same symptoms, different races-maybe you’re not bipolar if you’re black?!

Dr. Cassandra L. Joubert has a new book out entitled, Losing Control: Loving a Black Child with Bipolar Disorder. What first caught my attention in this book is part of Dr. Ira Glovinsky’s foreword:

“Pediatric bipolar disorder manifests itself similarly in the African-American population to the way it does in the Caucasian population. The disease has no cultural boundaries. However… if an African-American child manifested the same symptoms as a Caucasian child, he or she would receive a different diagnosis and a different treatment. This is the clear danger of ignoring cross-cultural commonalities.
keep reading–click on!!

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Filed under: Eliza Barnett, bi-polar

for the delay

biFACTOR is undergoing some reconstruction and structure changes. We apologize for the lapse and the semi continual delay in new postings. We will be back with an exciting new direction soon! Please stay tuned and keep checking back!!

Thanks for reading everyone!

Filed under: Uncategorized

Revealed!! How to date a bisexual!

I think it’s really amusing that wikihow has an article called “How to Date a Bisexual Person.” Why is this necessary?

Is there a how to date a straight person section?

How to date a gay person sub category?

Entire magazines and books and sections of bookstores cater to the concept of dating period, why this additional addition?

Do the same basic principles not apply? In America at least isn’t all that complicated…

So in this how to posting thing a mu-jig, its first explained that just like straight or gay people, the vast majority of bisexuals want a monogamous relationship. You’ll find in every sexual preference those into to the multi, or open, or swinger, or cheat-aholic lifestyle—but thanks for clarifying that bisexuals like committal relationships too. Whoever the smo is, the original bi person who ever that was, seems to me like their scandal filled behavior has put a tag on an entire orientation that can’t ever be shaken off. Darn.

Next up on this explanation agenda is the clairfacation that just because a bi person is coupled with or married to a particular sex—it doesn’t make them straight or gay, they’re still bi. This is a good note because since polygamy is not gonna be legal any time soon, the vast masses are going to have to have one gender at a time.

The next five rules to live by, apparently, include: being understanding of the gender feelings, respect their sexuality identity, enter into the relationship as you would normally, and lastly give them space—as in don’t keep asking them which gender they prefer.

(keep reading after the jump)

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Filed under: Maddie Banks, bi-sexual

Am I a trigger?

“Oh, they’re bipolar—doesn’t that just mean they’re happy and sad back and forth all the time?”
“No. Bipolar disorder is much more complicated than that.”
“Maybe I’m a little bipolar, my mood changes a lot.”
“Everyone’s mood changes. Anyone can have a mood swing. That’s normal. I can be totally happy and something seemingly out of nowhere to you, could cause me to flip my script. Maybe you’re just wishy wash, maybe you have a short fused temper, maybe your feeling are easily hurt. Going from extreme to another sometimes doesn’t make you bipolar.”

On the most recent posting on the blog “Flying and Landing” One of the first things the blogger says is,

“I do not like the term BiPolar, as it does not describe anything more than polar opposites.”

I agree it’s very true that the name doesn’t only touches on the surface of this disorder’s characteristics. It’s more than just I’m in a bad mood right now. When you and I are upset it’s still within our control to not be. When I feel like I’m pumped up on energy and I’m being all crazy fun—it’s not because my brain is forcing me. Me, myself and I can calm down, chill, its simple enough for me. I’m not bipolar.

Every documentary or TV special I watch on OCD (if you haven’t come across the A&E show Obsessed—I recommend it!!) its always so amazing to me listening to the suffers explain how they don’t like doing the things they do, they want to stop, the wish they could turn off the thoughts in their head that are compelling them to behave as such. And they can’t.
Not by themselvs. The blogger of Flying and Landing writes,

“My first entry Flying and Landing pretty much describes what my mood swings feel like. I have felt helpless at times.”

MYTH: Bipolar disorder only affects mood.
FACT: Bipolar disorder also affects your energy level, judgment, memory, concentration, appetite, sleep patterns, sex drive, and self-esteem. Additionally, bipolar disorder has been linked to anxiety, substance abuse, and health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, migraines, and high blood pressure.

Bipolar looks different, sounds different, and though the general symptoms are the same, the characteristics are personal and personalized.

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Filed under: bi-polar

How to raise ‘em. Addressing those “special needs”

Interestingly enough I started with the idea for this post to discuss whether or not there is a quote unquote “best place to raise a biracial child” and I was lead in another direction to that of adoption.

Honestly when my views on adoption have been as such: I love it. I think it’s great. I think more people should adopt. I probably will adopt a child myself. I’ve never had any friends that were adopted, so I’ve always been curious why adoptees tend to have this desire to find their birth parents.

I get the issue of health background, but I’ve kind of always thought well, those people didn’t raise you, what’s the point of knowing them? So not shockingly I’ve been a supporter of closed adoptions, and restricted information until they’re 18 arrangements. And whereas I think it’s great that people adopt those not of the same race as them, in the back of my mind I kinda though well why doesn’t everyone adopt a kid that looks kind of like them, so they can delay the whole, I’m not your birth parent conversation as long as possible.

Remember though I’ve held these opinions as someone who doesn’t know any adoptees, and if I did I’m sure my previous thoughts on the subject would vary.

So I started reading up on transracial adoptions.  The formal definition of it refers to the adoption a child who’s racial or ethnicity varies from that of their adoptive parents. More commonly it refers to the adoption of biracial or black children by white adoptive families.

It should be noted that in pretty much all the literature I found on the topic, the term biracial was only used to describe someone of a white and black background—which technically isn’t the correct usage of the word, but when people think biracial that’s probably what they’re always going to think first.

Just a note: many professionals in adoptive fields consider black and biracial children who need parents as those with special needs. There’s a lot of discussion out there because people tend to jump to the conclusion to take special needs as being negative and a handicap. When in reality, they do require special attention in “other” ways.

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Filed under: Maggie Barnes, bi-racial