Child and Adolescent Bipolar Disorder

The Mission of Child and Adolescent Bipolar Disorder: Striving to promote a greater level of understanding regarding childhood and adolescent bipolar disorder and its effects on the individual and family.

Usually a recluse, I don’t meet a lot of people every day. As a kid, I would always prefer to stay back in the house and crawl into my closet space to be on my own. Childhood days were very stressful, as other kids hardly knew me and I was always lonely. I would avoid social events, and my depression often spiraled me down to never-ending feelings of doubt and scare. Given the fact that I was an overweight teenager with few friends by my side, I used to get picked on a lot by other kids in school. It was a hard time for me, and my doctor finally got me on antidepressants. However, my battle with depression lasted for quite a while, with really bad episodes recurring so often that I almost left school.

Three years later, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. This meant that I was on more medications that are known to cause obesity in patients, and this hurt my body image even more. My self-confidence reached an all time low. But my family never gave up on me. Now looking back, I feel very blessed to have such amazing people by my side who did not push me away because of my illness, but embraced me for who I am and helped me to find a solution. We took an effort to understand Bipolar Disorder, its symptoms and tried to maintain a disciplined effort to combat it. I knew that I would always have to rely on medicines to keep up the fight, so I decided to take other measures to take care of my body weight.

My mother learned about NutriSystem from the dietitian we had visited, and this weight loss program really helped me to turn my life around. Not only did it recommend healthy recipes, but controlled the portion of food that I was eating to reduce weight gain. I also took an active interest in yoga and kickboxing classes, and now in my early thirties, I am fit as a fiddle! I am now happily married and have a beautiful daughter who is the joy of my life. My husband has always been supportive, and it was his idea that I start a blog to share my experience as a Bipolar!

So this site is where I am going to keep posting my experiences, stories and suggestions. I know how important it is for people suffering from this illness to know that they are not alone. We should be there for each other, and I would highly appreciate if you read my posts and also interacted with us and shared your stories and experiences.