What Causes Bipolar -- III

No, your genes did not make you do it.

And the Prozac Monologues Tutorial on Bipolar Disorder continues, with installment #3.

Bipolar starts in the genes. But there is no smoking gun. There is no genetic defense. If you mortgaged the house, went to Vegas, lost the money, caught a disease, now you're in divorce court and maybe jail, nope.

Your genes did not make you do it.

The way the scientists put it, genes do not code for behavior. Okay, as last week's post says, it starts in your genes. But you are not doomed to end up in divorce court. You have just got some extra challenges to surmount.

Mental illnesses are developmental. They start with a brain that has certain vulnerabilities which come from genetic variations from the norm. These are vulnerabilities, not scripts.

Bipolar — What’s That in Your Genes

Your genes — that’s where bipolar gets started. Of all the mental illnesses, bipolar is the most heritable. That means it has the strongest genetic connection. In studies of identical twins, if one twin has bipolar, so does the other in 75% of the pairs. That compares to 60% with depression and 35% with schizophrenia.

If one parent has bipolar, a child is 13 times more likely to develop bipolar than a child with parents who do not have the disorder. If both parents have it, the child is 36 times more likely to develop it.

So you go to your doc and present symptoms of depression. Your doc will ask, Does anyone in your family have bipolar? But that's not the question you will answer. When you say No, the question you are probably answering is, Has anybody in your family ever been diagnosed with bipolar — that you know about?

What Causes Bipolar?

While Prozac Monologues the book is on its way to publication😲Prozac Monologues the blog is being revived.  I start the revival with a preview/expansion series on the chapter called Balancing Act, aka, The Science Chapter.

A friend who happens to be an academic psychiatrist reviewed The Science Chapter.  He wrote, Pathophysiology of BP is really tough, even for us "bigwigs", and I hope you have some success summarizing it for a non-professional audience.


So I said, Hold my beer.

And here it is:

In a person with bipolar, a whole series of mis-timings and misalignments in our internal and external cycles results in a failure to rebalance.  The list includes: dysregulation of hormones, neurotransmitters, and immune system; irregularities in communication between brain cells and within brain cells; and wonky wiring among the networks that connect the thinking, feeling, and evaluating parts of the brain.

Okay, that will take some unpacking, which I will do over the coming weeks.  Meanwhile,

it's like this:

Stay tuned...

Demi Lovato -- Bipolar Warrior

The news story caught my ear.  I don't usually follow celebrity news.  But I had just read an article about Demi Lovato in a NAMI magazine.  I listened for some report of who she is and what she represents.  I wondered about a recent depression, a suicide attempt, perhaps.

Nope, not a word.  Celebrity drug overdose.  That's the story.  I swear they wrote this story thirty years ago, periodically pull up the file, change the name, and post.

She deserves better.  I'll just have to write my own post.

Lovato has long been open about her mental illnesses, bipolar, bulimia, self harm, drug abuse, and alcoholism.  Her celebrity as a pop star is significant to the story in one way.  It has given her a voice to advocate for those who have no voice.

Celebrity is not a risk factor for substance abuse.  But an alcoholic father is.  She has the genetic load to develop the condition.

Celebrity is not a risk factor for substance abuse.  But childhood trauma is.  She was bullied as a child, to the point of resorting to home schooling.

Celebrity is not a risk factor for bipolar, either.  But substance abuse and bipolar do often go together.  56% of people with bipolar struggle with addiction.  Why so many?  There are three potential explanations:

World Bipolar Day and the Color Red

Prozac Monologues -- the book -- is coming!  It really is.  Well, a chapter and a half still to go.

Here is a sneak peak that may answer the burning question,

Why are you wearing red on World Bipolar Day?  

It's called:

Three

Have you ever noticed -- flight of ideas, distraction, talking fast/pressure to keep talking -- these are symptoms of a serious mental disorder (we're talking the manic phase of bipolar here) and also kind of -- fun.

Silence Kills -- The Stigma of Mental Illness Redux

It's Mental Health Month again. Out comes the stigma word, the pleas for understanding, the heart-warming whatever.

I am so done with stigma. Frankly, I am insulted that NAMI et al still use the word. Is Black Lives Matter about stigma?  It's dangerous to be either in the US, and for the same reason. Prejudice, people. We are talking about prejudice.

The following was first posted in July 2013. Alas, we are still trying to get our heads out of our asses. The Affordable Care Act made some progress, a little, toward mental health parity. Insurers had to get creative to deny us coverage. But this congressional session, it's all up for grabs again, whether our illness will get covered at all. And the prejudice of doctors -- don't get me started.

So from July, 2013 --

                              *************************

I don't use the s-word. I hate this title. I use it only because people who need this post will use it when they google.

I don't use the s-word. But here it is.

First from Google:

Definition of STIGMA

Noun A mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person: <the stigma of mental disorder>.

April is the Cruelest Month

I opened my curtain this morning, saw a brilliant blue sky, and remembered, "April is the cruelest month..."  April is when suicide rates start to rise, to peak in June. Then, as is my habit, I said Morning Prayer, a spiritual discipline of prayers, psalms and bible readings. The assigned psalm for today is Psalm 20:

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble,

the Name of the God of Jacob defend you;

Send you help from his holy place

and strengthen you out of Zion;

Remember all your offerings

and accept your burnt sacrifice;

Grant you your heart's desire

and prosper all your plans.

We will shout for joy at your victory

and triumph in the Name of our God;

May the LORD grant all your requests.

If April is the cruelest month for you, my friend, I prayed this prayer for you.  Now, this sort of thing doesn't always help me. And no blame, God, no blame, if it doesn't help you.  But if it does help you today, there it is.  We will shout for joy, you and me and all of us who know what I am talking about, at your victory.

And while I have anybody else's attention, suicide prevention is not usually a dramatic, last minute intervention.  Suicide happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain. Let me repeat that.  Suicide happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain.  Every day, in any little way, you are a resource.  Or not.  Kindness.  That's the ticket.  Just pay attention to someone who may be struggling.  And do something, anything kind.

That's all.