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Hi all. I have a couple of announcements to make and a piece of schizophrenia research to share. Today’s post is about:
As ever, I hear from people who don’t believe that mental illness is a physical illness and no amount of research to the contrary will convince them otherwise. However, today I share contrary evidence anyway.
There is a thought that dopamine (a neurotransmitter) – an excess thereof – plays a big role in psychosis (delusions and hallucinations) and schizophrenia. How do we know this? Because antipsychotics reduce dopamine firing and this combats psychosis.
More than 2/3 of people with schizophrenia suffer from delusions of reference – delusions that neutral information is about them. So, for example, a person with schizophrenia might think a newspaper story or a billboard is really about them.
So researchers took people with schizophrenia and compared their brains via MRI to those of non-schizophrenic brains and sure enough, during neutral statements, people with schizophrenia identified them as being about them and also had greater activation of the parts of their brain associated with dopamine.
In other words, when suffering from a delusion, the cause appears to be organic. Read all about it here.
Some of you might recall that ShareCare recently named me the second most influential depression writer online. Well, they have followed that up by doing an interview with me. You can learn about why I called this blog the Bipolar Burble and why I have red hair in ShareCare’s piece here.
My policy has always been to not accept advertising on the Bipolar Burble. I create this content, I host it and I designed the site; and I do it all for the people who need this information – not because of remuneration.
But that has now changed. I’m now accepting selected advertisements and sponsored links on the Bipolar Burble.
To everyone who is disappointed, know that I understand, but that this is something I agonized over and fought for a long time, but now I just have to give in. I need this place to be source of income for me. It’s just old-fashioned economics at work.
Right now there are very few ads but over time there will be more. Some text in older posts will be linked to external sites but this text will always be underlined and it will be in orange.
I hope you can understand and appreciate my needs here.
(By the way, if you’re waiting for the third part of the antipsychiatry piece, not to worry, it’ll be here next week.)
Natasha Tracy is an award-winning writer, speaker, advocate, and consultant from the Pacific Northwest. She has been living with bipolar disorder for 26 years and has written more than 2000 articles on the subject.
Find more of Natasha’s work in her acclaimed book: "Lost Marbles: Insights into My Life with Depression & Bipolar" on Amazon.
Connect with Natasha at the social media links below.
Shopping for someone with a mental illness can feel tricky—you want a gift that actually helps, not just more clutter. This guide walks you through 15 thoughtful, low-pressure mental health gifts that offer real comfort, reduce stress, and say, “I see you and I’m here,” during the holidays and all year.
I’m never going to call bipolar pain a “gift.” Most days, I just want it to stop. But emotional and even physical pain aren’t always random torture—they’re often trying to tell us something. This piece digs into what your pain might be saying, how to listen, and how that can make living with it just a little easier.
Does TMS cause headaches or migraines? Yes, sometimes. This first-person guide explains the pain, how to tell TMS headache from migraine, and the relief tactics—dose ramping, coil adjustments, and other techniques—that helped me keep going.
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After I originally commented I seem to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are
added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added
I get four emails with the exact same comment. Is there an
easy method you can remove me from that service?
Thank you!
Hi Live,
Sorry, there isn’t a way for me to do it on the backend but all you have to do is leave another comment and uncheck the box :) Sorry for the inconvenience.
– Natasha Tracy