NZDating is one of New Zealand’s most popular dating sites, and certainly the most fun. OK, that’s what their publicity says. As everyone who lives here knows, it’s actually New Zealand’s most popular hookup site – NZMating is how I heard one colleague refer to it fairly recently. Hilariously, the site owners and salespeople are … Continue reading »
Monthly Archives: April 2012
anxiety / bipolar / books / depression / mental illness / mindfulness / psychology
Unpredictable
As part of our everyday need to make sense of our lives and the world we live in, our brains love to create stories. We make links, some of them wildly erroneous and others completely plausible. When it comes to my experience of bipolar disorder, I find this sometimes-malfunctioning part of the brain to be … Continue reading »
Hugh Laurie’s depression
For millions, Hugh Laurie will only be known as the curmudgeonly doctor on the long-running US medical drama House, M.D. For me, along with his comedy partner Stephen Fry, he was a big part of my growing up, an incisive comic talent whose work I still turn to today whenever I want to pull myself … Continue reading »
anxiety / bipolar / books / depression / manic phases / media / medication / mental illness / self-stigma
Suicide pills
Managing a condition like bipolar disorder, which is associated with a high rate of suicide, requires a good support team as well as the right kind of medication. Scaremongering from conspiracy theorists and the bereaved to people like us who are already in a vulnerable state is not helping things. Continue reading »
bear / bipolar / books / depression / gay / gay bear / HIV/AIDS / homophobia / manic phases / psychology / religion / self-stigma / sex / wellbeing
Is sex addiction real?
Sex is one of the great things about being human, let alone being a man. Our desires and libidos change over time, and with mood shifts. If I’m sliding more towards the ‘up’ end of the bipolar scale, I may feel like having more sex. If I’m not endangering myself or others, is there anything wrong with that? Continue reading »
anxiety / bear / books / depression / gay / gay bear / self-stigma
Pick up the goddamn phone
Last March, I wrote about the National Day of Unplugging, an initiative from the US that encouraged people to turn off their devices so they can “try to interact more with friends and family–without the aid of texting or social networks.” I was scathing of it, because I saw it as yet another attack on … Continue reading »
alcohol / bear / discrimination / gay / homophobia / mental illness / violence
An ironic gay hate crime
It’s worth remembering that Taavel was an unlucky victim of circumstance. Violent crime is still statistically rare, and we should not let a single event – no matter how horrific – colour the way we see the world and how we move within it. It’s not what he would have wanted. Continue reading »
anxiety / bipolar / depression / feminism / manic phases / mindfulness / retro / wellbeing
Rural nana in weaving sheep farm shock
Welcome this week, as we travel back in NZWW time, to the wonderful world of weaving. It’s a two-page feature article that goes into quite technical detail about how our erstwhile subject Mrs Nan Gaze makes scarves and – judging from the photographs taken – piles of patterned cloth, with dyes out of old leaves … Continue reading »
discrimination / gay / homophobia / media / politics / psychology / religion / self-stigma
Ex-gay? Still no way
Despite ongoing blows to their credibility, perhaps the most definitive of which was back in the early 80s when the two male founders of Exodus International – still the world’s largest ex-gay movement – divorced their wives and married each other, the fundies keep on keeping on with their “you can change” mantra. Continue reading »
Bipolar shopping: screwed from both ends
Shopping sprees are a well-known symptom of mania. I’ve heard stories about guys who’ve gone to their local ATM, drawn out wads of cash and started handing it out willy-nilly to strangers in the street with gay abandon. A friend told me of another guy who ordered three grand pianos to be delivered to his … Continue reading »
