and if I can’t tell them how I feel, then there’s something wrong with that picture.

During the round tables, almost everyone said that they would never tell an adult if they were depressed or sad. I was one of them! Emily, Ryan, Chris, and I tried to think of a solution but unfortunately we could not think of one. One thing I realized is that as young adults we’ve encountered many situations where our parents have cornered us, but think about it. What was there reason for freaking out? It all comes down to, they care! I don’t think there is a simple solution, but my advice is that we all should realize that our family cares. My family is my support system and with time I am beginning to feel more comfortable about expressing my emotions. I think taking time and realizing that people care can help you be more open about your feelings.

Well I hope you guys understand when I say that time helps. Take care and enjoy this awesome weather, I think I will go for a run. =)

It’s Round 2 of my Blog for Flipswitch!

Once again this is Ryan, I am excited that I get to speak my mind to all of you today. I feel as though I have stumbled upon something that may bring a little more reality into what we at Flipswitch are saying. In this edition of my blog I want to expound on Advocacy, which Gopi brought up in her first blog.

Let me start by asking you about several ways people try to Advocate for what ever it may be that they feel passionate about. First, I know most of us have had to sit through school assemblies. What are your thoughts on those? Mine most often center on the fact that I get to miss at least part of my day at school (Exciting!), and I get to sit in the most uncomfortable gymnasium seating ever (future back problems, but someone has to keep Gopi in business ☺). Or how about those annoying people that stand outside, on every street corner (so there is no way to avoid them) and handout stupid little flyers about whatever it may be? Again, I tend to do whatever I can to get around them, or I politely take the flyer hang on to it for a block and then toss it. Seems like a waste of paper and a waste of time, am I right? Take a moment and think about it.

It is not a waste of time, and it is not a waste of paper! (though I am sure many of you would want to argue about the latter) I guarantee you that reading the above made you think of at least one time when someone made you sit through a speaker, or when someone handed you a flyer. I also would make a solid wager that you remember at least the basics of what was on the cover of the pamphlet, or what the speaker was trying to say. You were exposed to it and on some level you retained a little of that information (even when you did your best to ignore the message)

So what does this mean? Advocacy still works even when people appear not to be caring about what you are saying, because as long as you are saying something to someone in earshot, they are listening. They may not be giving it the respect you think it deserves, but they will keep at least a tiny piece of what you said with them. And the more pieces you throw at them over time, the more clearly they will see your point in the end.

KEEP ON ADVOCATING, EVEN IF YOU THINK NO ONE IS LISTENING!

Until next time, Cheers! Ryan

It’s Emily here. And unsurprisingly, everything has been pretty much the same lately: school is still kind of rough, I don’t have any time to do the stuff I want to do…Well, actually…I think I just lied to myself. Yes, school is still driving me up the wall, but that’s only because I’m constantly doing what I want to do instead of schoolwork, e.g., procrastinating. Yesterday I needed to look up a cupcake recipe and ended up spending almost an hour doing so just so I wouldn’t have to do homework. It’s pretty ridiculous.

I’m always struggling with the same problem. It’s always that…I know what I have to do and I know what it takes for me to do it, but I never do. (Yes, I realize that was very vague, but hopefully you get what I mean). Like, let’s say I try to eat well simply because I know I should. Eating well is good for me, eating bad food is bad for me. There’s nothing simpler than easy rules to follow, right? Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve realized that it seems as though the easiest rules are the hardest for us to follow (or maybe just hard for me to follow). Because we’re surrounded by all of these simple rules of what to do and what not to do, things become complicated and simplicity turns into what we feel is impossibility. But then again I’ve got this sort of nasty plain Greek yogurt sitting in front of my face, and then I have a donut in the kitchen. Now ask me which of the two I’d prefer.

This is one of the topics we come back to time and again on Flipswitch. And a result of being “unable” to do certain tasks, I get extremely stressed out. I want to fix this. I can’t stand being stressed out anymore, so I’m going to try to set up a small, reachable goal involving schoolwork. I’m going to…create a schedule and try to follow it exactly, just like Gopi does; she definitely knows a thing or two about planning. I’m curious to see how it’ll work, and I’ll let you guys know. Hopefully this inspires you to stop procrastinating too. Until then, have a great week!

–Emily

I had a really busy week with labs and exams, as usual. At this point I am just really looking forward to my spring break and graduation. I am going to be honest, I feel really stressed most of the time, but I use exercise as a way to relieve my stress. Trust me guys, running and kick boxing really helps clear my mind and keep me fit. Exercising is my “me time,” and it helps me regain focus and control in a way. We’ve pretty much preached about a regimented style of living, but one thing I will stress is exercising.

I’m going to skip all the “crap” and just say it like it is. You want to be healthy now and ten years down the line! Relieving your stress, doing some cardio, weight lifting, or even walking outside is really going to help. Exercising helps eliminate my stress and keeps me in good shape. I don’t eat healthy all the time, there are times where I just want to eat ice cream and potato chips, but I make sure that I am exercising so that it compensates for the “bad” eating. So my tip of the week is to just stay a little active because it really helps relieve the stress and keep you in shape…promise!

Well after a long week and a few more long weeks to go, I am really looking forward to some nice weather…where is the sun!?! Take care guys and I hope you look forward to another “tip of the week” haha.

It’s Emily here. I hope everyone had a good week/weekend/whatever time period since you have last been on the site. It’s been a stressful week (as always). And every time I think about how much work I have to do I get so angry because I heard that senior year was supposed to be easy. It isn’t; I won’t lie to you. So don’t be fooled by those around you, Juniors! Next year will be hard; I assure you. There are lots of tests and quizzes and annoying teachers to deal with daily. This is when I wish that I could just stop doing all of my homework and I do stop…but then my conscience kicks in. It’s a vicious cycle.

School has not only been extremely stressful this week, it’s been dragging and some really strange occurrences took place. On Thursday afternoon, one of the maintenance mechanic’s at my school committed suicide in the building. No one really knows that much about it, and already a few people “in charge” of the school have been playing the suicide out to be a heart attack in attempt to keep everyone calm. Very sad.

Thinking about what went on is pretty surreal because I know things like that happen and I’ve heard of them happening, but I never think they’re going to happen to me (or around me)…until they do. And this time it has. (Wow. That was a bit vague, but hopefully you understand what I’m getting at.) I’m not really sure how I feel about it either. Chris even asked me, “and Emily, how do you feel about that?” To which I answered that I feel pretty horrible, but I’m not very good dealing with those types of situations. It’s like the war right now…you know there are people dying. You see it on the news, in the papers, everywhere, but something is keeping you from understanding the reality of the entire situation until it becomes personal. Sometimes that isn’t even enough; that’s the really sad part.

What bothers me about the entire situation is that no one really cares about the “why” behind this man’s act. People at my school were more concerned about whether there was school the next day or if there would be news crews coming to report on what took place. Others were self-righteous and yelling at the people who were talking about it openly not to discuss what happened at all. But it needs to be talked about. How else can we move forward from things like this if they aren’t discussed? I talked to one of my friends about it and he told me how terrible he thought it was and that suicide is stupid. And, I agree…I think it stupid (for lack of a better word) to an extent. I’ve never been depressed so I wouldn’t know how it feels to get to that point where I can’t face the world anymore. I can’t really judge the act that far. And I think the important thing is to prevent those from getting to that point of no return than to claim the act stupid and forget about it. Forgetting brings about repetition, and suicide is something that shouldn’t keep repeating itself.

I know that this blog post was pretty heavy (especially for the first one), but writing it helps me think about what I feel is importa nt. I’ll try to keep it lighter in the next one. Until then, have a good week. Hopefully you will be more productive than I was this past week.

Emily

Recently, my friend Avni and I were having a conversion on medication and mood disorders. She mentioned that people who suffer from mood disorders or depression are to blame for their condition. Her reasoning behind this opinion was that depressed people have the choice of coming out of depression and people choose to be bipolar. However, many of us know from the episode that we did on depression, that being depressed is not a choice. Many people have misconceptions regarding depression and bipolar disorder; so many stereotypes exist that a lot of people do not know the true cause of these disorders.

However, this is just one example of the many misconceptions that exist regarding mood disorders and depression. In one of our episodes, we discussed the importance of advocacy and how it can help eliminate such misconceptions while educated people. I know this may seem a little dull and repetitive, but all of you guys should advocate on behalf of people with mood disorders. Helping others understand is the first step in helping yourself. Soon after, I spoke with my friend again and I explained to her what I have learned about such disorders. I hope I changed her perception on depression and I hope I helped you realize the importance of advocacy.

Well I hope I didn’t bore you guys too much. But enjoy your weekend and stay warm!

~GOPI PATEL~