It’s been hard to sit at all, let alone for the 30 minutes I meditate each day. I find myself agitated and fidgety. My thoughts are all over the place.

This is not unusual during meditation, but in taking note of the subjects of my thoughts, I can see hypomania creeping in. I’m thinking of buying stuff. I’m thinking of trading stocks. I’m thinking of another career change, discarding good ideas for more exciting, if undoable, ones.

All of my thoughts are about getting and doing. Anything. Right now I feel smarter, more creative, and more energetic than I usually do. That might be dangerous, but that’s what I’m feeling, and that’s what I encounter during meditation.

And here’s where mindfulness meditation really helps.

I’ve picked up these early signs of hypomania, so I can work to avoid myself going full-blown manic. During meditation, which I now have to force myself to do, I become calm for a time and clearly see the maelstrom I’ve entered. I give my wife my credit cards. I walk past the corner pub without going inside.

I also implement the two-week rule for purchases, investments, changing my LinkedIn profile, and publicly flouting new ideas. The two-week rule allows me to note what I want, or want to do, and set it aside. If, two weeks later, it still seems like a good idea, I can act on it. Meditation sessions keep me honest. I note if I’m breaking the rules, or planning anything big and stupid.

This is when meditation becomes a little different. In quieter times, while focusing on the breath I note thoughts and release them, always returning to the present moment.

But when I recognize the signs of creeping mania (or depression), I incrementally change my relationship to my thoughts. As they arise, I pay a little more attention to them as I note them. I investigate what my thoughts are about.

Are they fantasies? Is there anger? Am I subconsciously planning? What thoughts keep returning? Are there consistencies, or even deep inconsistencies? As I note repeating and defeating thoughts, I can see how they are affecting my behavior when I’m not meditating. Then I can make what changes I need to make in my day, my plans, and my expectations, and avoid trouble.

So here’s hypomania. Although it can lead to very bad things, it has its benefits. As I stated, I think it does make me more creative and energetic. By meditating, staying present and responsible, and noting my thoughts, I can both stay focused and harness some of that energy and creativity. Meditation helps me hold on to the good ideas and keeps me away from acting out the bad ones.

Anyone who’s experienced hypomania and felt the energy, charisma, and flush of ideas it often brings, knows that if we could bottle this stuff we’d make millions. But we can’t bottle it. If left to ramble it often becomes grandiosity, poor judgment, and hurtfulness.

Through the focused attention of mindfulness meditation, I can harness the positive and avoid the negative. This episode will pass, and I hope to leave it with my life intact — and a few good ideas.

When a person hears the word “bipolar,” his or her mind usually immediately jumps to the depiction of roller-coaster mood swings and lashing out.

Yet, this is not always the case with bipolar disorder. Bipolar can also affect your thoughts. Some people — like myself — experience a different version of the mental illness where many of your symptoms are internalized.

My illness varies from depressive apathy to euphoric mania which can be accompanied by a delusion or hallucination. I have not had the more severe experiences in about five years, thanks to therapy and medication. Though my journey to recovery was a difficult one, it is not an impossible feat.

It was two days after my fifteenth birthday that I had a full-on episode. I can remember it as clear as day.

First there was the fever, then a slow numbing to the core with sounds around me heightening, and nonexistent pain causing me such unbearable agony. Light burned, sounds screamed, and the depression was unbearable — it left me nearly incapacitated. My mood was so flat that people who hadn’t seen me prior had quickly judged it as something more severe.

Prior to this episode I was living at a boarding school for high school students. My behavior was erratic for several weeks prior to my episode, and had also instigated feelings of neglect from other students, who either felt sympathy or who bullied and harassed me.

I could not be talked down from the mania. Eventually I had climbed so high that I crashed into a severe depressive episode. My dad consulted a doctor, who immediately jumped the gun by telling me I might be smelling things that weren’t there or tasting or sensing things that weren’t real. That didn’t happen, though.

What did happen was I listened to Sarah McLaughlin on repeat for hours on end, trying to divine any emotional contact from her words. Nothing I did was bringing me back to myself. I was trying, in my own way, but it was painful.

Then came the hospitalization — I had been betrayed by my parents. I was put on Risperdal, and thus began the catatonia and shortly thereafter a suicide attempt after missing a dose: I walked into a field of icy water and nearly froze to death.

The second hospital, which my dad had to fight the insurance to pay for, was a disaster. After the psychiatrist there finally told my parents that they could not keep me any longer for fear of making me worse — and several abuses which I reported in writing — I had post-traumatic stress disorder. At age 16, I left a meeting with my psychiatrist to find “paranoid schizophrenia” circled on a sheet of yellow paper.

This label continued to define me for several years, and caused me a very confusing internal dilemma. I began to mimic the behaviors of schizophrenics on forums, and applied the label to myself to understand what was wrong. My dad was utterly convinced of it, as it was something to explain the catastrophe.

But, I really do have bipolar disorder, which my doctor realized when I was 17. Trauma caused my condition to worsen. This was clear only after fighting with doctors who too quickly labeled my behavior as erratic, not eccentric. I actually began to hear voices for the first time when I was 17, inside a hospital before they sent me home.

So does it matter what you call it? Yeah, it does. If I had actually had someone to talk to those times in the hospital, instead of being ridiculed for my behavior from staff more than patients, I would have recovered more quickly. I’d not been so plagued if they hadn’t tried to diagnose what they saw, not the actual chemistry behind it.

At 24, I am still the same as ever, but there is definitely a wound. I endured severe trauma in an understaffed hospital. I wonder exactly what was going through their minds when they verbally harassed me. Did they not understand that I had just attempted suicide and was traumatized?

If it weren’t for my voice — the same one which spoke out against treatment in the beginning — I wouldn’t have recovered. The same stubbornness that told me to say I didn’t want a certain medication was the same stubbornness that said I wanted to heal and recover. You don’t break someone to get them to comply, you try to put yourself in their shoes and understand where they’re coming from. If you’re trying to break people who are sick, you are coercing them, not helping them. I feel that this point needs to be heard.

I am on medication now, and have been on just one for about six or seven years. It works to help with depression and mania. I would not be better had it not been for my family, though stubborn themselves, who have loved me unconditionally and were always there for me when they could be. We have all learned from this mental illness, so implore people everywhere to learn what they can about bipolar and other disorders. If people were more open to reaching out to those who need help, more people will recover. Insight is the key.

Yes, I have been scattered, unkempt, flighty, undependable, and absent. But I have also, at times, been able to carry out with incredible focus to minute detail tasks that I could never stick with if not at least mildly manic.

While the energy to work and the attention to detail did not always congeal on a reasonable or desirable task, the results were often impressive.

But then, I’ve also spent an awful amount of time lying around doing nothing. Not contemplating, not planning, not even daydreaming. Just depressed. Could there be a way to predict moods? A way to harness and apply a disciplined approach to managing symptoms?

Too often we equate discipline with punishment or control. But The American Heritage Dictionary offers the first definition of discipline as training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.

Viewed in this way, discipline can be very positive. Self-discipline can lead to self-improvement. A regular meditation practice is a tremendous exercise in self-discipline. And this self-discipline can help one to manage and even predict difficult times with mental illness.

Mindfulness meditation, for most practitioners, is about cultivating an ability to stay aware of the present moment in order to manage stress. But for those suffering from a chronic illness, it can also be diagnostic.

Prior to becoming a meditator, I all too often found myself in the midst of a hypomanic or manic episode, unaware how things had gotten so carried away. While meditating, however, I can sense the very small changes in mood that signal an oncoming episode.

Thoughts, emotions, and behavior patterns often become clear during meditation sessions. Fleeting, disorganized thoughts, looming grandiosity, and kinks in self-control can all pass unnoticed in a busy schedule. Soon, the negative symptoms have grown so large that positive behavior is buried by irresponsibility and self-destruction.

But if I take time to stay present each day, and to remove myself for a time from the onslaught of distractions in life, early clues of changing behavior become apparent.

Once a pending episode is revealed, adapting to and preventing further behavior changes can be handled by avoiding stressful situations, getting enough sleep, rallying friends and family, and calling the doctor (if necessary). A plan previously put in place to best handle oncoming episodes can be carried out, and a major episode can be avoided.

Used this way, meditation not only affords a way to manage stress, but it provides a tool to manage changes in mood and breaks in rational thinking. Meditation can help both diagnose and manage the symptoms of chronic illness.

With so many apps on the market, it’s hard to know which are useful.

Many are designed by software developers instead of psychologists, without scientific testing. They range from beneficial, to harmless but useless, to bordering on fraudulent.

The apps selected for this list make no hucksterish claims and are based on established treatments. Progressive Muscle Relaxation, for example, has been used for a century and is likely just as effective in this new medium. Knowledge from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy enrich two apps on this list. Others mix solid information with ingenuity.

Don’t forget to download the free PsychCentral app to keep up with the latest mental health information.

1. BellyBio

Free app that teaches a deep breathing technique useful in fighting anxiety and stress. A simple interface uses biofeedback to monitor your breathing. Sounds cascade with the movements of your belly, in rhythms reminiscent of waves on a beach. Charts also let you know how you’re doing. A great tool when you need to slow down and breathe.

2. Operation Reach Out

Literally a lifesaving app, this free intervention tool helps people who are having suicidal thoughts to reassess their thinking and get help. Recommended by followers of @unsuicide, who report that this app has helped in suicidal crises. Developed by the military, but useful to all. Worth a download even if you’re not suicidal. You never know if you might need it.

3. eCBT Calm

Provides a set of tools to help you evaluate personal stress and anxiety, challenge distorted thoughts, and learn relaxation skills that have been scientifically validated in research on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Lots of background and useful information along with step-by-step guides.

4. Deep Sleep with Andrew Johnson

Getting enough sleep is one of the foundations of mental health. A personal favorite I listen to all the time, this straightforward app features a warm, gentle voice guiding listeners through a Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) session and into sleep. Features long or short induction options, and an alarm.

5. WhatsMyM3

A three minute depression and anxiety screen. Validated questionnaires assess symptoms of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and PTSD, and combine into a score that indicates whether or not your life is impacted significantly by a mood disorder, recommending a course of action. The app keeps a history of test results, to help you track your progress.

6. DBT Diary Card and Skills Coach

Based on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) developed by psychologist Marsha Linehan, this app is a rich resource of self-help skills, reminders of the therapy principles, and coaching tools for coping. Created by a therapist with years of experience in the practice, this app is not intended to replace a professional but helps people reinforce their treatment.

7. Optimism

Track your moods, keep a journal, and chart your recovery progress with this comprehensive tool for depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorders. One of the most popular mood tracking apps available, with plenty of features. Free.

8. iSleepEasy

A calm female voice helps you quell anxieties and take the time to relax and sleep, in an array of guided meditations. Separately controlled voice and music tracks, flexible lengths, and an alarm. Includes a special wee hours rescue track, and tips for falling asleep. Developed by Meditation Oasis, who offer an great line of relaxation apps.

9. Magic Window – Living Pictures

Not technically a mental health app, it makes no miraculous claims about curbing anxiety. However, there is independent research indicating that taking breaks and getting exposure to nature, even in videos, can reduce stress. This app offers an assortment of peaceful, ambient nature scenes from beautiful spots around the world.

10. Relax Melodies

A popular free relaxation sound and music app. Mix and match nature sounds with new age music; it’s lovely to listen to birds in the rain while a piano softly plays.

Do you have a favorite app not on the list?
Please share links in the comments.

Fast was diagnosed with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder II at 31 years old in 1995, a time when very little was discussed regarding the diagnosis. Fortunately, knowledge and media coverage of bipolar disorder have improved dramatically over the years. “I’m astonished at how much more people know about the illness,” she said.

Even TV shows are featuring more accurate portrayals of bipolar disorder. “In the past, people with bipolar disorder were practically frothing at the mouth,” Fast said. Today, writers and producers make it a point to get it right. Recently, Fast served as one of the advisors on the hit Showtime series “Homeland” and talked with Claire Danes about her character’s bipolar disorder.

While information has gotten much better, many misconceptions still exist and endure.

Below, you’ll find five persistent myths about bipolar disorder

1. Myth: Bipolar disorder and depression are completely different diagnoses.

Fact: Bipolar disorder and depression — also known as unipolar depression — are not completely different illnesses, according to Francis Mondimore, MD, associate clinical director of the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. In fact, he believes this is one of the most misunderstood ideas about bipolar disorder. (He blames psychiatrists for the misconception.)

Patients who believe this myth may oppose the diagnosis “if they don’t have the full-blown ‘manic-depressive’ picture and also resist taking “bipolar” medications like lithium,” said Dr. Mondimore, also author of Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families.

It’s more accurate to think of bipolar disorder and depression as “probably represent[ing] two ends of a spectrum of illnesses,” he said. “The designation ‘bipolar II’ has helped crack this a bit, but this is why the term ‘bipolar spectrum disorder’ continues to gain ground,” he said.

2. Myth: People with bipolar disorder experience dramatic mood swings followed by complete remission of symptoms.

Fact: Some people with bipolar disorder experience this pattern, Mondimore said. (Lithium is typically very effective for these individuals, he said.) However, “Many patients have periods of residual symptoms and less severe but still significant mood fluctuations between episodes of more severe symptoms,” he said. This is especially common if people don’t engage in healthy habits to manage the illness.

3. Myth: Medication is the only treatment for bipolar disorder.

Fact: Medication is an important part of managing bipolar disorder. But it’s not the only answer. Viewing medication as your only treatment option “can lead to fruitless reaches for the ‘right’ medication,” Mondimore said. And it can lead you to avoid making valuable lifestyle changes and seeking therapy, he said.

As Fast writes on her website, “Medications take care of half of the illness, the other half is management.”

Both Fast and Mondimore stressed the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle, including avoiding alcohol and drugs, cultivating good sleep habits, exercising and effectively coping with stress.

Fast includes medication and alternative therapies as part of her treatment plan. Still, she cautioned against thinking “that we can exercise, diet, meditate, walk and rethink our way out of this illness.” (In fact, this is another big myth that persists, Fast said.)

Think of bipolar disorder like any other long-term illness, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, Mondimore said: It requires commitment and comprehensive management.

4. Myth: After having a severe episode, people with bipolar disorder should be able to bounce back.

Fact: If a person with bipolar disorder experiences a severe episode — one that requires hospitalization, for instance — there’s an expectation that afterward they’ll be able to get back to their work and life, Fast said. However, she equated this scenario to people who’ve been in a car crash. You wouldn’t expect someone with broken bones simply to get up and start sprinting.

5. Myth: People with bipolar disorder aren’t trying hard enough.

Fact: People wonder why someone with bipolar disorder just doesn’t try harder. They think that if they exert more effort, they’d have the life they want. They wonder why everyone else who experiences mood swings can cope with them but someone with bipolar disorder can’t. Sometimes Fast has even wondered the same thing about herself.

But this implies that bipolar disorder is a choice, she said. “Would you ever say that to someone with diabetes or pneumonia?” she said.

People just don’t realize how serious bipolar disorder is, Fast said. Thankfully, though serious, it’s highly treatable. Managing the illness is hard work, and finding the right medication takes time. But as Fast said, “Keep trying. Never give up.”

While Sharp is an intense and raw read — and may be triggering for some — it’s ultimately a hopeful and inspiring story. It’s a story of a man who gets caught up in the mental health system but finally finds himself, as well as a fulfilling life.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Fitzpatrick about his powerful book. Below, Fitzpatrick reveals what inspired him to pen Sharp, what it was like reopening old wounds, what helped him lift the veil of mental illness, how he maintains recovery today and much more.

1. What inspired you to write your memoir — in other words, why did you have to share your story?

A: For a long, long time, a little over a decade and a half, I couldn’t function in the world. Writing my story down, even as it was happening, gave me an outlet. Now granted, I wrote a lot of terrible, bloody prose, rehashed nightmarish events, and still ended up hurting myself repeatedly, but in the end, I think I got interested in writing my rage on the page.

And that simple act started to pick up momentum, and I was challenged by that (How close to the bone can writing be – how do I get inside my old head? To bring the reader deep inside me – and not have him or her turn away and say, “God, this guy’s a little much,” or, “I don’t want to read this crap,” etc.)

The challenge of writing well and not boring everyone to tears took over my brain. And when I started to really shape stories and tell tales with an arc, a beginning, middle, and end, I think I realized it’s about time that I get better.  Of course, it took 17 years, but more than anything, save my family and doctors and peers, my writing stood by me. Kept me company, challenged me and, I think, kept me alive.

2.  The book is raw and honest. It’s evident that you didn’t hold anything back. What was it like digging so deep, reopening painful memories and old wounds when you’re in a better place?

A: It was both thrilling and frightening. Initially, once I had a contract, the hard part was to dig, and dig, and discover where all those thoughts, where all those raw wounds had run off to. First I asked my family what some of their memories of those times were, and they disliked that in a big way.

But reading their trauma, really, because they experienced it, too, in a way, I gained access to openings in the story where I could really immerse myself. Plus an old therapist had three or four of my old journals still sitting in his office, and that felt like a gold mine for me. And then the more I read of a journal entry in Christmas of 1991 in the hospital, when I was watching the movie “Harold and Maude” (not exactly the number one Christmas movie)–memories started returning.

I couldn’t have done this book when I first got out of the group home in 2007. It was only after getting my MFA degree at Fairfield University, that I thought I’ve got a shot at this now, and took it very seriously, and it turned out pretty well.

3. Throughout the book you describe an overwhelming need to cut and burn yourself. But you finally reach a point when you don’t have this need. What was the turning point?

A: I think there’s just so many times I sat in an ambulance rushing to a hospital, or later on, when the self-injuring was very superficial, with the sirens turned off, and then sitting in a godforsaken psych ER with the same nursing and doctor staff, and also sometimes, the exact same patients as well. I found myself repeatedly cutting, just for the brief rush of adrenalin – but it was long gone by then. I felt so far away from myself, my family, old friends. It was lonely, hurting yourself brings only loneliness in the end, if not worse.

The last time was next to an old graveyard, across the street from the Yale Law School. It was Halloween morning, 2005. I burned for the final time – and I knew, I just knew it was the final time, could feel it as I watched the blisters form. I’m done being an ashtray, I thought to myself. I really think I’m done.

4. In the book you describe your depression as a veil of gauzy fabric that hovers in front of you. In the last pages, you write, “The veil, the damp, gauzy veil that had separated me from the rest of world forever was disappearing. I could feel and see parts of it still hanging around the fringe but it was leaving. It was going away.” What do you think contributed to that veil lifting?

A: I think the veil lifting was hope settling in around me, finding a space inside a really depressed guy’s body, and asserting itself.  Also, honesty was a huge component – to admit that I was 40 years old, and did I really want to be hurting myself, and have that veil around me for the rest of my life? The veil lifted when I started to believe in my possibility of a decent life for me, even a hopeful one. Being honest about what I really wanted (a good life) helped melt away the veil.

5. You also struggled with severe self-loathing, describing a kind of blackness that used to live inside you. What has helped you in overcoming such profound self-hatred?

A: I think just trusting my doctor, listening to family and friends, who affirmed me over the long haul that I was worth a lot more than just “a useless piece of flesh” (as I used to say when I glanced in the mirror.) Also, a realization that to ache, to feel despair and sorrow and rage, didn’t just belong to folks in mental hospitals. But all around, were wounded souls, family, friends – that aided me, I think. To consider that everyone hurts, and there’s a way to bridge that divide when you talk or write about it.

6. What do you do today to maintain your recovery?

A: I surround myself with people who love me, who believe in me: family, skilled doctors, and former patients. I realized about five months ago after coming back from my Irish honeymoon with Amy that I wasn’t done with the illness. It was a humbling thing, to realize that bipolar will be with me for my whole life, but it can be managed, it can be worked on and get extra help when you’re stressed out of your head.

Everybody can improve in some fashion, and everyone falls back a little during the tough times. But that didn’t mean that I had to pick up a razor or if you drink, pick up the bottle, or coke or meth or whatever the substance is. The capacity for resiliency is shaped inside us, and I hope we can each get through it.

7. You’ve said that Sharp is also a story of how you “got stuck in the sticky, psychic tendrils of the mental health system, before finding expert counseling from doctors…” Can you offer suggestions to readers struggling with mental illness on how to find the right experts or not get stuck in the system in general?

A: That’s really a hard question because when someone is in the throes of the anguish and sadness, it’s hard to hear people, hard to work with them, when all you might want to do is lie down, take a long nap, etc. Everyone has a capacity for growth, maybe you feel so low you don’t want to move. I used to get so annoyed at my father when he would tell me to go for a short walk, just little steps, little achievements.

Maybe it’s a big thing, a job interview and you’re afraid to talk about the “missing time” where you were in a hospital, or maybe it’s tiny, like you’re afraid of going outside to get the mail, to walk all the way down your long driveway.

Take little steps – my therapist would constantly talk about dipping my toes into the great big ocean (the real world) but before I got there, it was a big deal for me to walk across the street to sit in a bookstore at a café. Don’t worry if what you’re doing feels like a cliché – those old sayings have a lot of practical wisdom. One day at a time, one hour at a time, take it easy on yourself, fake it ‘til you make it. Stay grounded, and life can improve. Maybe not a lot at first, but it will. It can. You will.

8. What message do you want readers to take away from Sharp?

A: Living doesn’t have to be painful all the time – life can be a good thing for you, not something you fear, or something you want to run away from.  Please don’t read my book as a how to screw up. Read it as a way to say, “God, if this guy can make it, if this schmuck of a guy can survive, maybe I can too.”

I know that’s expecting a lot, but I hope the book can help readers feel hope, feel like they’ve got a shot at life, that it’s not over at 13 or 20 or 36 or 73 or any age. Believe, not necessarily in a religious redemption (but that’s helpful), but believe that you have a spot in the world, and that you are going to make people sit up and say, “God, I didn’t think Harold or Amy or Hillary had it in her to turn their life around. Show people what you can really do.”

9. What would you like people struggling with self-injury to know, especially cutters?

A: As I say in the book, it only leads to loneliness and feeling so very isolated from the world. It’s not worth it – believe me – find something inside you, or outside you, that makes you feel so very alive, for real.

It could be a God, a book, a great CD or song, or it could be the ocean, the forest. I know that sounds a little goofy but truly, life is not meant to waste.  Believe me, I’ve been there, and I’ve wasted so many damn nights and weeks, years in thinking the act of hurting myself would deliver me someplace grand.

It didn’t – it didn’t.  Use a hotline, or talk to a friend, parent, priest, rabbi, talk to anyone, but don’t go down the road of self-destruction. There’s nothing redemptive in it, not a thing. Life is so much more exciting.

10. Anything else you’d like readers to know about Sharp, your story or mental illness in general?

A: Don’t give up, that’s really what I’d say. People get a lot better, and they’re doing it all the time in this world. Also, try your hand at journaling some of the anger and frustration and sadness and ouch-ness of mental illness. Take it out on a notebook, or a punching bag, or a gym, just keep believing and reaching out. Things will improve, hope is there somewhere.  And thanks for reading my book, I really appreciate it.

More About David Fitzpatrick

David Fitzpatrick was born in Dearborn, Michigan and grew up in Connecticut. He graduated from Skidmore College and earned his MFA degree from Fairfield University in 2011. He works part-time at an auto dealership and is married to a graphic designer and fellow writer, Amy Holmes. The New Haven Review, Barely South Review, and the now-defunct Fiction Weekly have published his works. He is currently at work on a novel and lives in Middletown, Connecticut.

One of these tips is creating comprehensive lists of behaviors and activities that minimize symptoms and those that don’t. It can be tough to know how to help your partner, and sometimes, naturally, your own frustration, confusion and anger may get in the way.

Plus, some of the behaviors and activities that work may not be intuitive or automatic for you, especially if you’re stuck in old patterns. In fact, according to Fast and Preston, you may be surprised to learn that “bipolar disorder often doesn’t respond to traditional problem-solving behaviors.”

First, it’s important to identify your partner’s major symptoms, and to write these signs down in a journal. The goal is to figure out the main categories of your partner’s symptoms and to list the signs under each one.

Fast and Preston include categories such as depression, mania, paranoia, anxiety, anger, psychosis, self-destructive behaviors and problems with focus and concentration. If possible, talk with your partner about the problems that consistently interfere with your relationship because of bipolar disorder.

Next, you’ll create the “What Works” and “What Doesn’t Work” lists for each major symptom. Work together to create these lists, and remember to take them out whenever the first signs of each symptom strike. Also, your “What Works” list needs to include a section on medication, doctors and hospitalization.

To help you figure out what goes on your lists, Fast and Preston offer these six valuable suggestions.

1. Ask your partner about their wants and needs for each main symptom when they’re stable. For instance, you might ask them how you can help when they’re depressed and don’t want to get up; how to contact their doctor when they’re manic; and how you can help them calm down when they’re angry. However, some of your partner’s ideas may not be reasonable. Fast and Preston give the example of your partner asking to be left alone when they’re depressed.

2. Learn to respond to bipolar disorder instead of reacting to what your partner does or says. Bipolar disorder is a frustrating illness, and it’s normal to get frustrated yourself and make comments like “What’s your problem?” or “Why can’t you just calm down?” or “If you cared, you’d try harder,” according to Fast and Preston.

But this only makes matters worse and heightens your own frustration. Instead, the authors suggest starting statements with “I can see that you are…”; “It seems to me that you are sick…”; “I know you don’t feel well right now. What can we do to treat bipolar disorder so that you can feel better?”

3. Help your partner make good choices around relationships. Stressful relationships are one of the biggest triggers for symptoms, according to Fast and Preston. It’s helpful if you can become a buffer between your partner and these relationships by being a good listener and talking about how your partner’s symptoms are affected. It’s also important to work on your own problematic relationships.

4. Help your partner lead a healthy lifestyle. “Bipolar disorder is very hard on the body,” write Fast and Preston. Fortunately, you and your partner can use diet and exercise to manage symptoms and boost your well-being. That’s because both diet and exercise can affect mania, depression, anxiety and anger.

Help your partner figure out which foods negatively affect their symptoms and what physical activities they enjoy doing. You also can help by cooking healthy meals that support the body, mind and spirit.

5. Learn about complementary treatments. In addition to medication and psychotherapy, complementary treatments, such as aromatherapy, massage, acupuncture, yoga and meditation, may be very helpful in managing symptoms. Help your partner by researching these methods.

But remember that just because something is “all-natural” doesn’t make it safe or effective for your partner, according to Fast and Preston. For instance, they note that herbal supplement St. John’s Wort can have dangerous drug interactions. Also, some treatments may not be appropriate for certain symptoms, such as an intense massage when your partner is manic.

6. Help them with their medication. When they’re stable, work with your partner to figure out what helps and what doesn’t help for taking their medications. If the medications don’t seem to be working properly, help your partner make an appointment with his or her doctor. Encourage them to voice concerns. It can take time to find the right combination.

Sample Lists

Fast and Preston include sample lists for depression symptoms. These are a few of the items they’ve included in their samples:

What Works for Depression

• I can exercise with my partner.
• I can respond to bipolar disorder by saying, I see that you’re depressed; let’s treat the depression instead of arguing. Or I can ask, What can I do to help?
• I can help more around the house.
• I can remind myself not to take bipolar disorder behavior personally. I can’t reason with depression.
• I can help my partner remember to take medications.

What Doesn’t Work for Depression

• Reacting to what my partner says by saying You just need to get motivated! instead of offering suggestions that help depression.
• Telling my partner what to do.
• Thinking that medications are the only solution and that my partner should be better already.
• Always believing what my partner says when sick.
• Trying to talk my partner out of being depressed by telling them they have so much to be grateful for.
• Remaining unaware.

Lastly, don’t forget about taking good care of yourself. In fact, that’s one of the best ways you can find what works for your partner: by figuring out what works for you. This way, you’ll not only have more know-how on what contributes to your emotional, physical and spiritual health, but you’ll also have more energy to help.

Learn more about mental health advocate and author Julie A. Fast here. Learn more about neuropsychologist John D. Preston here.

I mean, even those who claim they are normal may, in fact, be the most neurotic among us, swimming with a nice pair of scuba fins down the river of Denial. Having my psychiatric file published online and in print for public viewing, I get to hear my share of dirty secrets—weird obsessions, family dysfunction, or disguised addiction—that are kept concealed from everyone but a self-professed neurotic and maybe a shrink.

“Why are there so many disorders today?” Those seven words, or a variation of them, surface a few times a week. And my take on this query is so complex that, to avoid sounding like my grad school professors making an erudite case that fails to communicate anything to average folks like me, I often shrug my shoulders and move on to a conversation about dessert. Now that I can talk about all day.

Here’s the abridged edition of my guess as to why we mark up more pages of the DSM-IV today than, say, a century ago (even though the DSM-IV had yet to be born).

Most experts would agree with me that there is more stress today than in previous generations. Stress triggers depression and mood disorders, so that those who are predisposed to it by their creative wiring or genes are pretty much guaranteed some symptoms of depression at confusing and difficult times of their lives.

I think modern lifestyles — lack of community and family support, less exercise, no casual and unstructured technology-free play, less sunshine and more computer — factor into the equation. So does our diet. Hey, I know how I feel after a lunch of processed food, and I don’t need to the help of a nutritionist to spot the effect in my 8-year-old son.

Finally, let’s also throw in the toxins of our environment. Our fish are dying… a clue that our limbic systems (brain’s emotional center) are not so far behind.

Maybe the same amount of people have genes that predispose them to depression as in the Great Depression. But the lifestyle, toxins, and other challenges of today’s world tilts the stress scale in the favor of major depression, acute anxiety, and their many relatives.

Of course we can’t forget today’s technology and cutting-edge research of psychologists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists. Because of medical devices that can scan our brains with impressive precision and the arduous work of scientific studies done in medical labs throughout the country, we know so much more about the brain, and its relationship with other biological systems within the human body: digestive, respiratory and circulatory, musculoskeletal, and nervous. All of that is a very good thing, as is knowledge and awareness.

A few years ago, psychiatrist and bestselling author Peter Kramer penned an interesting article for Psychology Today rebutting the claims of popular authors — spawning a new genre of psychological literature — that doctors are abusing their diagnostic powers, labeling boyishness as “ADHD,” normal sadness and grief as “major depression,” and shyness as “social phobia.” Because of their rushed schedules and some laziness, doctors are narrowing the spectrum of normal human emotion, slapping a diagnosis on all conditions and medicating people who would be better served with a little coaching, direction, and psychotherapy.

As I explained in my piece, “Are We Overmedicating? Or Is Our Health Care System Inadequate?,” I believe the problem is far more complicated than overmedication. I’d be more comfortable labeling it “really bad health care.” And if I had to pick a culprit, I’d point my finger at our health care insurance policies, not the doctors themselves. But I don’t even want to get into that, because it causes my blood pressure to rise and I’m trying really hard lately to live like a Buddhist monk.

What I liked about Kramer’s article is that he doesn’t deny that there are more diagnoses today, and yes, some people may feel the damaging effect of stigma. However, more often than not, diagnosis brings relief and treatment to a behavior, condition, or neurosis that would otherwise decay certain parts of a person’s life, especially his marriage and relationships with children, bosses, co-worker, and dare I say in-laws? Kramer writes:

Diagnosis, however loose, can bring relief, along with a plan for addressing the problem at hand. Parents who might have once thought of a child as slow or eccentric now see him as having dyslexia or Asperger’s syndrome—and then notice similar tendencies in themselves. But there’s no evidence that the proliferation of diagnoses has done harm to our identity. Is dyslexia worse than what it replaced: the accusation, say, that a child is stupid and lazy?

People afflicted by disabling panic or depression may fully embrace the disease model. A diagnosis can restore a sense of wholeness by naming, and confining, an ailment. That mood disorders are common and largely treatable makes them more acceptable; to suffer them is painful but not strange.

Then Kramer asks this question: What would it feel like to live in a world where practically no one was normal? Where few people are free from “psychological defect?” What if normalcy was a mere myth? He ends the article with this poignant paragraph:

We are used to the concept of medical shortcomings; we face disappointing realizations—that our triglyceride levels and our stress tolerance are not what we would wish. Normality may be a myth we have allowed ourselves to enjoy for decades, sacrificed now to the increasing recognition of differences. The awareness that we all bear flaw is humbling. But it could lead us to a new sense of inclusiveness and tolerance, recognition that imperfection is the condition of every life.

Amen to that.

Here’s my honest opinion, after reading hundreds of comments and emails from people who have been involved in online relationships or emotional affairs as well as the responses on the discussion boards of the Emotional Affairs support group on Beliefnet’s community site:

Although the internet and social media can foster intimacy in a marriage, it seems to do more harm than good. Of all the comments I’ve read, 90 percent of the opposite-sex relationships that were damaging to the marriage happened online.

According to a story on PI Newswire:

A recent study shows as many as one in five divorce filings cite problems on Facebook or other social networking websites. In Rochester, marriage counselors are sending a warning to even happily married couples: Facebook affairs are threatening healthy couples, too.

“I have suggested to myself to write a thank you note to the inventors of Facebook and Myspace because they have been responsible for a significant percentage of my income,” says marriage counselor Dr. Dennis Boike. He’s not kidding. “I’m having people say I never would have expected me to do this. I’ve turned down opportunities galore. But to see this seductive part of it is that no one else sees it. It’s in the privacy of my computer. I’m not going out anywhere, I’m not dressing for it, I’m not smelling of another’s perfume. There are no tell-tale signs except my computer record.”

And this by Ned Hibberd of MyFoxHouston.com:

Maybe they should change the marriage vows to include, “until Facebook do us part.”

Facebook and other social networking sites can certainly connect you with long-lost friends.

But a new study suggests Facebook can also help disconnect you from your better half.

The site, which boasts more than 350 million active users, is mentioned by name in almost 20% of divorce petitions, according to Divorce-Online.

Prominent Houston divorce attorney Bucky Allshouse can understand why.

“It’s really kind of shocking what people put on Facebook,” says Allshouse.

Perhaps it’s not so shocking that the social networking site can essentially pour kerosene on “old flames.”

Now I am no relationship expert. If I were I’d be able to sustain a dozen or so friendships with men online. But the only male friendships that I’ve been able to continue through the years–ones that are actually strengthened by our online dialogue–are those where there is at least 30 years difference between us. Their average age is 75. One is a priest, one an ex-priest, and one a deacon. See a pattern?

In the 15 years that I have been married, I have met a handful of men that I liked and admired, with whom I shared interests and a sense of humor. Had one or two been women, I’m sure they would have become my best friends. However, on some level, I knew that a closer bond was somehow inappropriate, or disrespectful to my marriage. It’s a source of frustration for me. Because the correspondence gave me great joy, like it does with my female friends.

But there is no getting around the opposite-sex thing … the “When Harry Met Sally” problem.

I can say that having read more than 500 descriptions of emotional affairs, both on the comboxes of my posts and on the discussion boards of the Emotional Affair support group. Most of the these relationships start out benign: an email from a guy you knew in college, friending an ex-boyfriend on Facebook (as suggested by Facebook: “people you might know!”), getting to know a co-worker better online. But the relationship can take a dangerous turn very quickly if you’re not careful, and even more easily if you are doing most of the talking behind a computer. Because you don’t have any non-verbals with which to interpret statements. What a person could very easily say over coffee comes off way wrong in an email. And what she would never say over coffee, she does in an email because she gets to hide behind her computer.

I’m not saying it’s impossible to talk to someone of the opposite sex online. I have many male acquaintances and co-workers. But I think only a minority of folks can handle an intense, intimate relationship with a person of the opposite sex without it getting in the way of marriage. And maybe the failure rate is so high among my readers because most of them suffer from depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or addictions. For those guys, it’s even harder.

Why?

Because, as a bipolar friend recently explained to me, attention from the opposite sex becomes a type of anesthesia from pain and angst to a depressive or recovering addict. She becomes needy, clingy … trying to recapture that bliss over and over. For someone stressed out, with little time for anything recreational or fun in her life, the playful bantering online is a reprieve from her pressured days—a moment of fantasy where the hard stuff is temporarily removed. And the manic depressive? That’s the most dangerous. Because while a person in a manic cycle, she lacks perspective … her frontal lobes and prefrontal cortex have said “see ya!” to the reptilian part of the brain, and so she forfeits the reins, unable to gain control.

Moreover, what you can get away with in a same-sex friendship you can’t in an opposite-sex one. The rules are different.

Take my friendship with Priscilla.

Our relationship formed online. She joined one of the Beliefnet groups I moderate, sent me a sweet note after watching my “self-esteem video.” We exchanged emails a few times. I learned a bit about her. Bought her book. Loved it. We emailed more. I got a little manic because I was so excited I had met a cool writer that shared my interests plus had a killer sense of humor. We were exchanging like 20 emails a day. Within a few weeks, she was at my home. Met Eric and the family. Then I went up to New York to visit her. Her sons looked at me, kind of confused as to where this woman came from, and asked, “Where did you guys meet?” Priscilla says “Online.” They laugh. “You’re not serious, are you?” We both nod.

We are still good friends today.

Take that same scenario but substitute Priscilla with a man.

Not going to fly.

According to one woman, “The mania, or initial chemistry, isn’t fun … it’s worrisome, sending all kinds of red flags. Instead of thinking [with a same-sex friendship], ‘This is kind of cute. I’m so excited because I have a new friend!’ … you are fretting: ‘Yikes. Why am I so excited to get an email from him? This is wrong to feel excited, right? I have a good marriage. Why am I feeling this way?’”

The relationship may very well might start out with the same innocent energy—a combustion erupting from excitement and shared interests—but you never know when one or both parties might get attached and therefore get needy and jealous, and then it becomes a problem for one or both of the marriages involved. Because personal needs are now being met through the online relationship instead of the marriage.

Here’s the part in the article where I give you five things you can do to nurture your marriage while fostering great online relationships with persons of the opposite sex.

Except that I don’t have any.

However, I will give you one way in which the internet has definitely made my marriage stronger. About six years ago, I started emailing Eric a brief love letter every day, a note he could add to his self-esteem file. I just thank him for a few specific things, or mention one, two, or ten of his many positive traits. It has become a kind of tradition now in our marriage, a way for me to express my sincere gratitude for everything he gives me, and a reminder of who my partner in life is.

So there’s one to work on. And also … befriend religious men at least 30 years older than you. The success rate there is good.

What do you think?
Does the Internet promote or damage marriage?

A lot of people have trouble with Alcoholics Anonymous. AA is full of people and people can be messy and flawed.

The human train wreck formally known as Charlie Sheen is a common sight in the AA meeting halls. The only difference between Mr. Sheen and other self-absorbed, delusional, frantic addicts is the size of the audience to which they rant. These people do not last long in AA. They mock the Fellowship and the 12 Steps (PDF) as too religious or simplistic. AA is beneath them.

Here are a few possible reasons why Charlie Sheen might hate AA so much.

Reasons Why Charlie Sheen May Hate AA

1. He would have to admit he is powerless.
2. He would need to embrace Humility.
3. Deep tissue Change would be required.
4. He would have to be Anonymous!
5. His Higher Power could not be Charlie Sheen.
6. He couldn’t blame anyone else for his troubles.
7. He would need to learn to be Grateful.

People can get sober without AA. It is not necessarily for everyone, by any means. Even so, I have a deep respect for it.

For a few years after getting my B.A. and before going to graduate school, I was a substance abuse counselor at the Substance Abuse Center of Johnson County, close to Kansas City, Kansas. What I learned there was worth five Ph.D.s. Not being an alcoholic, I thought it was important for me to know as much as I could about my clients’ experience. That’s why I attended as many open AA meetings as I could. It was an eye opener. The members made me feel welcome everywhere I went. One of my proudest possessions is my 30 day coin.

What did I learn? I learned that you can’t just go to one AA meeting and think you know AA. Every meeting, every location had its own kind of culture. There were the hard-core biker meetings, the white-collar professional meetings, the womens’ meetings, huge open meetings, more intimate closed meetings…. you get the picture.

There were also the religious meetings, yes, and the agnostic ones. I learned my higher power did not have to be God in the Judeo-Christian tradition, although a lot of people were comfortable with that. If I wanted my dog Snoopy to be my Higher Power I was encouraged to go for it, as long as I gave up my need to Control and was willing to give it to something meaningful outside myself.

I learned that AA was a great leveler. Everyone was the essentially same: the lawyer and the short-order cook, the doctor and the housewife. Each were equally brave. Each deeply respected for the courage it took to just show up.

Sadly, all this Mr. Charlie Sheen, gripped by his illness, cannot comprehend. It must be terrifying for him to imagine a place where he would no longer be CHARLIE SHEEN!

He would just be Charlie.

If your brain is as sensitive as mine — sweets turbo charge the brain and then zap it of all its cognitive powers — you, too, have to pull out ever trick of discipline known to man, more even than is used to train those dogs at the airport who can smell pot on a passenger.

Remember this during the eating season: Jesus’ period of temptation ended after 40 days. We got 21 more to go. So don’t be too hard on yourself. Remember this, too: technically, you can start over each day.

Good luck! We’re in this together!

Click through to watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRiRszIOmi0

On the other hand, being with a partner during an untreated manic episode can be bad for your mental health and in some cases physical safety as well. Although it is a myth that mentally ill people are more violent, as shown in epidemiological studies, it is also true that there are risk factors that increase the probability of violence. Among them are untreated illness accompanied by substance abuse, and a history of violence. With domestic violence there are patterns involved and habits stick. So if you’re already with a partner who’s assaulted you, well, as one commenter, Melissa, movingly describes:

If I try to approach to console him he sees it as confrontation and lashes out like an angry monster. He compares himself to a wild bear actually. His eyes bulge out showing no mercy and his hands go around my throat and he can barely stop himself from chocking me. And all I have done to bring this on was try to console him, try to nurture him so he may not go into a deep depression because when he does he goes into very self destructive behaviour.

When he is in a BP rage his eyes look like in the movie The Shining, like the eyes of a psychopath, they are filled with pure hate. Yet he says, even in that state, that he knows that I love him, as he shoves me away with all his strengths and demands that he be left alone. I have waited sometimes without moving, wondering will he attack me again, will he kill me this time? And what brought on this response from him? He seemed in a down mood when he came home and I asked him how was his day and I had missed him, he came home late. He turned away instead of answering me, I mentioned that that response hurt me, what was he thinking would he please tell me. And this horrid sound came out of his mouth, an alien growl so loud that made the tenants (2 guys in their late twenties who ride motorcycles) upstairs flee out of the house within seconds after hearing it ….

Ah, that is like to be with a BP partner who will not go for treatment.

How I survived him so far is that I have a safe home to flee to, as long as I can get out.

I replied and mentioned the Hot Peach Pages:

…the illness does not excuse the violence and your safety is more important than your partner’s treatment (although it might also require that he or she gets treatment for both your sakes).

The Hot Peach Pages link to domestic violence shelters, hotlines, counselling services and more, worldwide. It’s an excellent resource and I recommend you find out what’s in your community before you might need it in an emergency. They can also advise on how to approach your partner to talk about getting help for you together, if that’s appropriate.

I am glad you have a safe place to go. Please stay safe. You matter.

And to all the bipolars who’ve ever been violent to an intimate partner now reading – it’s not okay. Get help before regretting a bad episode and losing a relationship, and even going to prison.

To read her reply, visit the original post and scroll down.

Being bipolar doesn’t mean, by default, being violent. But this is one more reason to get help if you’re not getting it now.

Here is what I learned. Click through to view the video…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9HmvrYYZM0

“My goal in talking about mental illness is to help people with mental illness see themselves differently,” she said. “And more importantly, to help everyone else see us in new and powerful ways.

“Because this stigma thing is more than mean and ignorant, it inhibits people from facing a medical issue that’s treatable. It keeps parents from getting kids timely treatment, and that can be dangerous.” [...]

“Bipolar is an isolating disease, and that can be dangerous,” she said.

“Some people say the high-energy creative phase is almost worth the devil that lurks behind it,” Pauley said of her manic state followed by a “deepening depression.”

“At best, I enjoyed a few weeks of high-octane creativity and confidence, but after that, it was just an idling engine on overdrive. The intensity of thought was exhausting. Living with me had to be very hard.”

“I had my first bipolar episode at 50, not 30, which is typical, or 14, which is becoming more common,” she said.

She added, “I had a 30-year career behind me. Everyone I cared most about already knew. I had little to lose.”

I appreciate her point of view as someone who grappled with late-onset bipolar disorder, but repeating the mantra of childhood bipolar disorder as though it’s a new epidemic that must be properly recognized and treated was a bit unfortunate to read. Childhood bipolar disorder (if it even exists) is an extremely rare disorder and doesn’t really deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as adult bipolar disorder — which is recognized as a serious and sometimes life-threatening condition. And one where the stigma is still far more prevalent and debilitating.

But I applaud Pauley for not only writing her book (Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue) to share her experiences with this disorder, but also going around and speaking to local community groups such as this one to help educate and promote the idea that mental illness is a normal, everyday condition that no longer deserves to be stigmatized.

Read the full article: TV journalist Jane Pauley shares pains, joys of bipolar disorder

Cognitive to clinical to social, the many applications of psychology reveal profound thoughts, human frailties and strengths. These are some of the best results, framed in video players.

1. An Unquiet Mind: Personal Reflections on Manic-Depressive Illness. Kay Redfield Jamison doesn’t just suffer from bipolar disorder, she literally wrote the book. She co-authored the comprehensive textbook Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression while doing research as a Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. This talk was part of the tour for her awesome memoir An Unquiet Mind, and she is eloquently intimate about her own experiences. (00:30:29)

2. The Stanford Prison Experiment. Historic 1971 video (edited for an unknown vintage TV show) from the behavioral experiment by Philip Zimbardo, resulting in healthy people taking on unhealthy situational roles. Zimbardo recently discussed its relevance to contemporary war crimes in a speaking tour – watch The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil. (00:05:24)

3. My Stroke of Insight: Jill Bolte Taylor at TED Talks. Rousing and inspiring lecture from a neuroanatomist about her internal observations and recovery from a stroke and the spiritual and psychological values she learned in the process. There’s also the Oprah webcast that followed her exposure from this sensational talk. Read her great memoir, offline. (00:18:44)

4. The Paradox of Choice features Barry Schwartz in a provocative TED Talk with a different view on social psychology – too much consumer choice makes us unhappy. Not just when you’re buying salad dressing; Schwartz looks at some wider sociological impacts of increased choice. (00:19:48)

5. Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons. Filmmaker Jenn Ackerman beautifully documents life on a psychiatric ward in a Kentucky prison. She interviews inmates, inmate helpers and staff about what it’s like to have a severe mental illness after most psych hospitals have closed and prisons take on a containment role. This film does reinforce some stereotypes, as wardens talk about being assaulted by patients and we hear tormented screams echoing through the cells. But we also hear that some of the men prefer to be locked in a prison cell 23-24 hours a day than free in a society that offers no help and “beats them down” until back in a cell. A short video but work continues as Ackerman plans to expand it into a feature film in 2009. (00:06:55)

6. Teen Brain. The brain continues developing until about age 25. The prefrontal cortex is involved in impulse control and judgement, and is among the last areas to develop. This award-winning episode of Catalyst is about neuroethics, questions of brain and behavior. It looks at moral and legal culpability between ages 18-25 and proposes new ideas. (00:12:23)

7. Depression: Out of the Shadows. Recommended by a Psych Central blog reader, this PBS documentary and roundtable discussion (hosted by Jane Pauley, herself bipolar) premiered in May 2008 but is available online in previews and “chapters” or by ordering a DVD. Experts include Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, who tells a touching story of his own grief and depression. (approx. 00:60:00)

8. Thin, by Lauren Greenfield, is a reality-style look at eating disorders from the inside of a residential treatment facility. Women in treatment talk about why and how they got there. We witness struggles with staff, one another and within themselves. This HBO documentary is not officially available online, but there is a good interview with the director, a preview, and you can order a DVD. (approx. 00:60:00)

9. I Am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help: Research on Poor Insight and How We Can Help. Clinical psychologist Xavier Amador in a sprawling but enlightening discussion of anosognosia, or lack of insight about one’s own delusions, psychosis and other symptoms. Examples cited include the woman who believed she was married to David Letterman, and Theodore John “Ted” Kaczynski (the Unabomber) who denied mental illness despite threat of conviction. More casual than clinical and geared to consumers and family, Amador gives a good perspective about what it’s like for a person to have delusions and psychosis. Includes motivational interviewing and other therapies. (01:51:06)

10. The Psychology of Global Warming. Stumbling on Happiness best-selling author and professor Dan Gilbert on our reaction to threats. A memorable quote: “The fact is that climate change, if it were caused by gay sex, or caused by the practice of eating puppies, millions of Americans would right now be massing on the street insisting that the administration do something about it.” Social and evolutionary psychology help explain why people don’t get as actively outraged over acid rain as other issues. (00:14:48)

Looking for more great videos?
Check out psychology videos on Channel N, updated regularly with great brain and behavior videos.