There was a time when my wife didn't send me out to the store. I couldn't be trusted not to get lost for two hours in the magazine section. All those glossy covers with their reams and reams of scintillating prose… Some of them didn't even have bathing suit beauties. Ah, the blissful halcyon days of the early 90s before I discovered the Internet. But surely there was a way to shop without getting lost.

I am crazy. I tell this to people in my personal life. It’s not a secret. I figure there’s no point in trying to cover it up; it’ll come out eventually. The approximately 20 scars on my forearms rather give away that something is wrong. But people really don’t like the word “crazy”. In fact, most often, what people say to me is, “no, you’re not!”. Well, actually, I am. I'm bipolar and I’m crazy.

At first your child's new habits seem normal, even admirable: a diet to shape up or new health-conscious habits. Then it seems to be getting extreme: refusing to eat what the family is having, and questioning every ingredient. One day, you realize this isn't a phase, this is an eating disorder, and the eating disorder can get very ugly, very fast. As a parent, it's important to support your child and not to demean them for their mental illness. It's important to separate your child from the eating disorder.

An ADHD meltdown isn't pretty, but it happens. Not often for me, and yesterday was not normal. But I had so much to do and my ADHD brain kept sabotaging me. I usually laugh to keep my spirits up, but yesterday I had an adlut ADHD meltdown instead.

If you're wondering what it's like living with bipolar disorder, or a serious mental illness,  here is one of the most illuminating lines on the subject that I've come across: "It explores the difference between a sick brain and a mind left trying to cope with it." It was written by Natasha Tracy, describing the focus of her new Breaking Bipolar blog on HealthyPlace.com.

It is not hard to find someone willing to treat an eating disorder patient. Most therapists, social workers, doctors, and dietitians, with no particular specialty in the topic, will accept patients with anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders. I've heard of a chiropractor, a massage therapist, and an astrologist taking charge of this life-threatening illness as well. As parents and loved ones, I think it is really important that we do everything we can to make sure patients get care from clinicians who specialize in eating disorders. Further, it is our job to make sure these specialists are using evidence-based treatment methods.

Go to the ocean. The ocean may have been calling or I might have simply been talking to myself. But somewhere in my head a voice said, "go to the ocean." I went because I thought the warm sun might feel good on exposed skin. Skin that hadn't felt a breath in weeks.

If you confide in people about your social anxiety, sometimes they don't know how to act around you in an anxiety triggering situation (Social Anxiety triggers). The last thing I, or I am guessing anyone, would want is for the loved ones in our lives to feel like they have to walk on eggshells around us. I can sense when people do that and it makes me feel handicapped. I came up with a few tips for our friends and families so they can have a better idea of what helps in an anxious situation and what just makes things worse.

The worst thing about ADHD epiphanies is that they are wonderful in the moment, but do we remember to follow through with them? I mean, it's all well and good to decide "Hey! People like me better when I don't knock them over," but have you stopped doing it? I can come up with 17 startlingly innovative ADHD epiphanies a week, but do I do anything about them?

After my last post, where I commented on my fear around being bipolar in public, a discussion came about regarding attitudes, and how I’m the same as everyone else. Well, I beg to disagree. I’m crazy. And the implications of that are undeniable.