Fourteen years ago, I was diagnosed with bipolar. At the time, I couldn’t think of anything more pitiful. Me? With a mental illness? Surely not. This was in the middle of a full-blown manic episode. I tried to deny that anything was wrong, and I didn’t want to take medicine the rest of my life. …
An overreaction
A little over thirteen years ago, during my first week of college, I stopped sleeping. I was recovering from wisdom tooth surgery, and I was probably well on my way to mania before I officially stopped sleeping. By my count, I went 85 hours without sleep. I likely had a psychotic break thrown in as …
Just a Book Idea: Part 5
Ah, yes, the long-awaited fifth installment of my satirical book. My last book idea post happened five years ago this month. Just so y’all know, the book idea did not die with that post. In fact, I now have a 33,408 word manuscript of pure satire. Go me! That’s literally 6,681.6 words a year. Beat …
Finding yourself in a mixed-state
Looking back on 2023 mostly brings happy thoughts. Our first year of marriage was fun, and we grew closer and more in love. However, I also know I was likely borderline depressed during a lot of it. Not a full depression at any point. I just didn’t have energy or motivation to do anything besides …
The First Anniversary
One year. In some ways, our first year of marriage absolutely flew by. No way it’s been twelve months since we got married. I remember the day as if it happened last week, partly because I intentionally tried to live the day in the moment and remember as much of it as possible. We got …
Learned Behavior (Part I)
My best friend and I have been texting quite a bit recently, and a couple of her comments have me thinking. I sometimes do my best thinking when I journal, so I’m going to try to process our conversations through writing. My friend and I share a deep adoration for books and reading. I liked …
Evolution
I went through high school unmedicated. My illness flew under the radar, mostly because I played sports year around, and I exercised at least two hours a day, except some weekends. I didn’t sleep much, particularly in high school. I don’t think my parents realized I did homework until 12:00 AM and woke up at …
A new doctor – thank goodness
In 2011, shortly after I received my bipolar diagnosis (which I got from a psychiatric hospital the week of my first and only psychotic break), I started seeing a psychiatrist outside of the hospital. He was quirky, and he helped me think critically about how to manage my illness. He gave me ideas for how …
Good mood or hypomania?
I received my bipolar diagnosis a little over twelve years ago as a freshman in college. It took me a couple years to accept my diagnosis as valid, and looking back on my life pre-diagnosis, there is a lot of evidence that substantiate my having bipolar disorder. I spent most of my high school years …
It’s been a hot minute…
It has been soooooo long since I’ve written for this blog. Almost an entire year. A lot has happened in the past 14 months. I met a guy (THE guy) in February of last year. After a brief yet intense courtship, he asked for my hand in marriage. Maybe I’ll write a more detailed account …
Between Two Poles 