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Bipolar disorder is more than just good and bad moods.

When Patty Duke passed away recently, we lost more than a talented actress or a likable personality — we lost an advocate for bipolar disorder awareness.

In her revealing autobiography, Call Me Anna, Duke shared the horrors and secrets of her life. One of the most shocking of these secrets was the fact that she was suffering from a serious mental illness called (at the time) manic depression.

For almost twenty years, until she was correctly diagnosed at age 35, she went between periods of extreme euphoria and crippling depression. In 1997, Duke, along with medical reporter Gloria Hochman, wrote A Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic-Depressive Illness, a book that told what it was really like to have bipolar disorder.

Patty Duke was the first major celebrity to talk openly about her manic depression/bipolar disorder, and how finally getting a diagnosis and treatment for it saved her life. We all are indebted to Patty Duke for her work in making bipolar disorder and other mental illnessessomething that not only could be talked about, but should be talked about.

Everybody knows someone with bipolar disorder, whether it’s a family member, coworker or friends, but they might not recognize the warning signs of the condition. Bipolar disorder is very treatable and people with it can have successful careers, happy families and fantasticrelationships, but it can worsen if it’s not treated.

Bipolar disorder causes serious shifts in mood, energy, thinking and behavior, from the highs of mania to the lows of depression. More than just a brief good or bad mood, the cycles of bipolar disorder can last for days, weeks, or months.

And unlike everyday mood changes, the mood swings of bipolar disorder are so extreme that they get in the way of your ability to function. The manias make the depressive episodes more devastating and harder to treat.

Here are 12 signs you may suffer from bipolar disorder. Some are signs of mania, and some are signs of bipolar depression.

1. You feel way too happy, overly upbeat, or extremely ecstatic for long periods of time.
2. You get annoyed easily and are constantly feeling jumpy, twitchy or restless.
3. The only thing that can keep up with the super-fast way you’re speaking is your thoughts. They’re going a mile a minute, but you can’t slow yourself down.
4. You have no impulse control, which leads to risky behavior. If you want something you buy it, and then you buy it in another color or buy one for a friend, and another for yourself until you find that you’ve purchased four pianos or ten high-end mixers.
5. You know you’re a beast at everything. There’s nothing you can’t do and kill at.
6. You feel sadness radiate from every part of your body and have no hope that anything will ever be OK. Your sadness seems to go on and on.
7. You’ve withdrawn from the world, and that includes your family and friends. You couldn’t have less of an interest in things you once thought were fun.
8. Your appetite is all screwed up: you’re either chowing down like you haven’t eaten in weeks, or the thought of eating seems like a foreign concept.
9. You’re extremely tired and have no energy at all.
10. You’ve become a slow talker and it can take you forever to get one sentence out.
11. Your memory is completely shot, and your decision-making skills and ability to focus aren’t great either.
12. You’re thinking about committing suicide or have already attempted it. You may or may not be too fascinated with death and dying.

The signs and symptoms of bipolar disorder can be subtle, confusing and upsetting. Many people with this condition are overlooked or misdiagnosed, resulting in a lot of pain and unnecessary suffering. The good news is that with proper treatment and support, you can lead a wonderful life.

In 1982, a psychiatrist diagnosed Patty Duke’s bipolar disorder and prescribed her lithium (still one of the most widely used medications to treat bipolar disorder) to control her mood swings. “It saved my life and it gave me life,” Patty Duke said in an interview with People in 1999.

If you recognize any of those signs/symptoms, please see a mental health professional. You deserve the best life possible, especially one where your moods and emotions are so out of control, you feel like they’re beating you up.

Schizophrenia is a misunderstood and often underestimated mental illness. It is a lifelong battle which devastates not only patients, but families and support systems who struggle to assist with maintenance of stability and functionality. Movies and television still confuse it with Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder), and it is most often noted for its psychotic symptoms of paranoia, hallucinations, and false beliefs (delusions). However, hallucinations and delusions make up only part of the disease’s symptoms.

Those positive symptoms of the disease, so named because they are experienced by people with Schizophrenia, but not by those who are typically functioning, comprise only a fraction of the illness. Prevalent in the internal experiences of a person living with Schizophrenia is another group of less obvious symptoms which diminish functioning and are resistant to treatment by antipsychotic medications. While those symptoms might be less obvious to the casual observer, they are no less pervasive or debilitating.

The term negative symptoms refers to traits which result from diminished personality characteristics existent in patients prior to onset of illness. These are symptoms which minimize functioning, and snuff out capacity to perform activities of daily living. They are also more likely to vex support systems because negative symptoms impair relationships through inhibited social skills.

Negative symptoms may be referred to as the Four A’s of Schizophrenia, and are as follows:

Apathy is a significant negative symptom which effects patients throughout theSchizophrenia spectrum. The result of this symptom is reduced of zest for life, and restricted range of affect. Restricted range of affect pertains to a person’s inability to feel or display a full range of affect responses from happiness to sadness. Typical responses to stimuli, such as laughing or crying, may not be within the range of patients’ capabilities.

Anhedonia is also common, and is well characterized as diminished ability to experience pleasure. Results of this symptom are lost interest in activities once deemed a source of joy and pleasure. Hobbies are no longer enjoyed, pleasure is no longer derived from close relationships, and libido is reduced. It important for support systems to monitor these changes in behavior as Schizophrenia increases risk of suicide in patients who lived successful or affluent lives prior to diagnosis.

Schizophrenia is often misunderstood because the combination of apathy and anhedonia presents as depression, which is why the presence of at least one positive symptom is crucial when arriving at a diagnosis of Schizophrenia. It is also important to note the distinction between sad mood and flat mood. Because these symptoms restrict range of affect, we cannot assume sadness.

Avolition refers to the experience of diminished motivation. This symptom reduces desire for accomplishments or goal-oriented behavior. By itself, or combined with other negative symptoms, avolition can be misconstrued as a symptom of major depression or persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia), as patients may be unwilling to leave their beds or homes for extended periods of time. Avolition also results in reduced interest in self-care, including poor hygiene and grooming.

Alogia refers to poverty of speech. It is sometimes misconstrued as a product of low cognitive functioning or social anxiety. People who experience alogia lose the ability to engage in small talk, and no longer pick up on social cues to the extent they may be mistaken for autistic. Alogia should not be identified as an inability to communicate, but instead an interruption in the flow of thought. It is a component of Schizophrenia sure to challenge the patience of therapists, as reduced speech interferes with the therapy dynamic.

Although positive symptoms of Schizophrenia distort functionality, negative symptoms diminish it, and prevent patients from obtaining, or keeping jobs, and engaging in social relationships. There is little opportunity for academic achievement, as drive and desire are no longer present. The experience of these brutal impairments leave patients isolated and with little chance of living a fulfilled life.

While antipsychotic medications such as Haldol, Seroquel, or Zyprexa have proven successful in the treatment of positive symptoms, they do little to restore patients to maximum functionality as these medications are not effective in the treatment of negative symptoms.

It was once believed therapy was not efficacious for persons living with Schizophrenia, but that has changed with the advent of therapeutic modalities such as Cognitive Enhancement Therapy which can help reduce the effects of negative symptoms while medication tackles positive symptoms.

No matter how effective a treatment modality may be, what cannot be overstated is nothing in the battle against mental illness can replace support from family and friends. Familial support increases the likelihood of treatment compliance.

Even without mental illness, none of us of thrives when removed from community.

Schizophrenia is among the most devastating mental health diagnoses because the disease is a life long battle and creates immense impairment of functioning and reduced quality of life. But the combination of medication, progressive therapies, and community support works to create opportunities for patients to move out of the dark corners in which they have been pushed, and into the light where they may one day flourish.

Pam savors her morning coffee time after her son goes to day care and before she has to leave for work. This is time to herself — to sip on a good cup of coffee, watch her favorite show, and just be alone. But for Pam, those times are getting rarer. Steven, her rambunctious, often destructive 4-year-old, recently diagnosed with ADHD, was getting harder and harder to manage. The day care provider was often calling, sometimes within minutes of dropping him off, to request that he be picked up and brought home for the rest of the day.

The last time it happened, Pam was barely able to hang up the phone before she began crying. At that moment, she felt like such a failure. Although her family is supportive, and Steven is being seen by an excellent developmental pediatrician, some days it’s all just too much. Pam is frustrated because all of the family’s time and energy seems to be spent on getting Steven the help he needs, and her relationship with her husband and others is suffering. She can’t remember the last time they were invited to a neighborhood gathering. And then there is work. Pam knows her boss’ patience is waning as the absences pile up and she struggles to stay on task. She often feels exhausted and frustrated. Nothing could have prepared her for parenting a child with significant emotional and behavioral issues.

Of course, Pam isn’t alone. Having a child with significant emotional needs can trigger all sorts of demands on parents that can impact the entire family, put a strain on friendships, and negatively affect work performance. Worse yet, the stress can trigger bouts of depression and anxiety and damage the very relationships parents need the most during difficult times. Here are some practical ideas to help you cope:

1. Forgive yourself

Parents often carry a great deal of guilt and angst about their child’s struggles, especially when they cannot be “fixed.” Understand that your job, above all else, is to parent with unconditional love. You can’t change who your child is, but you can change how you feel about it.

2. Stay healthy

Parenting a challenging child can be draining, and it often takes its toll on a mother’s health. Put strategies in place to support yourself, such as finding a friend who will watch your child for a few hours each week so you can spend time with your spouse or other children. Take 10 or 15 minutes each day to do something relaxing — reading, yoga, or a soothing hobby such as knitting, for example. Try to eat healthy foods and get enough sleep.

3. Find good professional help for your child

It can take some real effort and persistence but you need to work with the best professionals you can find. Chances are you are not a child psychologist or special education teacher so try to keep your focus on being the best parent you can be. Remember to use those trusted professionals already in your child’s life, like his pediatrician, social worker, or teacher, for information and support.

4. Start each day new

Leave the previous day’s struggles behind you, and begin each day anew. Children struggling with their behavior need to have hope, and your support in giving them a fresh chance each day may just renew their motivation to try again.

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It can be bewildering not knowing what to do about your child’s behavioral needs, and the sense of inadequacy that comes with that feeling can be overwhelming for parents. When you feel that way, please tell yourself that things will be OK. What worked yesterday may not work today. What didn’t work last week might be just the thing your child needs now. Take a deep breath and explore more options tomorrow.

Above all else, stay positive, give yourself credit for all the hard work you are doing to support your child, and believe that it will make a difference!

Have you experienced the stress of parenting a child with mental health or behavioral challenges? Your perspective could be helpful to other parents who are struggling with similar issues. Please share your thoughts and experiences.

PACER Center’s Children’s Mental Health and Emotional and Behavioral Disorders project offers a variety of resources for parents and professionals atPACER.org/cmh.

The world is deep in the throes of the 2016 Summer Olympics, and while such competition has to bring a certain level of anxiety and stress to athletes, sports can help to improve both your body and your mind.

Of course, Olympic athletes face much more pressure than those of us who dabble in the occasional friendly tennis match, which is where professionals such as sports psychologists can help. Learn more about these mental health experts, as well as the latest on the mental health benefits of those who volunteer, how you can make performance anxiety work for you, a new non-medical approach to mental health care that’s gaining ground but leaving some psychiatrists skeptical, and more.

What Sports Psychologists Do for Olympic Athletes That Coaches Cant: No Olympic athlete makes it on his or her own. Sports psychologist Matthew Cunliffe talks about the important addition of sports psychologists to the lengthy list of people who help support athletes — especially in terms of helping athletes deal with what goes through their own minds.

An Alternative Form of Mental Health Care Gains a Foothold: A new, anti-mainstream, and significantly non-medical approach to mental health care that focuses heavily on holistic recovery instead of symptom treatment is gaining ground; however, some psychiatrists are skeptical, largely because of how life-changing medication is for many people with mental health problems, as well as the lack of much research on this new mental health care approach.

The Key to Fighting Imposter Syndrome: Ever find yourself surrounded by people who seem to have it all together an end up feeling as if you don’t measure up to them…that you’re actually an imposter? One way to combat this “imposter syndrome” is to take a leap of faith and realize that everyone is human — everyone experiences worries, insecurities, and other negative feelings to some degree.

Volunteering Later in Life Can Enhance Mental Health and Wellbeing: According to researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Birmingham, older individuals (particularly those “around the age of 40” and “up into old age,” defined as being 80 years old and older), can boost their mental health and wellbeing by volunteering, which provides a ” sense of purpose, particularly for those people who have lost their earnings, because regular volunteering helps contribute to the maintenance of social networks, and this is especially the case for older people who often live in isolation,” says Dr. Faiza Tabassum, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Southampton.

The New Science of Embracing Performance Anxiety: By taking steps like developing a routine and working on body positions (such as your posture), you just might be able to turn your performance anxiety into an advantage.

Multiple new research studies indicate that there are many physical and mental health benefits to gain from taking a holiday, some reportedly remaining even two months after we have returned to the daily grind. However, research also shows that certain habits and attitudes can neutralize these benefits, and even leave you more tired, stressed out, unhealthy and overwhelmed than how you started out.

With the average vacation time a year typically being less than 20 days per year, thankfully recent science research suggests how we can get the greatest health benefits from this short and sweet holiday time and how to avoid needing a vacation to recover from your vacation!

The Benefits of Taking a Vacation

1) Life Satisfaction

Vacations can contribute to psychological wellness, where positive holiday experiences have spill-over effects how individuals evaluate their overall satisfaction with life, particularly boosting satisfaction with social life, leisure life, family life, love life, work life, spiritual life, intellectual life, culinary life, and travel life.
A Canadian study suggests that these improvements in life satisfaction are influenced by holidays promoting improved work-life balance, decreased time pressure and better mental health.

2) Physical Improvements

Improvements in sleep quality, mood, physical complaints and blood pressure have also been reported to persist after returning from vacation and getting back to reality.

3) Mental Health

On top of vacations being a great emotional wellbeing and mood booster, another study reported that the anxiety creating tendency to focus on something causing us distress, instead of thinking of solutions or getting over it, called rumination, lessens during vacations, and stays low even two weeks after vacation.

4) Creativity

Cognitive flexibility, i.e. the component of creativity that bestows the ability to adapt our thinking to face new and unexpected conditions in the environment, has been shown to be boosted after a long summer holiday.

Ideas generated at work after a holiday were more diverse than before going on vacation, showing more ingenuity by avoiding a reliance on conventional ideas and routine solutions.

5) Career

A higher degree of job involvement coupled with decreased job stress and work burnout makes for a happier and harder worker when returning to work.

How to Boost Vacation Benefits and Avoid Pitfalls

The Vacation Deprivation Survey, conducted for Expedia, indicates that in 2013, 10% of Americans felt they could never relax while on vacation. Such negative vacation experiences have been shown to detract from overall life satisfaction, particularly in social life, family life, love life, work life, health and safety, financial life, spiritual life, and culinary life.

And even for those that have the time of their lives when they are away, some habits can counteract the good that those positive holiday experiences achieved:

1) Make the Most of the Pre-Vacation High

You can ride the pre-trip high, where research on the ‘rosy view’ phenomenon suggests the pre-trip high may have an even more positive impact on one’s well-being, presumably even stronger than the actual experience itself or post trip memories.

2) Don’t Let Pre-Vacation Workload and Homeload Get Out of Control

The rosy view phenomenon can counterbalance the all-too-common pre-vacation stress that comes with the piling up of homeload (e.g. packing, tidying, arranging pet care etc.) and workload need to finish work on time. However, this is not always the case and women in particular are at higher risk of missing out on vacation benefits due to generally having a larger increase in homeload (on top of an increased workload) when compared to their partner.

3) Plan an Easy Return to Work

High work demands after vacation have been shown to eliminate positive vacation effects and speed up the fade-out process. Preparing in advance for a gently easing in to work, and preventing overwhelming workloads, is a good move.

4) Choose Leisure Goals Wisely

Many people make goals on holiday that they don’t keep like ‘I’ll run on the beach every morning’ or ‘visit every touristic sight there is too see’. Well, research suggests if you set more attractive and realistic travel goals and take actions to implement them, you are more likely to experience higher levels of subjective wellbeing from your vacation.

5) Leave Narcissism at the Door

Particularly in men, higher levels of narcissism are linked with larger differences between what one expects from a holiday and what is actually experienced. Researchers suggest that this may be due to when something doesn’t go to plan, the positive vacation illusions of narcissistic individuals are burst, challenging their sense of control over events in their lives.

6) Workaholics…Work a Little Less Please!

If you work compulsively, you might get a greater boost in wellbeing during your holiday, but when you return, the drop in wellbeing is much greater than for non-workaholics. Being a workaholic is associated with many nasty problems with physical and mental health and best avoided anyway, but making an active choice to change workaholic habits could generate an even greater vacation-induced wellbeing boost than ever experienced.

6) Make Healthy Eating Choices

These findings should be taken with a pinch of salt due to the absence of a control group. Nonetheless, one study found a very small, but statistically significant, weight gain of 0.3 kg after the vacation period that persisted 6 weeks after vacation. They suggested that cumulatively, year on year, this could contribute to obesity. Taking a healthy approach to eating and exercising habits while on vacation should do the trick.