Bipolar Disorder: How Running Helps
World Bipolar Day
In honor of World Bipolar Day, former Still I Run board member Nita Sweeney shares insights about bipolar disorder.
I’d had the same psychiatrist, a woman I trust with my life, for years. I thought we’d covered all the ground. But a few years before I started running, dark, angry moods, yelling fits, and tantrums transformed me into someone I didn’t recognize. As I pondered her questions, searching for a cause, a memory surfaced.
“There were those times I nearly maxed out my credit cards, and had to return a ton of things when the bills came.”
She nodded, then said: “I think you might have bipolar disorder.”
It took a medication change and more therapy, but eventually, I knew she was right.
What is bipolar disorder?
Bipolar advocate Gabe Howard explains his take in this bpHope article:
Bipolar disorder is a spectrum of moods that goes from the lowest of lows ( suicidal depression) all the way up to the highest of highs (“godlike” mania), and everything in between. The person suffering from bipolar is unable to control where their moods fall on this spectrum, or how long that mood will last before transitioning.
Bipolar disorder is a…
