Bluntly Bipolar

One of the hardest lessons I had to learn was that my anger made me easy to control. Unlearning that behavior became a monumental task because anger was a constant symptom of depression, Bipolar Disorder, and my frustrations with autism. In this episode, I explore how the manosphere uses masculine anger as a tool of manipulation, not to help you level up, but to keep you coming back for more. Don'...

Are you a real man? The kind of man who would do anything for his family? The kind of man who would go to jail for his family? What if I told you that you aren't protecting who you think you are by being that kind of man? Anger played a significant role in how my mental illness manifested and perpetuated itself. Even though I relied on spite and anger to survive some hard moments in my life with s...

Anger played a significant role in how my mental illness manifested and perpetuated itself. Even though I relied on spite and anger to survive some hard moments in my life with suicidality and hopelessness, I eventually had to create peace with it to facilitate my healing and recovery. In this mini-series prefixed "On Anger," I am dissecting the way that my anger and depression has been weaponized...

Diagnosis for a mental illness doesn't typically come at a fantastic time in life. Who is having a good time and thinks, "You know what? I'm going to go be screened for severe mental illness!" No, it's usually when a person is unstable, at rock bottom, or their life is on-fire. In this episode, this open letter is meant to be shared with mentally ill people who reject their diagnosis by addressing...

There's a difficult struggle that we mentally ill people wrestle with. That is, how do you separate your authentic self from your mental illness? As someone with Bipolar Disorder, autism, and severe depression, it took me years to start seeing my authentic self in the shadows of the wreckage of my brain. In this episode, I'm going to walk you through the approach I took to better understand what w...

Guilt is a heavy load to carry for the mentally healthy. When you have a mental illness, that loads gets even heavier. Mental illness causes us to do things outside of our true character and nature. Sometimes, those things are terrible destructive, painful, or traumatic. Still, to carry on through life, we need to find a way to come to terms with that. In this episode, I share how I approach forgi...

An ability to make a good apology is a big part of building healthy relationships. As someone with Bipolar Disorder, I've had to make several in my life because of wrong actions, both well and when I was out of my mind. Furthermore, I discuss the importance of tact in communication, and trying to rebuild relationships with a later diagnosis in life. Don't forget to subscribe! https://www.bluntlybi...

Forgiveness is a far more complicated word than it appears to be. It covers so much territory, from forgiving some mundane wrong done against you to the process of coming to terms with traumatic experiences. That makes it quite difficult for someone trying to work through their anger to acceptance so they can heal. In this episode, I discuss how I approach this difficult matter in two situations....

Psych medication is a difficult subject for we mentally ill people. As a mental patient with a microphone, it's not my place to give recommendations on treatment or tell anyone what to do with their meds. However, there is a lot of connected information about treatment that I've learned over my past 16 years in treatment. That is what I am sharing with you here... Don't forget to subscribe! https:...

Have you ever been hopeless? Truly hopeless? The kind of hopeless where it feels like you're drowning in the darkness of a tomb buried six feet beneath the Marianas Trench? The kind of hopelessness that makes you want to end yourself when you see other suicide prevention efforts? I have, more than a few times because of my trauma, Bipolar Disorder, and severe depression. In this open letter, I hop...

Are you a good person? I'm not, and I could never see myself as being one. I'd look at people I viewed as good people, like Mr. Rogers and Steve Irwin, and just know my mind is too dark to ever be that light. Plus, due to my autism, I am what's called a low-empathy person, so a lot of advice about goodness and being a better person meant little to me. Like, the whole, "put yourself in their shoes!...

I know from personal experience that peace is the fertile soil in which happiness grows. To grow happiness, we need to create more peace within ourselves. In this episode, I am sharing with you these five tips that I wish I would have known on my first day of therapy to work on my own peace. 1. Get sober. I believe that there are few things more important for mental wellness and stability than get...

I've worked in digital marketing as a copywriter for over 18 years now, the first five of which I did a lot of shady and unethical work because of my mental state and low empathy. In the course of that work, I regularly helped questionable people sell happiness to unhappy people. The commercialization and commodification of happiness affects the way we perceive recovery from depression, trauma, an...

Should I be open about my mental illness? It's a more complicated question than you may realize, filled with hidden pitfalls and considerations you may not have made. Dennis Heil speaks bluntly about his choice to be open about his mental health journey, starting with his first active suicide attempt to the Bipolar depressive psychotic break that forced him to acknowledge how bad his mental health...

Hey. What's up, y'all? My name is Dennis Heil, and I am diagnosed with Type 2 Bipolar Disorder with severe depression, and High-Functioning Autism. I've been living with Bipolar Disorder for over 30 years, fifteen of which I spent undiagnosed. In 2009, I experienced a depressive psychotic break that led to my diagnosis of Type 2 Bipolar Disorder. I would be diagnosed with autism a few years later....