20 Years Embracing Bipolar

When I was first hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, it felt like my life was over.  People on campus had seen me go crazy, Facebook had just come out, and it seemed like I would be haunted by my past no matter what I did.  After a difficult first year with my mental illness, including a near-death experience with a tropical disease and a second bipolar hospitalization, I decided that – for me – I could not keep going on without embracing this part of who I am.  

There were some new housemates moving in with me and my friends and I had been scared they wouldn’t want to live with me once they knew I was a freak, so I decided to flip the script.  I went to the grocery store, came back with a sheet cake, sat down with everyone in my house and invited them to celebrate my first anniversary of living with this illness.  Soon, I would speak at my first event on Penn’s campus.  And now here I am – two decades later – taking a moment to look back at how I got to have the life I’m living.  

20 Years Embracing Bipolar is my attempt to collect the important experiences, lessons, and challenges I have had living with the symptoms and stigma of my disability.  The symptoms have been unbearable during extreme times and limiting on a chronic basis.  The stigma has been much worse.  And then, of course, there is the support.  Support has been what makes everything else worth it.  Thanks to my mental illness, I have learned to connect more deeply and to appreciate that everyone has mental health needs.  I’ve worked hard to create resources to help all parties overcome distress, stigma, and mental health challenges.  I hope some of what I’ve compiled here is helpful for you.

Below is an infographic summarizing the different ways I am taking action in honor of twenty years:

To see another infographic that shows how I’m moving forward to thank people and reorient from challenging situations, click here.

I prepared a document that shares the lessons I have distilled from the past two decades living with a mental illness and using conflict resolution tools to face stigma. They include five skills for coping with distress, five for connecting with others, five for addressing challenging behaviors, and five for growing from trauma. Download it by clicking here.

This poem which I wrote in 2020 when facing a lot of stigma has helped me and I hope it can help others:

These are some books I’ve written over the past 20 years:

Mental Health and Conflicts: A Handbook for Empowerment is being republished by DRI Press. To get a free electronic copy, visit www.mhmediate.com/mhc where you can learn about the book and fill out a form to get a free copy.

One of my goals is to find more partners. If you have any interest in getting involved in this work, contact me via the Mental Health Safe Project‘s page at https://mhsafe.org/contact/