Solar Flares in the Northern Pole: My Dysfunctional Relationship With Bipolar Disorder and our Life-Affirming First Date Taco Night. I believe this is when it all started. I was in the middle of a grueling semester of the most intense course I had ever taken, graduate level gross anatomy. While my peers were funding every [...]
Two Sides of a Coin How do you describe what it’s like when a loved one asks you about your bi-polar tendencies? You don’t want to scare them or stress them out. But telling them that you’re as unpredictable as a coin toss is not what they want to hear. Is knowledge power? Will it [...]
I was diagnosed Manic Depressive in 1987 long before it became politically correct to be called Bipolar. I spent years hiding my illness, refusing treatment and medication and my life went spiraling out of control. My rock bottom was a 4 year stay in federal prison for securities fraud, or more commonly known as stock [...]
Freed Control is my Insanity My name is Jay Insalaco. I am a husband, father of two beautiful children, and a public worker. Life wasn't always like this, here’s my story. In 1995 when I was 19, I started going to a rave club in New York City called "the tunnel". At this club I [...]
In April 2015, I went to a health and wellness retreat sponsored by my college. I had signed up to attend several months prior because I knew I needed to start focusing on my own health and wellness, especially my mental health. I felt like I really needed some alone time away. It had been [...]
Living with Mental Illness: Better Doesn't Mean Cured Sometimes, I feel that I don’t know what’s going on or that I don’t care about anything. I am confused by my feelings, because I’m not able to explain how I feel, except for the emptiness, and I feel that no one is really there for [...]
I am a Tightrope Walker. To define Tightrope walking the dictionary tells me it is the art of walking along a thin wire or rope. Today I realized that I am exactly that. I balance on a very fine tightrope. I am a tightrope walker, in every sense of the word – except the true [...]
Etymology and Shoes. Sabotage: deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct (something), especially for political or military advantage. The word sabotage derives from the French for wooden shoe. Its original derivative is from the word sabotor, which means to work carelessly. In the 15th century Dutch workers were so afraid that machines would replace humans in the [...]
Crazy, mental, out of it, slacker, sensitive, I've been called all of them either to my face or behind my back. I'm not allowed to have emotions. If I'm having a down day I'm getting depressed again; if I'm anxious about finances, he's having a panic attack. Even on my good days people talk and [...]
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (most likely Type II, with rare instances of mania) not long after Silver Linings Playbook was released in theaters. In fact, it was in large part due to this theatrical representation of mental illness that I decided to get serious about seeing a psychotherapist. I had, before then, had a dangerous breakdown, [...]
