Mad Like Me: Book club Q&A—Part 1
Recently, some folks from a book club in the US contacted me after they’d read and discussed my 2018 memoir, Mad Like Me: Travels in...
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Merryl Hammond
- Mar 30
- 1 min
Happy World Bipolar Day!
Every year on March 30th, it’s World Bipolar Day. A special day for us all to pause and reflect on this confounding disorder and how it...
Merryl Hammond
- Mar 4
- 3 min
“Navigating Bipolar Country”: my new bipolar anthology!
Just released! I’m so excited! After two-and-a-half years collaborating with an amazing group of 42 contributors, this powerful new...
Merryl Hammond
- Dec 7, 2021
- 4 min
Managing holiday stress
Ho, ho, ho! Happy Hanukkah! Et cetera, et cetera. The holidays are here again! But you obviously didn’t need me to tell you that, did...
Merryl Hammond
- Nov 19, 2021
- 2 min
Quick updates from Bipolar Country
Missing in action Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that I’ve been silent—MIA, actually—for many months recently. “Where has...
Merryl Hammond
- May 12, 2021
- 3 min
Has the pandemic affected your mental health?
My own experience during the pandemic I don’t know about you, but when the pandemic hit here in Canada in March 2020, a cold chill went...
Merryl Hammond
- Apr 23, 2021
- 4 min
Write it out!
Writing as therapy Writing about (hypo)mania In my memoir, Mad Like Me: Travels in Bipolar Country, I say: “Bipolar made me feel like a...
Merryl Hammond
- Dec 31, 2020
- 2 min
New Year’s resolution: get some sleep!
People like me who have a mental illness need to take control of our own lifestyles and self-care, in addition to taking our prescribed...
Merryl Hammond
- Dec 21, 2020
- 3 min
COVID-19 and Suicide: New Report
The holidays can be a particularly stressful time for many, and that's in "normal" years. This year, with the added strain from COVID-19...
Merryl Hammond
- Dec 9, 2020
- 2 min
COVID-19 and mental illness: any evidence of a link?
In a previous blog post, I argued that a mental illness should be considered to be an “underlying condition” that puts us at much higher...
Merryl Hammond
- Dec 2, 2020
- 2 min
Protecting our mental health in the COVID-19 era
Something that’s been on my mind a lot since the pandemic started is this: how will the stress of COVID-19, physical distancing and...
Merryl Hammond
- Sep 11, 2020
- 2 min
Mental illness is an “underlying condition” that makes us at-risk during the pandemic
One of my main concerns in doing the research for my e-book, COVID-19 in Bipolar Country, was that none of the researchers were making...
Merryl Hammond
- Jul 24, 2020
- 1 min
Just published an e-book about bipolar and COVID-19!
In an earlier post, I discussed 4 key tips for coping with COVID-19, and then in my last post, I wrote about COVID-19 and the mental...
Merryl Hammond
- May 17, 2020
- 2 min
COVID-19 and the mental health of health care workers
My previous post on March 24, Coping with COVID-19, mentioned four strategies I use to “stay sane in self-isolation.” Apart from my...
Merryl Hammond
- Mar 24, 2020
- 4 min
Coping with COVID-19
Have you been feeling way more stressed out than usual, like you’re teetering on the edge of a breakdown with all the uncertainty around...
Merryl Hammond
- Dec 12, 2019
- 4 min
How to Implement a Routine for Stability
In a previous post, I talked about WHY daily routines are so crucial to maintain mental stability. To recap quickly, it’s because...
Merryl Hammond
- Oct 11, 2019
- 3 min
The Benefits of Smiling: Why you should find one (or 100) reason(s) to smile every day!
Humans are a naturally smiley species. We appear to begin smiling even while we’re still in the womb. There are so many emotional and...
Merryl Hammond
- Sep 21, 2019
- 4 min
Use a Routine to Recover from Bipolar
In my previous post, I explain how my type-A personality contributed to the development of my bipolar disorder, and – ironically – to my...
Merryl Hammond
- Aug 29, 2019
- 3 min
Did My Personality Type Cause My Bipolar?
One of my several bookcases of binders I used to pride myself on my total type-A personality. Over-achiever, control freak, wannabe...
Merryl Hammond
- Jul 10, 2019
- 4 min
“Most productive week of my life”: A Self-Guided, At-Home Writer’s Retreat
A version of this article first appeared on the Nonfiction Authors Association’s blog on May 23 2019. Beyond my budget! Problem: As a...