Animals as therapy
I've worked with animals most of my life: owned an animal supply 
business, trained horses and dogs, shown horses and dogs, worked as a groomer, galloped racehorses on the track, and managed a large department of exotic birds and reptiles. Suffice it to say, animals have ALWAYS been a major focus in my life, and so it is with some degree of confidence that I can say that the biggest and most oft-cited problem people have when it comes to their animals is incompatibility.
As a free service to those who visit this site, and in the interest of seeing that as many bipolars as possible have a critter doc of their own, I'm offering advice on pet selection, care, health and training to any who wish it. Don't make the mistake of getting an unsuitable pet and having a lousy experience. Go ahead, all ya gotta do is just email me with a question (or questions), or go to this form submission page and type in your questions and I'll get right back to ya with an answer as soon as possible. Disclaimer: I'm not a veterinarian and I don't pretend to be, but I dearly love beating them out of a buck when so many of them grossly
overcharge for unnecessary and/or bare-bones routine stuff anyone can do.
Fractal--(who thinks it's time for nurse practitioners in veterinarian medicine.)
Nature as therapy
ample evidence for the claim that nature has a restorative effect upon troubled minds. Troubled inner city teens placed in nature to camp and learn certain simple survival skills come to appreciate and are able to express a changed set of values regarding their relation with natural entities and people. What's more, the effect has proven to be a long-lasting one. This doesn't surprise me much because I know we don't pull our values out of thin air. Nor are our parents and families solely responsible for them. I tend to think that we gather our values as much or more from aesthetic encounters as we do from other humans. We understand beauty by encountering those things we think beautiful. We understand kindness by encountering kind acts etc. It should come as no surprise that ugly, brutal surroundings breed ugly, brutal individuals.
In any case, natural surroundings have a discernible calming effect on most people. I think this is particularly true of those of us who are bipolar. In discussions with other bipolar folk, I've
heard again and again of the need for the sounds of wind and water, for swimming, and hiking in the woods, for quiet places where noise isn't raucus, where things move slowly or not at all, where the only flashing image one sees is the dart of a bird or the skitter of a squirrel. Whatever your preference, try to get away from your local domesticated park and into real nature for a bit of mind-healing. On even the most agitated of moods, the effect is amazing.
