Julie A. Fast > Quotes

“It turns out that up to 35 percent of people with bipolar disorder also have ADHD.”
― Julie A. Fast, Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner

“When you think of your options—getting things done versus quitting jobs, rarely finishing projects, always feeling guilty and sad, and in general not believing in your own abilities—the choice is clear. You want to get things done.”
― Julie A. Fast, Get It Done When You're Depressed: 50 Strategies for Keeping Your Life on Track

“Normal people think about one or two things at once- they don't have twenty thoughts whirring around like a brain in a blender.”
― Julie A. Fast, Bipolar Happens! 35 Tips and Tricks to Manage Bipolar Disorder

“Triggers are situations, events, or behaviors that lead to predictable bipolar disorder symptoms. Once you both learn to discover, reduce, and eliminate these triggers, many of your partner’s bipolar disorder symptoms can be prevented or significantly minimized.”
― Julie A. Fast, Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner

“But you can do it. You just have to turn off your mind and turn on your body. You might not feel like you have the ability to do what needs to be done, but you can’t know this until you try. This is why you need to just do it … anyway.”
― Julie A. Fast, Getting It Done When You're Depressed: 50 Strategies for Keeping Your Life on Track

“The more you listen to what you say and realize what you do when you’re depressed, the easier it will be for you to look around and become a positive and productive part of the world again, even when you’re depressed.”
― Julie A. Fast, Getting It Done When You're Depressed: 50 Strategies for Keeping Your Life on Track

“It’s about awareness, communication, and being nice to yourself no matter what bipolar disorder does to your life.”
― Julie A. Fast, Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder: A 4-Step Plan for You and Your Loved Ones to Manage the Illness and Create Lasting Stability

“You can never talk to, cajole, or reason with someone who is in a bipolar disorder mood swing. The person you love is temporarily gone and bipolar disorder has moved in. This book will teach you to respond to bipolar disorder when your partner is ill instead of trying to talk your partner out of being ill.”
― Julie A. Fast, Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner

“When your partner is ill, their beliefs about themselves and the world are often distorted. If you try to talk with them about your relationship, work, or life in general, you often talk to the bipolar disorder instead of to the person you love.”
― Julie A. Fast, Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner

“Bipolar disorder thinking is always unreasonable and unrealistic. Always. There are no exceptions. So if your normally reasonable partner is being unreasonable, you know that you are dealing with bipolar disorder and not with a personality flaw.”
― Julie A. Fast, Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner

“do what I know I need to do. Please know that depression takes away my desire. It takes away what we call “motivation,” and it takes away my ability to even see a reason for moving forward. This is what stops me from working. It’s not laziness. It’s not lack of desire to move forward. It’s an inability to get my body to take action when my brain tells me it is pointless to try anything. I need your help reminding me that I don’t have to want to do something in order to get something done. You can ask me this: “Are you having one of those days where you’re just hoping and waiting for motivation to show up but it won’t?” If I say “yes,” I then give you permission to remind me that I can choose a project and simply move forward, even when it’s painful. You can remind me of this until the project is done. I promise to listen.”
― Julie A. Fast, Getting It Done When You're Depressed: 50 Strategies for Keeping Your Life on Track

“people”
― Julie A. Fast, Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder: A 4-Step Plan for You and Your Loved Ones to Manage the Illness and Create Lasting Stability

“It may be hard for you to understand, but many people with bipolar disorder become ill when they are obligated to do something on a schedule.”
― Julie A. Fast, Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner

“A Note About Hunger It is almost impossible to describe the hunger caused by many bipolar disorder drugs. It is virtually insatiable—just as thirst can be insatiable with lithium. There are few things you can do about it. Weight gain is often inevitable, even when you eat less and exercise more. This is because some medications appear to change metabolic rates—how fast your body burns calories. Reducing caloric intake helps, but for some people it’s often not a very successful option, especially with antipsychotic drugs and mood stabilizers such as Tegretol and Depakote. It is not abnormal for someone to gain fifty pounds on these drugs. Then there are some who do not gain weight at all and simply stop eating. It is a very complicated issue. The important thing is to not blame yourself. If”
― Julie A. Fast, Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder: A 4-Step Plan for You and Your Loved Ones to Manage the Illness and Create Lasting Stability

“Arguments are very stimulating and trigger many bipolar disorder symptoms, from anxiety and panic attacks to violent behavior and suicidal thoughts. You can be the one to learn new tools to stop the arguments completely.”
― Julie A. Fast, Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner