I have found that one way to avoid suicide is to look forward to the little things. I know that sounds simple, but some of the most useful coping techniques are and as I’ve said to many people, when you have a mental illness, you need to do whatever works for you. If it’s stupid but it works, then it’s not stupid. And one of the “not stupid” things I’ve found to avoid suicide is focusing on looking forward to the little things.

There is a notion out there that a suicide attempt is a “cry for attention” and, thus, this invalidates what the person has done or makes it "not serious" (The Stigma Of Suicide). I would beg to differ. First off, of course, many suicide attempts have nothing to do with “attention,” per se, but secondly, so what if it did? So what if a suicide attempt is a cry for attention? Why does that make it less serious?

I have found that depression, in my case bipolar depression, amplifies physical pain (Mental Illness Means Physical Pain Too). Yes, depression brings about its own pain, to be sure, but additional to that, I believe depression amplifies the physical pain we already feel in our normal, daily lives. Stubbing your toe hurts, but stubbing you toe with serious depression feels like it could kill you.

I am practically famous for saying, “I am bipolar,” but I still fully recognize that I am more than a bipolar diagnosis. We all are. No one is a diagnosis, no matter what it is. I would suggest that, for many of us, our bipolar diagnosis invades almost every aspect of our lives, but that doesn’t mean that we are only bipolar. We are ourselves first. I am the one who did 150 skydives – not just the one who was unlucky enough to have bipolar disorder. I am more than a bipolar diagnosis.

For many years light therapy has been shown to work for seasonal affective disorder (that is, depression that is seasonal, typically in the winter when less hours of sunlight are available). But what about just for major depression? Does light therapy for major depression or bipolar depression work? Here’s the lowdown on light therapy for depression and bipolar disorder.

Fluctuations in energy levels in bipolar disorder can be a challenge to manage, at least, in my experience. What I find, is that my energy fluctuates throughout the day in unusual and very bipolar ways. These hourly energy changes require care and interrupt what I want to do. It might be due to the fact that I tend to cycle very rapidly (when I truly cycle, which is rare), but from what I can tell, bipolar causes energy level changes throughout the day.

Physical pain in bipolar disorder is one of the hardest bipolar symptoms to treat (and, of course, not everyone experiences this). The physical pain in bipolar disorder is known as neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain is commonly associated with spinal cord injuries or amputation but can occur in psychiatric disorders and in other illnesses as well. This neuropathic pain, physical pain in bipolar disorder, can be debilitating but there are options for treatment.

I know it sounds weird when a blogger says “don’t talk to a blogger for help.” After all, aren’t we in it to help? Don’t we want comments? In fact, it’s true; I do hope to help people and I do love to see the comments of my readers. But if you’re in serious mental illness distress, you need to take an action step and not talk to a bipolar blogger.

I’m in bipolar-related pain almost all the time but, of course, my job is to ignore the bipolar pain. This is a tall, huge, gigantic, herculean order (Anticipating Bipolar Pain Is Good?). It is not a small thing to ignore the pain you are in – regardless of type but, perhaps, brain pain is even worse than, say, the pain of a broken leg because at least there is some relief from the broken leg when you lie down and elevate it. This is not the case with bipolar pain. That said, these eight tips for ignoring bipolar pain might help.

If you’ve read some of the comments here, you know what some other people think of bipolar disorder. Some people think that those with bipolar are manipulative, angry, abusive and some even say we’re downright evil. And it’s easy to internalize what others think of bipolar disorder. It’s easy to believe we are these things. But you are worth more than a single, negative descriptor. You are not what other people think of bipolar disorder.