Bipolar Disorder Related Content

Johanne immigrated to New York with her parents when she was 4 years old. After they got divorced, she moved to Massachusetts with her religious mother, who was granted sole custody. Some of her earliest memories involve seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. When she tried to talk to her mom...

Fancy had difficulty maintaining relationships and quickly understood why after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 19. I had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals, and the doctors told me the only way I would get better would be if I took medication for the rest of my life. At...

I was saved from dropping off a 740-foot bridge about two hours north of the Golden Gate Bridge. That experience began my journey away from ‘mental hellness,’ and into the space of mental wellness. By the time that David, a then 48-year-old man, was standing atop a bridge and contemplating suicide...

Paul looked like he had it all together—until the cracks started to show. Long before anyone else noticed, he saw the signs: waking up with no memory of the night before, vanishing from parties, inflicting wounds on his own face, and retreating so deeply into isolation that it felt like vanishing...

When Amanda was 19, she knew the grip of anxiety and panic attacks—she’d been living with both for years. But something new was unfolding. She felt overwhelmed and out of control. Despite running eight miles a day, her body was wired. Sleep became impossible. She turned to sleeping pills and alcohol...

When I was 14 years old, I went from being a happy child to wanting to die within a few weeks. I stopped eating and was crying all the time. My mom took me to my pediatrician, who referred me to a psychiatrist. Andrea is grateful for how quickly she received a diagnosis and treatment for what turned...

Kelly grew up in a small town in Iowa in the 1970s. At the time, people thought that mental health disorders didn’t exist—you just needed more discipline. Kelly had episodes of rage starting from when she was around 7 or 8 years old. I said to myself, ‘Normal people don’t do this.’ I thought I was a...

Everyone who knows me sees me as a happy, outgoing guy. Now that they know I have a mental health disorder, I still want them to see me the same way, the way I really am. I’m the same person. Around the time Charles reached his one-year milestone for sobriety, he realized that he still had problems...

The breakdown hit as Ashley sat on a bench in Midtown Manhattan. She had just been discharged from a New York hospital after a manic episode kept her awake for 10 days straight. Doctors released her with no plan in place to help. No new therapy. No new medications. Exhausted and hopeless from a...

Laura grew up thinking everyone felt as depressed as she did. She assumed people got out of bed and put on a smile in the morning, even though they were miserable inside. Inexplicably shy, Laura never learned how to talk to people. Her sadness led to frustration and then to crying spurts and...

For most of his life, Shay showed no symptoms of a mental health condition. He started a family and served as a senior manager in large companies in the food industry. But at the age of 40, he was diagnosed with cancer, which triggered episodes of bipolar disorder. I kept secrets for 30 years. I had...

I’ve tried to heal myself through writing, filmmaking, and the creative process. I want to speak about people’s pain and create stories of inspiration. Rodney is drawing on his experience as a psychiatrist and an individual with mental health challenges to embark on a new career in the arts. A...