Your Bare Minimum Isn’t Actually That Bare Or Minimum. My Dad Once Told Me That There’s Nothing In

reminders for dealing with intrusive thoughts:

you are not your intrusive thoughts, they don't make you an awful person (i promise)

your fear and disgust towards your intrusive thoughts shows you acknowledge that those things are bad, therefore you'd most likely never act on them

you are not dangerous or disgusting or "insane"

you are not alone

it will be okay

your loved ones will be okay

you will be okay

Hi! I’ve been diagnosed with BP2 just today, I will start with the meds tomorrow and I am looking for friendly blogs to follow.

I am new to everything and don't even know what I need but your blog looks nice 🙊 also, what is your propic? Is it a pride flag? Does BP have one?

Looking for advices as someone completely new on the matter! 🙈

welcome to the community! im glad you found my blog helpful and if theres ever anything i can do to help just let me know! As for your questions:

some friendly blogs to follow

@lumberjackloving // @bipolstar // @bxpolar // @bipolarbotany // @bipolarpng // @basicbipolarbitch // @actuallybipolar2 // @hypomania-dreams // @bipolarblueberries // @bipolarbuttercup // @lamiictal // @bipolar2andbpd // @bipolarmoss // @bipolar-type-2-confessions //

and @compassionatereminders, @positiveautistic, and @recoverystuff aren’t bipolar specific but they are my favorite reovery/positivity blogs!

that should get you started!

My profile pic

My profile pic is indeed the flag that I made for Bipolar Disorder! It’s a redesign of a slightly more popular flag which can be found here.

Some Advice

Comply with your meds! If you have a problem, speak to your psychiatrist, don’t just go off of them yourself, it can be dangerous.

Set a regular sleep schedule. sleeping too much or too little can induce or worsen depression or hypomania so going to bed and waking up the same time every day is a good idea.

Try tracking your mood with an app like Daylio or Bearable, that way you can see patterns and swings at a glance

Just like winter can cause depression in people without bipolar, spring can bring hypomania in those with bipolar. Just a heads up since spring is right around the corner

Blue light, the kind of light phones and computers give off, can cause your brain to stop making melatonin, the sleep chemical. That can cause or worsen hypomania during spring time so consider using an app or program designed to block the blue light from around 6pm until you go to bed during springtime.

your symptoms might not look exactly like other people’s symptoms and that is absolutely okay. bipolar presents in different ways for everyone. dont worry about faking or ‘doing it wrong’

make some friends in the community! this community has made me feel a lot better about my diagnosis. its a very welcoming and friendly group of people! Welcome, and congrats on a diagnosis <3

EDUCATE YOURSELVES: chronic illness edition

this is important! chronically ill people get a lot of shit from healthy people and this could be avoided if everyone knew a little more about chronic illnesses in general so i’ve made a list of things healthy people (and newly chronically ill people) can read in order to know more about chronic illness and how it affects our lives!

some general information and must-reads:

the spoon theory (aka: why we call ourselves “spoonies”)

a sudden illness - laura hillenbrand

young and disabled by rachel anne

harmful tropes in literature

13 things people with chronic illnesses want you to know

a blog by people with chronic conditions

brief explanations of some chronic illnesses:

chronic fatigue syndrome (ME)

crohn’s disease

fibromyalgia + AMPS

ehlers-danlos syndrome - hypermobility type

ehlers-danlos syndrome - all types

CRPS/RSD (complex regional pain syndrome

IBD (inflammatory bowel disease)

POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome)

dysautonomia

rheumatoid arthritis

lupus

autoimmune diseases

hashimoto’s disease

addison’s disease

endometriosis

depression (most people with chronic illnesses develop depression)

anxiety

bipolar disorder

and i’m running out of spoons but there are many, many more so spoonies, feel free to reblog add some if you want!

things to keep in mind:

although it says in many descriptions that most people who are diagnosed are over a certain age, anyone at any age can develop a chronic illness, and many are teenagers or even children. don’t tell a chronically ill person that we are “too young to be this sick” because it’s an ignorant thing to say and it’s harmful to us.

many chronic illnesses are invisible illnesses, which means that you cannot tell that a person is sick just by looking at them. never say to a chronically ill person that we “don’t look sick” because it is harmful and annoying, even if you mean well.

some spoonies need to use wheelchairs, canes, or other forms of assistance/ accommodations, so please never express doubt that a person might need this assistance. it’s impolite and insensitive. just because someone looks perfectly fine doesn’t mean that they don’t have a chronic illness that requires the use of a wheelchair or other assistance.

many chronic illnesses aren’t terminal but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t a real problem. chronic illnesses are robbing us of their normal lives and we are living in pain because there is so much that doctors still don’t know about chronic illnesses. many spoonies have had doctors look us in the eyes and say “i don’t know how to help you” because there is so much research that needs to be done and there isn’t enough funding! so donate to organizations and hospitals who are raising money for research!

thank you for reading this! please reblog and spread awareness! thank you!

I find myself explaining to people a lot recently why using "bipolar" "narcissistic" "psychopath" etc is an issue, because it can be hard to articulate in the moment, so here it is all together:

The terminology that is related to certain conditions, disorders, and neurotypes being appropriated by others to be used in commonplace situations necessarily creates problems for those whose conditions these terms are supposed to belong to and help. It stigmatises certain behaviours, makes them the butt of the joke, or underplays how debilitating they can be.

For someone who has to live with bipolar disorder, people using "bipolar" or "mania" loosely suggests that the actual bipolar people are overreacting, or else that their condition is a joke when in fact this condition not only hinders them in an ableist world, but also brings violence and discrimination against them because of the condition.

Such also is the case for personality disorders and complex disorders like schizophrenia. Using "psychotic" as an insult or a modifier erases the fact that it's a condition which most aversely affects the psychotic person, it stigmatises them as dangerous when in fact psychotic people are the ones more likely to receive violence than inflict it statistically and historically.

Saying psychopath when you mean a serial killer and sociopath when you mean someone who is cruel is also wrong in that same vein because these are ((now redundant)) subtypes of anti social personality disorder, which does not make people more likely to cause harm or to be "evil" or abusive, but rather causes issues in their own lives due to a lack of empathy, which must also not be confused with a lack of compassion.

Narcissistic personality disorder similarly is a cluster of self esteem issues, identity crisis, and a fragmented sense of self that shows itself in certain behaviours. Borderline personality disorder also is similarly stigmatised, when in fact people with this disorder are far more likely to be victims of abuse. Terms like "narcissistic abuse" or "borderline abuse" suggest that these people abused you because of their disorder, which is not at all true, and any idea of abuse can already be encompassed simply by calling it "abuse" plain and simple rather than stigmatizing a bunch of people in the process of this.

All of these disorders, though not curable, still are treatable in that people are trying to get help and adjust to life despite their symptoms. This only becomes possible as long as these symptoms and terminologies are not stigmatized any further by an ableist society. The terms used to describe these disorders are meant to HELP the people with those disorders. Not to become an excuse to treat these people worse and make them feel unwelcome.

I'm in a support group for queer adults with disabilities (before I joined i didn't even know there *were* groups for that overlap, it's amazing and I love it) and we had our digital meeting on Monday. I shared your most recent flag update, where you had moved the new version to the public domain. Especially since we were talking about the ADA and its anniversary, it was very fitting. Everyone really liked it! Several people commented about the symbolism, in particular. So, just letting you know of some responses from outside tumblr. Thank you for putting it out there!

Thank you!

(Confession: At the time you first sent me this ask, the new version of the flag was not yet in the Public Domain. But it is, now! 🏴🎇🏴)

Shamelessly plugging the new version, again – especially since I want it to eclipse the old one:

To the extent possible under law, Ann Magill has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Visually Safe Disability Pride Flag. This work is published from: United States.

And for those who want detailed ‘specs’:

The ratio of overall breadth to overall length is 3 to 4. The ratio of the flag’s overall length to the width of each stripe is 10 to 1 (So the ratio of the overall length to the width of the combined stripes is 2 to 1).

The Hexadecimal codes for each of the colors are:

The Field: #585858

The Red: #CF7280

The Yellow: #EEDF77

The White: #E9E9E9

The Blue: #7AC1E0

The Green: #3AAF7D

Now, as to the symbolism: in the original flag, the zigzags were meant to represent “navigating around barriers.” But instead, they were the barrier – so they were removed.

So let me put the story of the new symbolism into words – here and now– and thereby bring it into being:

The Black, as it was from the beginning, represents rage and mourning for those who’ve suffered violence and abuse because of their disabilities.

The five colors, in order from left to right, represent bodily disability, neurodivergent disabilities, invisible and/or undiagnosed disabilities (always in the center, because any disability can be invisible at any time), mental illness/emotional disabilities, and sensory disabilities.

The colored band starts at the top of the hoist, which is a starting place of honor, and ends at the fly, which represents moving outward into the world.

Walls and locked doors (behind which Disabled People have been hidden for too long) are right angles, and square. And so the colored band is a diagonal that cuts across those right angles, in defiance.

The five stripes are parallel, to represent our solidarity.

There! How’s that?

i feel like a fake bipolarian bc it feels like my episodes DO match that cartoony "mood shifts in a couple of seconds" instead of gradually shifting over the course of weeks. it feels like i have no stability i'm either depressed or hypomanic.

It's completely normal to question your diagnosis--I did for many many months following mine. The most important piece of advice i can give you is to speak to your doctor if you feel like you've been misdiagnosed. I can't diagnose you, all I can do is tell you my personal experience.

in my experience, though, there could be explanations for how you feel while still being a "real" bipolarian!

"my episodes DO match that cartoony "mood shifts in a couple of seconds" instead of gradually shifting over the course of weeks."

this is called emotional lability. one explanation is, actually, hypomania. it's not a symptom spoken about frequently, but hypomania can cause intense and frequent mood swings, including intense sadness that mimics the hopelessness we see in depression. it is one of the reasons hypomanic people are often misdiagnosed with bpd. 

another explanation is mixed episodes, not just feeling both at the same time, but switching from one to the other over the course of days or within a day. I think there's a misconception that mixed episodes aren't very common. talking to other bipolar people, i think they are pretty common, and this will lead me into this next point,

"it feels like i have no stability i'm either depressed or hypomanic."

this is normal in bipolar disorder! These are called sub-syndromal symptoms. between episodes, some bipolarians experience symptoms regardless of not being in a full-blown episode, and it can feel like you're never really stable.

That being said, if you experience frequent mixed states and sub-syndromal symptoms, two traits common in atypical bipolar disorder, its completely possible to feel the way you feel!

Again, I cannot tell if you are Really bipolar through an ask on the internet, and if you feel that you have been misdiagnosed, please speak with your doctor! They will know more than a blogger on tumblr dot com. But as far as I Know, these are normal bipolarian experiences. 

I hope this helps, I hope you figure it out soon, and I hope you’re well! <3