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“Your baby seems so happy one minute and is crying the next…are they bipolar?” Most people have heard something to the extent of this phrase before. Whether the term was used to describe another person or the weather, our culture tends to use these words casually, as if they are simply an adjective to describe how something or someone is. Those words may seem harmless in the moment, but the way those words are used truly shape the way individuals perceive one another and mental illnesses. When someone uses “bipolar” to describe something other than a serious health concern, they are lessening the effect of the seriousness and giving it meaning elsewhere. Such as in the phrase first listed, using “bipolar” in that context does three things: 1) gives the impression that it is not typical for a baby to be happy one minute and crying the next, and 2) places a serious stigma around “bipolar” and what it really means to have bipolar disorder, and 3) labels the person instead of viewing them as someone who suffers from an illness. Bipolar disorder is much more than crying one minute and smiling the next – it disrupts sleep patterns, relationships, and causes mood swings, but to a much higher extent. According to Dr. Matt Goldenberg, these mood swings typically involve the person experiencing extreme highs and lows over the course of a few days or weeks – not typically over the course of a single day. Misconceptions of what bipolar disorder involves provides a tendency for people to misdiagnose themselves. In addition to the stigma of bipolar disorder, calling someone “bipolar” doesn’t give that person room to be themselves. Just as someone may not like to be labelled as “mean” or “annoying”, no one enjoys being placed in a category, because each person has so many things to offer and is more than their illness. By understanding the meaning behind the language that is used, one can develop a sense of unity and can help uplift others by portraying mental illness for what it is – an illness that deeply affects the individual. Remembering the appropriate usage of these words and gently correcting our loved ones is a great start to changing the way our culture perceives mental illnesses. Here are some tips on combating incorrect use of mental illness terms:

Yoga essentially means, “that which brings you to reality”. According to a study conducted in 2016, approximately 37 million Americans practice yoga. Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice that promotes health and relaxation through controlled breathing, meditation, and the implementation of certain postures. Thus, yoga can benefit mental health in several wonderful ways:

According to the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a condition characterized by difficulties in regulating emotion. This leads to severe and unstable mood swings, impulsivity and instability, poor self-image and rocky personal relationships. With borderline personality disorder, people make several attempts to avoid real or imagined events of abandonment. Self-harm and suicide are two destructive behaviors that could result from someone having BPD. People who have BPD typically experience periods of depressed mood, anxiety, or irritability that can last for days, disassociation, chronic boredom or emptiness, and more. These individuals may seem as manipulative or over-dramatic, but researchers have found that they behave this way to cope with the overwhelming fear and emotional pain. For people who suffer from BPD, they are even higher at risk for adding addiction/alcoholism to the mix. Almost 9 million people who have an addiction also suffer from a mental illness. There are several symptoms of BPD that overlap with addiction/alcoholism, making it hard to diagnose at times:

We live in a world with people of different shapes and sizes as well as society telling us to look a certain way. When we feel pressures from family, friends, and the media, we feel the need to change our bodies so that we do not face bullying or being different for looking the way we do. This causes us to take drastic measures to change our bodies the way we think society wants us to look which can cause body dysmorphia or eating disorders if we are not careful. There are a number of reasons as to why we feel the need to change the way we look and they are all around us. According to a study in Peer, Parent, and Media Influences (p.54-60), in youth from ages 9-14, the media plays a strong role as an influence to change your body. Your favorite model or actress can be skinny with no flab, acne, or blemishes to show. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders says 69% of female youth from grades 5th-12th grade feel images in magazines can affect their perception of what they wished their bodies looked like. According to a study done in Teens, Social Media, and Body Image, 47% of them want to lose weight because of those images. Boys want to have a muscular, toned look and girls want low body weight. Magazines that encourage a healthy lifestyle like yoga or natural living use models that have a ‘perfect’ physique and are unnaturally thin. In other careers such as law, medical, and the military, use models for their ads who all look flawless and skinny. The best ways to help accept yourself for who you are is to change the way you look at these influencers. When you are at the grocery store and you see all of these magazines of "beautiful people," you can either choose to ignore them or go to a checkout lane with no magazines. Remember that not everything you see in the magazines are even real. Many magazine publishing companies use Photoshop to retouch photos to make these women look skinnier with shiny skin. It also helps to make a list of all of the great things about yourself that make you beautiful as we all have a list of qualities that make us stand out from the rest. It is also important to tell yourself that we were all created differently and that looking like a model is not what the general population looks like.

There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to recovery – each person has their own unique history, genetic makeup, preferences, support, feelings, circumstance, etc. Due to this, it’s incredibly important that a person construct a recovery plan that will serve to be most beneficial to their overall health and recovery goals. Oftentimes, individuals may feel that since someone they know is managing their lifestyle a certain way, they should do the same thing. This isn’t necessarily true, because what may work for one person doesn’t mean that it will work for another, and that doesn’t always mean that the person is making the best choices towards recovery. Here are some crucial steps to consider when developing a recovery lifestyle:

Panic attacks can be very debilitating, with symptoms of racing heart, feeling weak or faint, tingling or numbness in hands/fingers, sense of terror, feeling sweaty/having chills, chest pains, breathing difficulty, and more. For a person amid a panic attack, perceptions or worries of dying are likely a common thought. The good news, is that a person cannot simply die from solely having a panic attack. Although panic attacks alone are not deadly, they can be dangerous if paired with an illness such as a heart condition, for example, because the stress may make the condition worse. However, heart conditions develop over time, and those who suffer from a heart condition can be evaluated by a doctor for symptoms of stress and to rule out any problems they may have. Hyperventilation, a condition in which the person breathes very fast, upsetting the balance of their breath, may happen during a panic attack. While not deadly, this condition may make the person feel like fainting or passing out because hyperventilation blocks blood flow to the brain. If someone experiences this, they can recover quickly by belly-breathing. Belly-breathing is when the individual places their hand on their stomach, just below their ribs. They place the other hand on their chest, taking a deep breath in through the nose, and out through pursed lips, moving their hand down with each breath. After the individual does this 3-10 times they should feel their breath resuming normal breathing patterns. Another technique is for the person to breathe into a brown paper bag – this causes the person to re-inhale the carbon dioxide that they exhaled, restoring that lost gas. If someone is suffering from a panic attack, there are several effective ways to work through this:

Ambien (also known as zolpidem) is a sedative/hypnotic used to treat insomnia. This type of drug affects chemicals in the brain that may be unbalanced in people who have sleep issues. Zolpidem and other sedative medications have been used as an alternative to benzodiazepines because they are considered more appropriate for short-term use and are supposed to be “safer” than benzodiazepines. Other brand names consisting of zolpidem are: Edluar (a single tablet), Intermezzo (a single tablet with various dosages), and ZolpiMist (an oral spray medication). Ambien is fast-acting, and is composed of two layers: one layer that assist the person with falling asleep, and another layer that assists the person with staying asleep. However, Ambien can be highly addictive if taken for extended periods of time and with improper dosages. For example, someone can become addicted to Ambien within a span of 2 weeks - they may not realize it until they stop taking the drug and find that they have trouble sleeping without it. This may cause the individual to want to take more as their body continues to increase its tolerance to the drug. If a loved one is concerned that someone is addicted to Ambien, here are some initial warning signs that they should look out for:

As media is becoming more and more invasive, individuals see and hear messages within popular culture that promote drinking and drugs. As individuals receive these messages, they may feel that excessive amounts of drinking or abusing drugs is “normal” or “not too dangerous”. Especially for younger people who may not understand the consequences of partaking in these dangerous activities, peer pressure and the need to seem “cool” may make these messages more influential. Here are several examples of how popular culture plays a part in the addiction crisis:

Many people prefer not to be alone at times, and will call on friends for support. Likewise, most people find being criticized or judged and ridiculed to be an unpleasant and uncomfortable experience they’d rather avoid. For people with dependent personality disorder, however, they grow extreme in their need to be around someone all the time, while someone with avoidant personality disorder will withdraw from society entirely as their fear of being seen as inadequate takes over. According to the American Psychiatric Association, a personality disorder is a way of thinking, feeling, and behaving that deviates from the expectations of the culture, causes distress or problems functioning, and lasts overtime. Two of these types of personality disorders are classified as dependent and avoidant. Each of these disorders has their own unique causes, characteristics, and treatment methods.

Oftentimes, individuals may feel or have been told that they exhibit signs of either a mental illness or addiction, but do not know where to begin. Discovering a mental illness or uncovering an addiction is best when consulted with a healthcare professional for official diagnosis. Here are several effective ways to determine if someone may need professional help:

The negative symptoms of a mental illness can be overwhelming. Sometimes people are diagnosed at an early age, but oftentimes people discover that they have a mental illness as they get older. As one enters recovery, treatment is individualized and focused on what that person needs to better cope with the symptoms of their mental illness. There are different options for recovery regarding length of treatment, depending on the needs of the individual. Here is a few (but not exhaustive)

Almost everyone has that person in their life that seems overly dramatic. A friend who is known as a “drama queen”, a partner who seems to over-react at a small inconvenience, etc. While over-reacting is quite common, how does one know whether their friend suffers from histrionic personality disorder? Histrionic personality disorder is characterized as constant attention-seeking, emotional overreaction, and suggestibility (easily influenced by others). A person who suffers from this condition tends to over-dramatize situations, and can develop depression as their relationships may suffer. Here are several symptoms to look out for: