Low Feelings Can Feel Redeemed When Expressed

Low Feelings Can Feel Redeemed When Expressed:

A video blog by WhatTheJules Bipolar Blogger, Cole. It's an interesting watch, I suggest it.

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My Little Comforts

My Little Comforts:

Martin Luther said, "Be thou comforted, little dog. Thou too, in Resurrection shall have a golden tail."

When my eyes open to the slowly increasing vibrating alarm of the Up Band on my wrist each morning, I wake slowly. I push the button on the band and reluctantly stretch out my toes, and then my legs. My legs always meet resistance rather quickly. Warm resistance. The resistance behind my knees makes a small groaning sound. I smile. "Good morning Denny." Now my feet make contact with the larger, immovable, unwakeable mass of eternal puppy, Truman. Truman is always asleep on his back, legs akimbo.

I get out of bed, more concerned about disrupting their sleep and comfort than the possibility I could injure myself climbing over and around them. I just need to get my meds, then I can get back into bed for a couple more hours. When I return, Denny is in the same place, but Truman has moved to my pillow. After I slide him out of the way, it's back in bed, back to sleep.

Just a couple of hours later, I hear things in the apartment moving around. Brian is up and starting his day, the boys and I are deciding if we want to get up. They wait for me, we get up together. Some days Denny stays in bed a little longer, the old snoring man, no rush.

I am always accused of anthropomorphizing my pets. I give them very "human" names: Denny Crane and Truman Capote are my current, amazing Shih Tzu fur babies (for the uninitiated). I talk to them about everything from what I am doing at the moment, to what I am planning to do for the day. When things are bothering me or things are making me laugh or happy, I tell them about it. I don't talk to them in a voice that is silly or babyish, I talk to them like they are people. And, you may not believe me, but they listen. Read More...

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Oh My Aches and Pains!: Call for PFAM Submissions: The Stresses of Chronic Illness

Oh My Aches and Pains!: Call for PFAM Submissions: The Stresses of Chronic Illness:

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This is a great Blog Carnival for the Chronically Awesome. I will be taking part in this project, and I encourage the Chronically Awesome Community to do the same.

From the Oh My Aches and Pains! Call for submissions post:

It's a fact that modern life can be stressful.  Just ask anyone, healthy or sick.  Stress is so prevalent that the entire month of April is designated Stress Awareness Month. 
And there is no doubt that chronic illness is one HUGE source of stress.  Or that living with chronic illness brings with it a whole set of new stressors.  I recently wrote about those stressors in another post and they include:

• reduced physical and/or mental capabilities 

• fluctuating health status

• financial challenges

• the repercussions on your relationships

• the impact on your self-image and self-worth

• the physical, mental and emotional burdens of being sick

For all these reasons and more, I've decided to make The Stresses of Chronic Illness the topic for the April edition of the Patients for a Moment (PFAM) blog carnival.
I'm looking to curate a collection of essays about how difficult life with chronic illness can be.  So write about the all the big or little things that cause you stress and make life with chronic illness challenging.  Those things can include your take on dysfunction in the health care system, health care policies that don't work and misconceptions about people living with chronic health problems. 
You have my permission to vent as long as you also include some suggestions, tips and advice on how you cope with the stressor(s) you discuss in your post.

For more information on submitting, click the link at the top of this post. Happy Blogging!
Jules

Glorifying Bipolar Mania

After two long weeks of writing, re-writing, editing, and considering the upshot of such a post, I finally produced this piece. I don't really know what I was so worried about. I have never been afraid of anything I have published before, but perhaps it's because I have never really put a piece out there that could so directly offend a group of my fellow Chronically Awesome patients before. I do believe that anything worth feeling this strongly about is a feeling worth writing about. It's been awhile since I really wrote about something in this way. So, I give you:

Glorifying Bipolar Mania:  "I cannot imagine a world where it is "ok" to sing the praises of the symptoms of an often dangerous psychiatric disorder. I cannot imagine a life where one manipulates medications or triggers to bring on possibly life threatening manias for the illusion of productivity or creativity." visit WhatTheJules to read this entire post.

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Sarah's Life - Living With (And Beyond) Fibro: 10 Ways To Help Out Your Chronically Ill Friend

Sarah's Life - Living With (And Beyond) Fibro: 10 Ways To Help Out Your Chronically Ill Friend

Check out this great post by Sarah. There are some good tips here.

Yesterday and Tomorrow: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking Awesome

Yesterday and Tomorrow: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking Awesome: I do believe that what could be looked at as a bad year could also be looked at as a transition year. A year of change, a year of movement. Perpetual motion is not always a downward spiral. Motion can be spinning ones wheels, or moving forward. I have spent much time spinning my wheels, getting nowhere. Just creating rubber meets road, ugly skids that went in very tiny directions left, then right, then left again. Now I have gone a direction. It is my choice now to make this direction a positive one.

Click the link to go to my site and read the rest of my New Year's Blog Post

What Being Chronically Awesome Means to Me

What Being Chronically Awesome Means to Me: What does being Chronically Awesome mean to me? It means making choices that make me awesome, that make me happy in spite of what could be thrown in my path to make me stumble. Being Chronically Awesome is growing, and making changes to keep me first, and illness second. I will be awesome. Today I am Chronically Awesome. Why? Because I am. Hard Stop!

Read the rest at my website, and read more blogs on the same topic at www.facebook.com/chronicallyawesomebloggers.
Today, the Chronically Awesome Foundation is sponsoring a blogging project called "What Does Being Chronically Awesome Mean To Me"

Just write your blog on the topic and post the link to the Facebook page. We will publish it to our timeline and all of our Twitter accounts.
It's a great community project just waiting for your participation.