{"id":667,"date":"2010-12-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html"},"modified":"2011-08-13T10:42:26","modified_gmt":"2011-08-13T14:42:26","slug":"video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html","title":{"rendered":"Video: The 12 (Bipolar) Days of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s that time of year again!!! Ready to hear it again???<\/em><\/p>\n

DISCLAIMER: I am no Barbara Streisand. I’ve never taken a singing lesson in my life. Not one.The inspiration for this song came two weeks before Thanksgiving when I received a call from my doctor: we had better get together a plan for lowering my cholesterol. <\/p>\n

Yeah. <\/p>\n

Sure. <\/p>\n

Getting to it … right after I fix my pituitary tumor, abnormal aortic valve, bipolar brain, and facial fungus.My high cholesterol is not a new issue. Somewhere around the time David was conceived I found out that my cholesterol scores were higher than my verbal SATs. But for the last six years I didn’t do anything about it because (honest confession coming up here) many of those days I was so depressed that I really wanted to be with God in his mansion upstairs. Dropping dead of a heart attack sounded like a great alternative to suicide. It’s easier, cheaper, much more socially acceptable, and involved stuffing myself with brie cheese and Eggs Florentine. Sign me up.<\/p>\n

Then something inconvenient happened. As I gradually began to fix all my broken parts (pituitary tumor, bipolar brain, facial fungus, abnormal heart) I started to wake up excited. <\/p>\n

About life. <\/p>\n

I wanted to try and stick around for David’s high school graduation and Katherine’s Little Mermaid wedding and maybe, just maybe, for the birth of grandchildren.<\/p>\n

As a jogged around the Naval Academy the morning I got my SAT scores, I mean cholesterol count, I reflected on all the parts of my mental-health program–prayer, therapy, fish oil, medication, family support, sobriety, vitamins, yoga (even though I hate it), guardian angels–and it sounded like the lyrics to a song, “The 12 Days of Christmas” or something.<\/p>\n

Yes, “The 12 Days of Christmas”! <\/p>\n

With sweat dripping down my face, I pulled out a sheet of paper from my pocket and a pen (I run with those in case something like this happens) and madly scribbled down the words as if I were Moses taking down the Ten Commandments. <\/p>\n

So, pretend that I have just invited you into my home, poured you a glass of Merlot (if you’re not a recovering alcoholic), and made you endure a live version of “American Idiot.” <\/p>\n

With a holiday twist.<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

* Click here to subscribe to Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a> and click here to follow Therese on Twitter<\/b><\/a> and click here to join Group Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a>, a depression support group. Now stop clicking.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holiday depression advice takes a creative turn for the worst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video-posts"],"yoast_head":"\nVideo: The 12 (Bipolar) Days of Christmas - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Video: The 12 (Bipolar) Days of Christmas - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Holiday depression advice takes a creative turn for the worst.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-15T10:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-13T14:42:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Video: The 12 (Bipolar) Days of Christmas - Beyond Blue","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Video: The 12 (Bipolar) Days of Christmas - Beyond Blue","og_description":"Holiday depression advice takes a creative turn for the worst.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Blue","article_published_time":"2010-12-15T10:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-13T14:42:26+00:00","author":"Beyond Blue","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html","name":"Video: The 12 (Bipolar) Days of Christmas - Beyond Blue","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-12-15T10:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-13T14:42:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/12\/video-the-12-bipolar-days-of-c.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Video: The 12 (Bipolar) Days of Christmas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/","name":"Beyond Blue","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Therese J. 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