Dearest Readers,

The purpose of these posts about bipolar d/o is not to get sympathy for myself, or to shock anyone. It is simply to describe what it feels like to have bipolar disorder. The purpose of all this is to inform and hopefully destigmatize mental illness. I’m hoping that if I talk about my experiences, then all of you will see that this can happen to anyone. Hopefully reading about my experiences will also help people identify mental illness, perhaps in themselves or others and get help. Also, as I talk about my mental illness, I am seeing that it frees others to talk about their illnesses. And what a relief it is to be able to talk to each other, instead of hiding and cowering in shame because we have an illness. There should be no shame associated with any illness, we did not choose to have this illness…