Dustberry (Not really sure what else to call this)

Just so You Know

*Note* This is going to be a mini-chapter talking about and explaining what my version of Blueberry has, along with what symptoms he might be expressing.

First of all, My version of Blueberry has Bipolar Depression. You will see and have been seeing this throughout the story. For those of You who might not know what this is, I will try to explain the main points in as simple terms as possible.

While not the exact same thing, Bipolar depression and Bipolar disorder are both similar and related. Some symptoms of Bipolar depression include:

•Manic episodes (extreme ups)

•Hypomanic episodes (more manageable ups)

•Depressive episodes (extreme lows)

•Psychotic symptoms

I will now give a few examples of things in manic episodes Blue has, might, or will be experiencing. These are not all morning of the symptoms for this, just the ones that I will be implementing. This goes for all the examples after these as well.

How he may feel:

•Extremely happy

•Uncontrollably exited

•Easily distracted/can't concentrate

•Confident and/or adventurous

•Like you can understand/hear things that others can't

How he may act:

•Extremely active

•Being very friendly

•Taking risks with safety

Hypomania is next. This is pretty similar to the last one, so I will just explain the main difference between the two. Unlike manic episodes, hypomanic episodes:

•May feel more manageable

•Lasts for a shorter amount of time

•Doesn't include psychotic symptoms

Onto the depressive episodes. Once again, this is not all the symptoms. These are only what I will be implementing into the story.

How he might feel:

•Upset or tearful

•Overly tired

•Lack of interest in things you used to enjoy

•Low self esteem and/or lacking in confidence

•Guilty, worthless or hopeless

•Tense

•Suicidal

How he might behave:

•Not doing things you usually enjoy

•Eating to little

•Sleeping too much

•Less active than usual

•Self-harm and/or suicidal thoughts and attempts

Now we will talk about Mixed episodes. This is when someone, Blueberry in our case, has a depressive episode and a manic or hypomanic episode at once or rapidly switches between them. This can make it/you:

•Harder to understand what you are feeling

•More challenging and exhausting to manage your emotions

•More likely to act on suicidal thoughts and feelings

Lastly, I would like to try my best to simply explain what psychotic symptoms are since this is very important to the story. The best examples of this are:

•Delusions, such as paranoia

•Hallucinations, such as hearing voices (Blue is a good example of this)

Please bear with me and don't yell at me if I got something wrong, as I am very new to this and still learning a lot. I would, however, he delighted to hear your thoughts and/or change something that I got wrong here. The whole idea for this chapter is to explain what Blue has and why he might be acting strange. I also thought that implementing something like this in a story may make people more aware of something largely left unseen and ignored. Happy reading!