Great Big Story
From Lifting Weights to Olympic Dreams: Battling Bipolar Disorder in the World of Weightlifting
Discover the inspiring journey of overcoming depression and bipolar disorder through weightlifting. Join the conversation on mental health in sports and breaking stigma.
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A Mental Health Journey of Understanding, Acceptance, and Hope
This video emphasizes the importance of a better understanding and acceptance of psychotic conditions through scientific advancements, education, and combating stigma. It highlights the value of early identification, comprehensive...
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Embracing Creativity and Purpose Through Psychosis
This video explores the potential advantages of psychotic experiences, such as enhanced creativity and the capacity for deep introspection. For Dara Sanandaji, this introspection led to profound personal growth, a renewed sense of...
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Learning and Growing Through Mania and Psychosis
Dara Sanandaji's life with bipolar disorder encouraged him to become more introspective and to guide his own approach to dealing with mental illness. Despite the challenges, Dara's dedication to self-improvement and learning from his...
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Navigating the Complex Treatment of Bipolar Disorder and Psychosis
While many drugs are available to treat bipolar disorder and psychotic symptoms, finding the right medication often involves trial and error, with treatments primarily managing symptoms rather than curing the condition. Lithium remains a...
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Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder and Psychotic Conditions
Psychiatric conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are diagnosed based on observed or reported symptoms, not through biological tests or brain imaging. This leads to a classification of syndromes rather than specific...
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On a Quest to Understand Bipolar Disorder
Dara Sanandaji delves deeper into his first manic episode and the onset of his bipolar disorder by reviewing his old medical files with his therapist. He and his therapist discuss the unique details of Dara's experience as well as...
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Dissecting a Manic Episode
Dara Sanandaji delves into his past and the onset of his bipolar disorder by consulting his therapist, aiming to understand the origins and progression of his condition. He recounts a pivotal journey to Dartmouth that escalated into a...
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Genetic and Environmental Causes of Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder and psychotic symptoms are largely influenced by genetics, as demonstrated by studies where children of parents with psychosis exhibit a higher risk of developing psychotic illnesses regardless of their environment. The...
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Exploring Phsychosis and Its Symptoms
During his senior year of college, Dara Sanandaji had a manic episode that led to a Bipolar I diagnosis. In this series, he is exploring his illness and how it has impacted his life, both positively and negatively. In this first video,...
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The Hidden Dangers of Night: Youth Suicides, Mental Health, and Firearms
Uncover the alarming link between nighttime vulnerabilities, suicidal ideation among youth, and the presence of family-owned firearms. Delve into the impacts of disrupted circadian rhythms and the quiet of evening hours. This video...
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Psychiatrist or Therapist: Who Should YOU See?
Psychiatrist Dr. Tracey Marks delves into the key differences between psychiatrists and therapists, offering guidance on choosing the right mental health professional based on symptoms and treatment needs. The video also explores the...
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How To Question Your Doctor's Diagnosis
It’s no secret that people get information from the Internet. So you don’t need to tiptoe around this issue. But of course, you don’t want to say I think you got the diagnosis wrong. No one wants to start a conversation feeling...
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How This Treatment For Borderline Personality Disorder Improves Empathy
There’s a new study using oxytocin (often called the love hormone) to treat borderline personality disorder. To date we really don’t have a medication treatment for the disorder. I talk about the treatment for BPD when you also have...
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How to manage bipolar disorder - 6 Strategies
How to manage bipolar disorder. Even though medication is the mainstay of managing bipolar disorder, there are ways you can manage bipolar disorder naturally without medication (or independent of your medication). The first step is to...
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How Long Does Rapid Cycling Last? Switching vs Cycling
Bipolar disorder is considered to be in a rapid cycling state if you have more than four episodes of either depression or mania in one year. One study showed that 80% of people experienced a resolution of their rapid cycling within two...
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Here's Why You Want To Know About Mushrooms and Depression
Psilocybin is a compound found in mushrooms that has psychedelic properties. Psychedelic means it makes you hallucinate. Psilocybin works in the brain by activating the 5-HT2A receptor on the neuron to increase serotonin.
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How To Tell what Mania and Hypomania Really Look like
Bipolar disorder is often very misunderstood. There’s a common misconception that anything unstable must be bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is really defined by the presence of mania or hypomania. Depression is present in both bipolar...
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How To Help Your Loved One Get Help
It's very hard to watch a loved one need help but not get it. What you do to help depends on why they refuse help and how much they accept that they have an illness. See this video on The Imposter Syndrome for one way this looks •...
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Why do you gain weight with antidepressants and mood stabilizers?
Why do you gain weight with antidepressants and mood stabilizers? In this video I discuss two way. One way is by blocking histamine 1 receptors. We usually think of histamine as something that is associated with allergies and your immune...
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Which Antipsychotics Cause The Most Weight Gain?
Antipsychotic medications are powerful drugs that are used to treat more than psychotic conditions like schizophrenia. Many of them are FDA-approved to treat bipolar disorder and depression. Even though they work very well and fast, they...
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What Triggers Mood swings in Borderline Personality
Today’s video answers the question: what triggers the mood swings that you can see and borderline personality disorder? One of the features of borderline personality disorder that make it look like bipolar disorder is having wide mood...
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What is Treatment Resistant Depression? What Do We Do about it?
Treatment resistant depression is defined as having 2 failed, 6-week antidepressant trials. Another way of putting is, you have depression, you take medication for at least 6 weeks and you don’t get better. Then you try another...
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What is Schizophrenia? - It's More Than Hallucinations
Schizophrenia is the most serious disorder we have in psychiatry. It is much more than hallucinations. It’s an illness where the person’s main problem is being psychotic. With psychosis, you are not able to tell what’s real and what’s...