The Gemara Story

מיכאל שניצלער - אין א קליין געסעלע

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Jewish Quote of the Day: Children and Marriage

Jewish Quote of the Day: Children and Marriage: inspiring, memorable quotations

5 Habits of Highly Successful Individuals Who Also Have Bipolar Disorder

Also Have Bipolar 

According to research, bipolar or cyclothymia patients who experience the most positive change once treated take the following steps.

1. They take a proactive approach to their healthcare, researching their issues, keeping notes and articles together in a notebook or a laptop, writing down their questions and feelings. They chronicle their treatment experience, documenting their reactions to medications, the cycles of their moods and possible triggers for high or low periods. They note each medication, the dosage and when they take it. By making this step, they become the expert in their own care, partnering with their doctor. The days when a doctor would take offense at this approach is over. Patients must be proactive to achieve the best results.

2. They’ve educated themselves not only on their particular mood disorders, but on the variety of medications used to treat them, and the other therapies and lifestyle approaches they need to make their treatment most effective. Because they’ve researched in books, through friends and on the internet, they’re not surprised when medications take 3-6 weeks to be effective. They’re not surprised when the talk therapy causes more stress than relief at first. They know that the short-term frustrations turn into long term progress and relief.

3. They utilize the several treatment approaches and take lifestyle changes seriously. They’ve realized that not everything is solved with a pill. Medication can be more effective when talk therapy helps individuals relax and acquire coping skills that lower the cortisol levels (stress hormones) in their brains. Medication is more effective when, through talk therapy, individual derive a sense of support and relief after discussing problematic past events or even current struggles in their lives. Talk therapy can be more effective when medication supports the mood enough to help the patient discuss issues clearly. Talk therapy can be more effective when high moods are moderated sufficiently enough for the individual to keep appointments and discuss issues in a reasonable way. Support groups help individuals encourage newcomers to stay on their medication and keep their therapy appointments. They lift moods and help individuals feel less alone. Successful Bipolar Therapy patients work three approaches to support and moderate their moods.

4. They take other medical issues seriously. A body in optimal shape responds to both medication and talk therapy most effectively. A patient who has educated him or herself (see step #1) knows that many physical issues and changes can effect brain chemistry. Menopause, aging, sleep disorders and the use of medications for other medical issues can all interfere with medications prescribed to treat mood disorders. Those who take their recovery seriously, examine their body and medical issues thoroughly.

5. They refrain from using alcohol or narcotics to treat their symptoms: So many in America find alcohol and illegal drug use the easiest way to quell sad or extreme feelings. Both are relatively easy to get and seem to solve short term problems. But the long-term problems they create are among the worst that life delivers. They are inefficient ways to feel better and can actually exacerbate bi-polar disorder.

Now, let’s hear your success stories. What helped you either control your symptoms or come to terms with your diagnosis? Was it a strategy? A medication? A support group? A new habit? Research can only tell us so much. The best information comes from individual voices like yours. 

Jewish Quote of the Day: The Miracle Of Repentance

Jewish Quote of the Day: The Miracle Of Repentance: inspiring, memorable quotations

Very Powerful Words That Help Forgive Our Misdeeds When Uttered.

Psalms 25:18

"Behold My Affliction and my Toil, and Forgive all my Sins."

Helpful Tips From An Orthodox Jewish Perspective.

Unlike almost any other illness, my best friend’s condition is one that affords the patient opportunities to understand themself in ways that are more in depth than the way most other people understand themselves.  Granted that those who choose not to help themselves live in the dark world of delusions of grandeur or self-affliction, however the fortunate ones among them who seek therapy, in addition to seeing a psychiatrist regularly, are very often the beneficiaries of loving care that includes an opportunity to regular introspection. 

Invariably, the individuals with a high level of success in achieving emotional and mental health are the very same souls that are surrounded by loving friends and family who propel them toward the positive results that, after great effort, they enjoy.  Less than twenty years ago the bi-polar disorder, otherwise known as manic-depressive disorder, was an illness that few in the general public understood well.  Today, there are many in our own communities who have this emotionally painful diagnosis and increasingly so, the people in their inner circle have a plethora of useful research to glean from in order to help them understand the illness and the one afflicted with it.

Either the patient is too depressed and disinterested to participate in life’s every day activities or he/she is on a mental rollercoaster trip known as mania or being high.  When bi-polar patients are high; a euphoric emotion, and experiencing uncontrollable rapid thoughts, it is practically impossible to explain to them that they are not well.  The pleasure that they experience during this state of elation is intoxicating and they will do anything to remain on that pleasurable “high.”  By the time the afflicted individual “crashes,” which is when he/she falls from the artificial high to a devastating depressing low, they often face highly embarrassing repercussions such as irresponsible spending sprees, destroyed relationships and verbal exchanges that are deeply humiliating.  This cycle of high and low can, Heaven forbid repeat itself throughout the entire life of a troubled soul who has not been properly diagnosed or treated.  When depression, which is the flip side of the condition sets in the individual can regress to the point of being suicidal.  Intervention by the patient’s loved ones is usually crucial in any successful attempt at healing the person in severe agony. 

Many successful, famous people, including Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln were afflicted with manic-depressive disorder.  They achieved great things for mankind by battling this emotionally debilitating illness.  There is, however, an important caveat in order to realize long-term wellness.  The patient must experience what true “normalcy” feels like.  It is not uncommon for a bi-polar patient to spend a decade or more bouncing back and forth from depression to mania.  He or she must attain a taste for the flavor of sane life.  Not a crazed or inflated perception of reality, neither a bleak, sad or hopeless outlook on everyday life. 

Once a bi-polar individual can refer back to a prior time, either before or after he/she was diagnosed, when they were not plagued by irrational thoughts and they maintained a relatively healthy relationship with their family, friends and employers, then they have a solid and pleasant reference point to aspire to.  In the lingo of psychiatry that point is called equilibrium.  It is a state of mind that healthy people obviously take for granted just as all people rarely stop midday to thank Hashem for their eyesight.  Equilibrium means being the person one was meant to be.  To be emotionally and mentally equipped to speak, listen and most of all think with the clarity of mind that Hashem originally granted them.  In our community there are many in responsible positions who are at the top of their profession by taking the medication that their complex brains need and by speaking to a competent professional regularly. 

The irony of th The irony of this illness is that it is one of the few mental afflictions that can be treated so effectively yet at the very same time its patients, oft times violently, reject any help.  For my friend, like for so many others who are bipolar, the choice to seek help only came after recurring episodes of shame that made acquiescing to treatment very appealing.  One story that comes to mind is when his rosh yeshivah was delivering a lecture to the more than one hundred students of his yeshivah.  Suddenly, my friend, who was in the midst of a manic episode, interrupted the speech with inappropriate remarks and questions, an outburst that only a few days later, once the mania had passed, caused him to cower in shame.  He would actually lie in bed in a fetal position just from the deep regret that he felt at having embarrassed himself in public in front of so many of his peers. 

Those of us who do know someone who is bipolar have an opportunity to remind them that many months of trial and error with medication and hundreds of hours of therapy are all worth the effort and are a small price to pay since once they are at the point of equanimity they will eventually literally forget that they have this condition short of the minute a day it takes them to be compliant with their medication regimen.  As for therapy, my friend speaks to one of the many available Torah oriented therapists and by now his sessions have become ones that he eagerly looks forward to.  His therapist went from helping my friend piece his shattered life back together to now serving in many respects as a life coach.  Thanks to a loving network of support and Divine Providence, my friend is happily married and gainfully employed.  He now perceives himself as a giver, who not only provides the less fortunate with mere gifts of materialism, but more importantly he generously shares his contagious smile and witty sense of humor that lightens up the day of many a recipient.

Today, after great struggle and sacrifice my friend defines his ultimate success as being viewed by all as a “normal” individual.  By all accounts, there are, boruch Hashem, absolutely no telltale signs of his illness.  In fact that is the case with a great number of those who are treated effectively.  He will always share with me that he is humbled by the fact that his everyday interactions with humanity are not hindered by his illness in any way.  There is nothing glorious about being smitten with this challenging mental disorder, but those who bravely overcome it have cleared a steep summit.  My friend is one of the blessed who has braved the turbulent storms of an unquiet mind.  His newfound serenity is what he celebrates most by getting high on life.

High On Equilibrium. The Article.

High on Equilibrium

One fine spring day, about ten years ago, I boarded a Greyhound bus and traveled south for two days, heading to Florida. I had an appointment to meet up with the New York Yankees at their spring training camp in Fort Lauderdale, where I would sign a multimillion-dollar contract as their new star pitcher.

Turns out, the Yankees had moved their spring training camp years earlier from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa, some 200 miles away. At any rate, I missed the stop for Fort Lauderdale, so I got off at a different stop and decided to walk to Miami, where a friend of mine lived.

I walked for five days straight, covering some 125 miles of highway. Finally, someone picked me up and drove me the last 30 miles to my friend Nosson in North Miami Beach.

When I showed up at Nosson’s doorstep, unannounced, he called my mother and told her that I had arrived. She was quite relieved to hear this, since she didn’t know that I was becoming the Yankees’ new star pitcher, and she was frantic that I had gone missing. Silly.

My mother told Nosson that I wasn’t well and I needed to be on medication. He took me to the hospital and got me some meds, but as soon as we got back to his house, I flushed the pills down the toilet. I should be on meds? Wait till he’d see me in the All-Star Game!

Somehow, Nosson figured out that I wasn’t taking the meds, and he showed me to the door and said, “Until you’re on meds, you can’t stay in my house.” He drove me to the airport and put me on a plane back home. Some friend.

When I landed, I rented a car and drove to a hotel. I had important business there, but the people at the desk called the police on me, and a cop showed up and wanted to arrest me for trespassing. “Stay out of my way,” I said brusquely. “I’m in middle of filming a movie.”
The cop rudely ignored me. “Give me a number of a family member,” he demanded.
I gave him my mother’s number, and he called her. “Don’t hurt my son,” she begged. “He’s manic depressive.”
The star pitcher turned movie producer was strapped unceremoniously into an ambulance and taken to the hospital, where he was forced to take his medicine. And he lived happily ever after.
***
For 16 years prior to my hospitalization, I had been suffering from bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic depression. My first major episode happened when I was 21. I was working for my uncle, who had a wholesale plastics business, and one of his suppliers was putting tremendous pressure on me to pay up the money we owed him. In response to the pressure, I would occasionally hold my breath for a minute at a time, which gave me a feeling of control.
Maybe it was the oxygen deprivation that did it, or maybe it was the stress, but I suddenly realized that all the bad things that were happening in America and Israel at the time – it was the time of the second intifada – were because of my sins. Unable to live with this guilt, I attempted suicide.
My parents took me to a psychiatrist, who prescribed lithium, but did not offer any diagnosis. Not knowing what was wrong with me, I thought I could get better without the medication, and I stayed home and relaxed for a few weeks, until I got back to myself.
I thought that episode was a weird one-time thing that happened to me, so I put it out of my mind and continued going about my life. A couple of years later, I started dating, and shortly afterward, I got engaged.
Several months after my wedding, I told my wife that I was going to be running for Congress, and I hung a huge map of our electoral district on the living room wall so that I could plan my campaign strategy. Embarrassed of the oversized map in our living room, my wife told visitors that I was studying politics.
My career in politics came to abrupt end when I realized that I was responsible for every problem in the district, the country, and the world, from rush hour traffic to malnutrition in Africa. Again I tried to hurt myself, and again my parents took me to the psychiatrist, who again prescribed lithium and again did not give a diagnosis.
It was a cousin of mine who actually clued me in. After hearing that my run for Congress had been aborted, he looked me in the eye and said, “Yitz, you’re manic depressive.”
 “Huh?” I asked. I had never heard those words before.
I walked into the local public library and picked up a book about manic depression. I felt as though I was reading my own biography. Now, I understood why, when I was in my late teens, I had done wacky things like training to be a pilot and volunteering for the local police force. I was experiencing hypomania, a less severe form of mania, which often develops into full-blown mania.
After that, I went back to the psychiatrist and said, “I’m manic depressive, right?”
He nodded.
“And you never bothered diagnosing me,” I said. “Well, sayonara.”
My wife and her parents were furious when they found out about the diagnosis, and even more furious that I had tricked them into the marriage by not telling them about my previous episode two years earlier. “I didn’t know what it was!” I protested. “I didn’t know there was anything to tell!” 
My in-laws urged my wife to get divorced, but she insisted that she did not want to end the marriage. I began seeing a different psychiatrist, who wrote me out another prescription.
This time, I filled the prescription and took the medication. For the next few years, I was did not have any symptoms of mania or depression. During that time, we had two children, I managed to hold down a job, and everyone was very proud of us.
I was not happy on the medication, however. It made me sleepy and lethargic, and caused me to gain 50 pounds. Hoping to get the creative juices flowing in my veins again, I started playing around with the dosage, taking a little less than the doctor had prescribed, and missing doses here and there.
Cutting back on the medication sure did give me a kick. Around that time, I was involved in organizing a Shabbaton that featured a famous kiruv personality who had influenced thousands of people to become baalei teshuvah. I was convinced that he was going to be Mashiach, and that I was going to be his right-hand man.
The Shabbaton was overbooked, and loads of guests were disgruntled, or worse. This logistical failure was in no way my fault – I had nothing to do with reservations – but I was convinced that my sins were the underlying cause of the fiasco. Mashiach’s right-hand man had let him down. That was enough to blow up anyone’s brain, and certainly mine.
How could I have thought of myself as such a holy person, when really I was so evil? Why did I believe that I was going to be instrumental in bringing the geulah, when really I was the one who was preventing the geulah from happening?
I collapsed into bed, curling up into a fetal position and shaking in fear. At that point, I had been off my medications for a week, and I was completely delusional, believing that I was a reincarnation of some of the most horrible people in history, and feeling afraid of my own shadow.
My wife decided then that she’d had enough. The marriage was over.
The ensuing years were filled with manic highs followed by major lows. When I was manic, I would seek ways to be famous and save the world or cure society’s ills. When I was depressed, I would review my entire life history and obsess over the mistakes that I made, believing that I was the worst person ever born. I was like a yoyo, either super happy or super sad. Not everyone with bipolar has such extreme mood swings, but I was a poster boy for the disorder.
Once, a close friend in Eretz Yisrael sent me an invitation to his son’s bar mitzvah. I called him to wish him mazel tov, and told him I couldn’t come because I couldn’t afford a ticket.
The week of the bar mitzvah, I decided, on the spur of the moment, to get on a plane and surprise my friend. Shabbos morning, I sat down on a bench near his house, and when I saw him emerge from his house, I yelled, “Mazel tov!”
He jumped. “Yitz, you’re crazy!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
That incident was relatively benign. But then there was the time when the rav of my shul was giving a Daf Yomi shiur, and I disagreed with his understanding of the sugya. I jumped to my feet and called out, “You don’t know what you’re talking about! I’ll tell you what’s pshat.”
I then went on to deliver what I thought was a brilliant pilpul, in front of the stunned rav and shiur attendees, until one of them finally dragged me out of the room.
Several days later, when the mania had passed, I felt the way Achashverosh must have felt after beheading Vashti. For days, I huddled in my bed, cowering in shame and remorse. I asked the rav to for mechilah, and he said he forgave me, but I could never forgive myself.
Still, the temptation to tamper with the medication dosages was irresistible. I hated the sluggish feeling of being medicated, and I craved the feeling of being Superman, so I didn’t always take my pills the way I was supposed to.
It was only after my ill-fated trip to Florida and my subsequent hospitalization that I resolved never to tamper with the medical regimen again. When I was in the psychiatric ward, several of my relatives and friends came to visit me, and the humiliation was overwhelming. Plus, the doctors refused to tell me when I’d be released. The feeling of being incarcerated in a hospital with no specified end date was so scary that I told myself I was never, ever coming back to this horrible place. I would take whatever medicines they gave me, just to earn my freedom and maintain it.
The dosage they gave me in the hospital was very high, however, and once again I felt sleepy and sluggish on the medication. I wanted to reduce the dosage, but I wasn’t going to take a chance at having another episode, so this time, I did it in a controlled way, gradually and with medical supervision.
After several months of fine-tuning, we got the dose exactly right – enough to prevent symptoms of mania or depression, but not enough to cause unpleasant side effects. For the first time, I had reached what’s known in psychiatric lingo as equilibrium. In layman’s terms, it’s called being normal.
The upside of bipolar is that it is extremely responsive to medication, and once you reach a point of equilibrium, you can literally forget that you have the condition, short of the one minute a day when you’re taking your pills. But medication, I discovered, was only half the cure.
In the short two decades since I was first diagnosed with bipolar, there has been a sea change in the way the disorder is treated. Until very recently, psychiatrists would simply write you out a prescription and tell you go to home and take your pills. Today, however, people with bipolar cannot receive psychiatric treatment unless they are committed to seeing a therapist concomitantly.
Even with a condition that is as medically treatable as bipolar, therapy is fifty percent of the recovery. It took me a long time to discover that, though, because back when I had my first episodes, no one even suggested that I see someone. Over the years, I did see a few different therapists, but I never really connected with any of them, and because I didn’t understand how critical therapy was, I didn’t pursue the process in a serious way.
I had to get divorced, and go through a major episode that ended in a hospitalization, before I found myself a good therapist and committed to making therapy an immutable part of my life, along with taking my daily meds.
With this combination in place, I was able to find gainful employment, and eventually to get married again. From day one, my wife accompanied me to my weekly therapy appointment, which gave us a forum for discussing any issues that arose. Neither of us needed to complain about the other to our parents, friends, siblings, or coworkers, because we had our designated time and place for working out any concerns or grievances, under the guidance of a skilled, compassionate professional.
When we got married, my wife didn’t think bipolar was a big deal. Seven years later, she still thinks it’s no big deal. I haven’t had an episode in close to a decade, and with Hashem’s help, I hope never to have one again.
Many years ago, when I was swinging back and forth between feeling grandiose and feeling worthless, my rebbi told me, “Yitz, you need to tell yourself that you’re not better than anyone, and you’re not worse than anyone.” Now that I’m at equilibrium, I actually believe that.
After experiencing the euphoria of manic highs, it takes time to develop a taste for the flavor of normalcy and equilibrium. At first, equilibrium seems, well, boring. You’ll never be the Yankees’ star pitcher or Mashiach’s deputy, nor do you have the energy of Superman.
But the beauty of equilibrium is that it allows you to be you. You don’t have to be someone famous or save the world in order to enjoy your life. You can just savor the blessing of sanity and the healthy relationships it fosters.  
If you’d meet me today, you’d never dream that I suffer from any mental illness. I may never pitch an All-Star Game or deliver a dazzling pilpul, but today I can say that I’ve found serenity after braving the turbulent storms of an unquiet mind. I’m no longer manic, I’m just high on equilibrium.

Read More on The Bipolar Disorder Under Control & Churchill's Victory Over Tyranny....................................................................................................... Comments are more than Welcome and greatly anticipated, even if we are inundated.

Welcome to our blog, where we try to help those struggling, or are close to someone who is, with the Bipolar Disorder a.k.a. Manic Depression.  The condition is understood today by professionals and laymen far better than when I personally was diagnosed in 1995.

The purpose of this blog, with G-d's Help, is to bring relief and optimism into the hearts of those who are suffering from being Bipolar or are involved in helping those who are.  Parents, children, siblings, friends and family of those who are afflicted can also lean on another's shoulder and derive much encouragement and hope.  Countless Americans have conquered this illness by harnessing its great energy and creativity into a productive life.

Please read the articles at the top of our blog that profile the experiences of famous and important leaders who successfully struggled with Bipolar Disorder and may you derive much encouragement from their inspiring stories in overcoming the debilitating symptoms.  Churchill, in particular is an extreme example of a strong man who fought this illness without meds or therapy.  So today, when we have a plethora of help available to those trying to achieve equilibrium, it is ever so more incumbent for everyone to seek help for themselves or those close to them.

We welcome all comments and questions from our visitors and hope that G-d will bless this endeavor by healing many others who are yet at the point of feeling whole again.

Winston Churchill And Mental Illness

Robert Ye

This essay won 3rd Place in our 2015 Essay Contest and was written by Robert Ye, a high school student in Chappaqua, New York, USA. 

Widely regarded as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, Winston Churchill is believed to have suffered from bipolar disorder. After observing numerous symptoms such as depression, suicidal intention, mania, and a decreased need for sleep, Churchill's doctor, Lord Moran, recounted in his memoir Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, that he had diagnosed a middle-aged Churchill with bipolar disorder. Churchill often referred to his periods of intense and prolonged depression as his "black dog." During these fits of lengthened, manic-depression, Churchill exhibited little energy, few interests, losses of appetite, and trouble concentrating, according to his wife Clementine. On the other side of the spectrum, when his "black dog" had become docile, Churchill exhibited abnormally high levels of energy and restlessness, often beginning to work at 8 am and ending work at around 2 am. Unfortunately, these times of abnormal productivity receded as his "black dog" returned after just a few months of absence. Churchill, despite the difficulties brought by his crippling depression, disregarded his affliction and fulfilled a life of purpose and achievement. 

Churchill accepted his mental condition and helped to benefit the lives of many people. In 1911, Churchill pushed through periods of depression and began to prepare Great Britain for war. He established the Royal Naval Air Service after noting Germany's growing bellicose nature, anticipating an imminent conflict (World War I). Churchill's depression is believed to have increased his realism and empathy, helping him assess the true dangers that were otherwise overlooked by his colleagues. Similarly during World War II, Churchill's heightened skepticism allowed him to realistically evaluate the ever-growing German threat. In World War II, Churchill kept his "black dog on a leash" and kept British spirits high. Regularly delivering rallying speeches to Parliament and British citizens, Churchill soon became an iconic leader of the war effort against the Axis powers. Churchill's foresight and inspirational influences undoubtedly saved the lives of many people and may have even changed the courses of both World War I and World War II. Churchill inadvertently benefited from his depressive episodes and, his manic episodes. Granted with a rare surge of energy, activity, and restlessness, Churchill published 43 books while upholding his duties as acting Prime Minister. The acme of Churchill's career as a writer was his acceptance of the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature, which honored a number of his published works. 

Churchill's unbelievable accomplishments are proof that, despite being challenged with bipolar disorder, individuals in today's society can still achieve great things. Churchill's adamant nature towards his depression and advantageous use of his mania can motivate individuals and show that it is possible to overcome impairments and pursue excellence. Churchill's hardheadedness to his disorder benefited the Allied Powers in World War I, the Allies during World War II, and his literary endeavors. Just like Buzz Aldrin, Theodore Roosevelt, Ted Turner, and many other historic figures who suffered from bipolar disorder, Winston Churchill overcame his manic-depressive illness and lived a life of fulfillment.