I started Bipolar1Blog on August 2nd, 2014 and today I have 3011 views of my blog posts! Thrilled and floored!

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From: http://news.discovery.com/tech/gear-and-gadgets/zap-your-brain-to-change-your-mood-150113.htm?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=DNewsSocial

I had my brain zapped to change my mood, and I lived to tell the tale. At a private demo with Thync at CES 2015, I experienced a futuristic electroshock therapy aimed at making me feel better.

It involved sitting with a small module attached to my forehead for 15 minutes while electric currents passed through my nerves to my brain.

Since the product is still being finalized, Thync declined to let us photograph the prototype module nor describe its shape, offering only screenshots of its app.

I arrived at the suite feeling emotionally distressed by personal matters (mostly my annoying boyfriend) and stressed out about the amount of work on my plate. As a Thync executive explained what the wearable really does, I was immediately keen to see if it could truly take my mind off my woes.

A rep stuck the modules onto my head and neck and started a 15-minute Calm session (I picked Calm, but Energy is an option).

As the program started, dots on the controlling smartphone app started to fill up while the nodes pulsed. I felt a prickling sensation as the current passed through my skin. The reps told me to keep increasing the intensity of the current to the point where it’s just barely uncomfortable, using the app. They also instructed me to adjust the current as soon as I got used to a level of intensity. We’re curious what the voltage of the max dosage might be.

After 10 minutes of sitting around watching the dots on the screen fill up, I started to feel relaxed and almost drowsy. How much that has to do with finally getting a chance to sit and catch my breath rather than the effects of Thync is hard to tell, but I definitely felt less bothered. The angry butterflies in my stomach seemed to fall asleep, and I could barely muster the wherewithal to recall what had upset me in the first place.

Thync told me the effects of the session would last about a half hour after the session ended. Sure enough, even the sight of an immensely long taxi line after I left the suite did not bother me at all. It was only 20 minutes after the session, when a couple in front of me got too affectionate, that I felt the stirrings of annoyance.

Again, it’s difficult to determine how effective Thync was, given the possibility that testers (myself included) could have been experiencing placebo effects. Also, I could have become more relaxed just by sitting in a comfortable, quiet suite for a full 15 minutes — a luxury most CES reporters don’t have.

The company is working with the FDA to make sure its device is safe for general consumption, but was quick to assure me that the device was in no way harmful or invasive. That definitely has yet to be seen.

If it is deemed safe, I could definitely see myself using Thync before I go to bed to ease me into a peaceful night’s slumber. We’ll have to wait till later in the year to finally see a consumer-ready version and more details of the device.

From: Power of Positivity at http://www.powerofpositivity.com/3-mantras-help-regain-self-confidence/

3 Mantras to Help You Regain Self-Confidence:

1) “My time is too valuable to waste it worrying about the things I have no control over.”
This mantra came about because, obviously, because I was having obsessive thoughts about things I had no control over. Worrying about these things wasn’t going to change the outcome. All it was doing was robbing me of my sanity and peace of mind in the moment. As soon as I decided that my time was valuable and needed to be respected and used in a more productive way, my thoughts changed and this mantra came into my mind.
Every time I started stressing out, worrying and thinking about scenarios that I had no control over, I would repeat this mantra and almost instantly my peace of mind would start to creep back in and I was able to once again enjoy being alive.

2) “The outer is always a reflection of the inner.”
This is a great Buddhist philosophy and the more I welcome it into my life, the more apparent its truth becomes to me. Whatever is going on around you, whatever you are feeling, whichever situations are angering you or pleasing you, is a reflection of what is going on inside of you. It is not a reflection of the innate state or meaning of that situation. It is a reflection of you. If you are feeling neglected by a friend or a lover, you are probably neglecting yourself. If you are feeling loved by life and the things in your life, you are probably being loving yourself.
Nothing has a particular meaning to you until you decide it does. You could be lacking money and choose to feel sorry for yourself or choose to be grateful for the fact that you are alive and have abundance in other forms. It is not situations that dictate how you feel. It is YOU who dictates how you feel. Every time a situation in my life starts to feel crappy to me, every time I start arguing with someone or feeling rejected by something, I try to remember this and instead of reacting to the situation, I try to explore what it is inside of me that is causing the bad feelings.
After I have done this, I can usually come to a place where I can respond in a way that is productive instead of creating more conflict in my life. It is an incredibly beautiful and empowering thing.

3) “I take nothing personally.”
I would bet that you, like most of us, take a lot of what other people do to you personally. I found that a lot of my peace of mind and confidence was being robbed by the fact that I thought other people’s feelings towards me were a reflection of my own inadequacies. But then something occurred to me: No one on this earth can see further than their own mind. Everything anyone else is doing or feeling in relation to you, whether that means someone is offended by you, rude to you or loving to you, is a reflection of how they are feeling on the inside, but they are not saying something about you.
No matter how perfect you are or how great of a person you are choosing to be, someone is always going to have something crappy to say about you. Now does that mean that you should fully disregard the opinions of every other person on this planet? No. But it does mean that you can understand that most things in life are just that- opinions. They are not right or wrong. They are just a reflection of where someone is at in their life and that doesn’t have to define you in any way. You define you. No one else.

I see grey skies outside

I feel grey within

Why, why, what happened all of a sudden? All the wind’s been taken out of my sails, from under my wings. I don’t know how to be strong again… How, when you are feeling your weakest, do you find the strength inside you to rise up from falling down again? Yet again… taking my medication, seeing my doctor regularly, have a loving family, have great friends, love to exercise, write on my blog, love to take pictures… what more can I do?

Stop. Don’t go there. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Just get up. Pretend everything will be fine and yes, it will be fine! Use your depression fighting muscles, the special ones people with bipolar d/o have. Do some bench presses with those, some squats and lunges. As my cousin said: Kick bipolar’s butt! Even if you do it with tears streaming down your face… You’ve done it before. You’ve used them before, many times, these muscles. They are in shape. Use them again. Just go through the motions and the strength and meaning will come back. It always does! You’ve got this!

Your immune system is made up of white blood cells and is the army of your body, it is in charge of keeping the invaders out. Invaders like viruses and bacteria. To do that, it produces molecules called cytokines which are the communication molecules of the immune system. Some cytokines are called Interleukins. Interleukin 10 is an inhibitory cytokine, meaning it tamps down the immune response. Interleukin 12, on the other hand is a pro-inflammatory cytokine, meaning it activates the immune system cells to divide and attack. There are many cytokines and they are produced by the cells of the immune system, such as T cells, B cells, Dendritic cells, Macrophages, Neutrophils and more (all white blood cells.)

The absolutely AMAZING thing about the immune system is that our immune cells can rearrange segments of their DNA to produce millions and millions of different molecules (called T cell receptors and Antibodies) which can recognize and bind to foreign antigens and pathogens. This gives us the ability to recognize and destroy millions of pathogenic things such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungus, molds and allergy causing molecules. Think about how many disease causing organisms there are, millions of bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, molds, poisons. The immune system can form T cell receptors and Antibodies to recognize all of these and at least give a very valiant effort to get rid of them!

So the T cells and B cells and Dendritic cells, and macrophages and more kinds of immune cells can make molecules that will recognize foreign pathogens and foreign molecules. Then these cells will engulf the pathogen or allergy molecule and digest it or destroy it, thereby getting rid of the pathogen or molecule.

However, as AMAZING and miraculous as our immune system is, if it mistakenly turns on ourself, it can wreak havoc on us. This is called AUTOIMMUNITY. When our immune system erroneously thinks that our joints are an invader and starts destroying them, then we get what is known as Rheumatoid Arthritis. Our immune system can start attacking our own pancreas, in which case we’ll get Autoimmune Diabetes. So when the immune system reacts against our own body, that is autoimmunity. All autoimmune diseases are a result of this. Steroids suppress the immune system, suppress the white blood cells from attacking our own organs, that is why steroids are prescribed for autoimmune diseases.

Same with life threatening allergies, for example a peanut allergy. The immune system goes out all guns blazing against something that is totally harmless like a peanut or other foods or even pets. Again steroids are used to suppress the immune system and for immediate treatment of allergies, epinephrine aka adrenalin is used to relax airways and tighten blood vessels.

(Just an amazing fact: Neutrophils, which are a part of the innate immune system, if they fail to phagocytize bacteria, they “spit out” their DNA and trap bacteria in these DNA nets, where the bacteria die.These Kamikaze neutrophils die as well!)

There are markers of inflammation which can be measured by blood tests. One such marker is C Reactive protein, another is increased levels of certain cytokines (such as IL12) another is simply white blood cell count. If any of the aforementioned markers are increased, inflammation is increased.

So now, what people are finding with depression and bipolar d/o, is that inflammation is increased, and when people are in remission from depression and or bipolar d/o, then inflammation and its markers are decreased.

So what does that mean? Well it could mean that our white blood cells are reacting to something perhaps in the brain and that reaction causes depression to happen. It could mean the cytokines that increase when inflammation happens are causing mental illness. It could mean a plethora of things. Hopefully, scientists will find out what soon and discover a treatment for this cause.

There’s also this article “Is Inflammation What’s causing Your Depression?”  http://www.prevention.com/health/health-concerns/link-between-inflammation-pain-and-depression

Another article: “Mood Disorders Linked to Inflammation.” http://www.healthline.com/health-news/mental-mood-disorders-tied-to-autoimmune-diseases-infection-061213

Bipolar1Blog is a part of Bipolar Blogger Network, which is a collection of very good, creative, informative, and amazing blogs about Bipolar Disorder. I am so proud to be a part of this network! Now readers can go to: http://www.bipolarbloggernetwork.com and put in bipolar1blog in the search bar and there I’ll be! Also, there are many other blogs there, such as “A Mind Divided”, “Kitt O’Malley”. “Blahpolar” “Bipolar, Unemployed, and Lost” and many, many  others, that are so worthwhile reading. Visit and read, my friends 🙂

This is what I’m thinking about: Why? Why are we humans so violent? Why are we so covetous? Why so depraved? I’m sure we are the only species that tortures and kills its own kind. Why? Why is there such a hierarchy of superiority? Why are looks so important? “Beautiful” people are considered so much better than “plain” or “homely” ones. Why? Why does racism exist? Why, when we all came out of Africa? Why is the earth being destroyed for the love of power and wealth? Why such short sighted thinking? Why does one family have billions of dollars and is still greedy for more, while millions, and more struggle to put food on their table. Why is it we send our impoverished young men out to kill, torture and mam in other countries and when they return, all crazy from the horrific things they’ve seen and done, we let them rot. Become homeless, go crazy.
Why? With all the intelligence, the creativity, even the love that we humans possess, why all this carnage, selfishness and destruction?
Are any of these behaviors sick? What is considered mental illness and what’s not?