world bipolar disorder day linkdump

First of all, RIP Patty Duke.

“While I tend to cringe at the concept of a day for everything (I’m looking at you, National Frozen Food Day), not to mention the idea of reliable posthumous psychiatric diagnosis, I understand the impulse here. People don’t like to talk about mental illness. For God’s sake, we still call it “mental illness,” as though the brain weren’t a fundamental part of the physical body. Given the prevalence of this colossal oversight, not to mention a grossly underfunded mental health system that relies heavily on condescension, coercion and incarceration, it’s hard not to support any day that might bring more attention to brain disorders.” Thriving with Bipolar Disorder

“When you break a leg, you get a cast and people sign it and put smiley faces on it. When you’re given a mental illness diagnosis, you’re cast out.” A family’s mental health journey: Emergency, illness, recovery, stability

This £100 SMARTWATCH will revolutionise life for those with bipolar disorder

Van Gogh, mental illness and the price of genius

Why a Blood Test for Bipolar Disorder Hasn’t Come to Market

Nice to see this one ranking high in Google news alerts. Fryane @ HuffPost
Postpartum Bipolar Disorder: The Invisible Postpartum Mood Disorder

Former Modesto physician tells of struggles with bipolar disorder

‘It probably hurt some stuff’ Carrie Fisher opens up on struggles with drugs and bipolar

Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles talks about manic depression, his band turning 10 and baby-sitting Craig Finn’s cat

Bipolar disorder sixth leading cause of disability in the world

“The first time we meet just the two of us, you tell me you have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I hardly believe it. You do not conform to any idea I have of a person with bipolar disorder, though the ideas I do have are received, not based on experience. It’s just that you seem to me all right, not terribly different from the way I remember you, though your affect is flatter, hollowed. You wear your defeat.” H. On heroin and harm reduction (longread)

Big Pharma’s worst nightmare – “Jamie Love has spent years battling global drug companies, unshakable in his belief that even the world’s poorest people should have access to life-saving medicines.” (longread)

By the time you read this, I’ll be dead BY JOHN HOFSESS “Between 1999 and 2001, I helped eight people die—including the poet Al Purdy. Now, as I prepare to take my own life, I’m ready to tell my story.” (longread)

Assisted Suicide for Mental Illness Gaining Ground