Bipolar Burble Newsletter | April 2021 | Mental Health Privilege, Emotion Artificial Intelligence, More

Published: Thu, 04/15/21

Natasha Tracy's Bipolar Burble Newsletter

April 2021 Edition

Welcome to my Bipolar Burble Newsletter. It's where I have a chance to talk to you, my readers, and offer information that can help those with mental illness and their loved ones. Thanks for reading.

In this edition you'll find:

An exciting, new artificial intelligence-powered app that may improve your mental wellness
Bipolar Burble and Breaking Bipolar articles you may have missed
An Instagram image and quote
A Lost Marbles review
An April quote

The WellShift App Kickstarter

Curious about how your mental resilience and wellbeing stacks up, and how you can improve it? A company called Larimar is launching a new app that can do just that. The WellShift app is going to be launched on Kickstarter soon.

The cool thing about this app is that it uses emotion artificial intelligence (AI) to learn about your emotions and then it teaches you how to improve your wellness using tools and resources. For a taste of what I'm talking about, take Larmiar's online wellness quiz and to learn about emotion AI and how it can help, read this post.

Links to check out:

Learn About the WellShift Kickstarter

What You May Have Missed

Here are a some things you might have missed from Bipolar Burble and Breaking Bipolar:

Mental Health and Artificial Intelligence: Emotion Self-Regulation -- Computers aren't known for understanding human emotion -- that is, unless they use emotion artificial intelligence (AI). Emotion AI is a new field of study that allows a computer to truly understand emotion. Learn how this technology can help with your own emotion self-regulation.
Myths About Bipolar and Brilliance -- We're Just People and That's Okay -- There is a pervasive idea that people with bipolar disorder are brilliant or even geniuses. The thing is, this is a myth. We're just people like everyone else.
Mental Health Privilege -- What Is It? Do You Have It? -- Here, I talk about the idea of health privilege; this is the privilege that healthy people have. We need to talk about this privilege just like we talk about other types of privilege.
Let's Build Bipolar Pride Instead of Ending Bipolar Stigma -- This is a guest post by Curtis Hier. He talks about the concept of being proud of having bipolar disorder and how that idea bests just beating stigma.
Why Don't Doctors Listen to People with Bipolar Disorder? -- I get so frustrated with doctors, in no small part because they don't seem to listen to me when they learn I have bipolar disorder. Learn why I think this is and how we can fight this problem.
I'm Fine; I Don't Need Bipolar Medication -- At one point, many of us have said these words. But why do we say them and how can we acknowledge reality instead?
Anger or Rage Can Be Depression in Disguise -- Have you ever found yourself to be incredibly angry for no reason? Well, there might be a reason and that reason might be depression.
Depression that Appears to Be Anger or Rage -- How to Handle It -- This is a second part to the above article. If you identify that your anger is really depression, here are suggestions for what to do about it.

The Archives

Insta-Instagram

March 31, 2021

"Stop telling people to "strive for greatness." Greatness is, well, great, but it's an unreasonable goal for most people, but most especially disabled people. We have a hard time getting through the day -- greatness-striving is out of the question. People with chronic conditions are dealing with CHRONIC conditions every single day. And that precludes "striving for greatness." And it's so insulting to see messages everywhere that people can do "whatever they set their minds to." No, you can't. You can do many things, but those things will be limited depending on your life circumstance and your own abilities/disabilities.

Don't get me wrong, people with disabilities are often AMAZING, but society will likely never consider fighting insurance companies for what you need to survive "great." We will likely never be rewarded for the amount of energy were have to expend just to get through the day. We will likely never be recognized for how hard it is just for us to get an accessible job.

We likely CAN'T achieve "greatness" no matter what, so stop suggesting that we can't, and intimating that we fail when we don't.

But, amazing? Yes, that is something we tend to be as a matter of course."

I create (and comment on) a lot of interesting work on Instagram, in addition to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I'm posting interesting quotes, images and quirky things from my life. I hope you'll join me there.

'Lost Marbles' Reviews

I'm pleased to say I now have 280 reviews/ratings between GoodReads and Amazon. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to write their thoughts. My book is rated about 4.5 stars out of 5!

Here is a beautiful review by James Gately: Great Resource for Those with BIpolar

"Natasha's book was phenomenal. She hit the nail on the head with everything and it's a great resource for those with mental illness."

Buy Lost Marbles

If you've had a chance to read Lost Marbles, I would love it if you would leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Thanks, I appreciate it.

April's Final Words

That's it for now folks; I'll catch up with you again in May. Until then, please keep safe and get vaccinated as soon as you can. That's what's going to protect you and I in the long-run. I had my first dose this week and it was quite a relief.

Finally, here's an April quote for you that made me chuckle:

“The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.”

-- Mark Twain

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