It may be difficult to find bipolar supporter articles, although you can find some if you look hard enough.  Bipolar articles are plentiful on the Internet—all you have to do is go up to the Google search bar on your computer screen and type in the words bipolar disorder, and click on GO.  Then sit back and wait, and soon you will have more bipolar articles to choose from than you can imagine!

If your loved one has bipolar disorder, there may be times that they will feel depressed.  You may not know what the right thing to say or do is during those times, and you certainly don't want to make things worse for them.

I receive so many emails and phone calls from people confused about what causes bipolar disorder. At least once every few weeks, someone contacts me wondering if the bipolar experienced by their loved one or themselves is the result of someone placing a curse on them. Although people who have untreated, unmanaged bipolar disorder may feel cursed, this is NOT a cause of the disorder.

Summertime is here, and many parents of children with bipolar disorder are getting ready to send their children to camp, so checklists are on the minds of many supporters at this time.  This made me think of the following checklist.

Every supporter of a loved one with bipolar disorder would like to believe that what they are doing is offering help to their loved one; however, sometimes without knowing it, their "help" actually hinders their loved one's recovery.

Many supporters of a loved one with bipolar disorder actually feel shame because of it, but that's because we still have stigma in our society.  Being labeled with mental illness has long been a stigma, and stigma often produces shame. 

Many people with bipolar disorder struggle with the fact that they wish they could be more patient.  Becoming more patient is something that, with practice, is something you can learn.  Once you have learned to become more patient, you will also notice the added benefit of a lower stress level.

If you have allowed your life to be changed due to your loved one's diagnosis of bipolar disorder to the degree that you no longer do the things you used to do, or live the way you used to live, then you could be letting bipolar disorder overwhelm you, and that would be wrong.

An article in the Baltimore Sun dated May 31, 2010, highlighted the story of Deanna Ross as an example of the psychological toll of the recession.