Friday resources

Bipolar disorder: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bipolar-disorder/basics/definition/CON-20027544

NIMH with treatments: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/bipolar-disorder/index.shtml

Famous people who are/were bipolar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_bipolar_disorder

From an interview in TIME Magazine:
In the book, you write for the first time about episodes of mania and bipolar disorder. Was that scary?
I cried when I wrote it but it wasn’t scary. You know, we don’t need a book that just sort of talks about things. You have to be real. I also wanted to get through that it’s a real physiological thing. It’s an illness with treatments and medication. I hadn’t seen anyone write it like that before, and I thought it also might help people understand that it’s a real thing. It may be chemicals in my brain but it doesn’t change just how real the experiences were for me.
And that when you get well it’s a weird thing. You know when you’re in love and you don’t need to eat and sleep? But then someone tells you you were sick, and that’s why you were feeling that way. That it is an illness. But for you, it’s still very real.

from The GUARDIAN:
becoming a scientist I also knew that I could never go back.
Your description of your experience of being bipolar is a powerful moment. How has that shaped your career?
It was actually something I could do because I can make my own hours. If I want to do 12 hours of work it doesn’t matter if I do it during the day or during the night. And that was really important to me when I was desperately trying to hide how sick I was. It also exacerbated it because, of course, I had a lot of stress and I could be terribly ill and still function. I spent a decade hiding it and then I spent a decade doing the work of getting well – which is very hard work. I thought hard about the pros and cons of telling that story. [But] the only point in writing a book is if you are going to say something that you can’t hear anywhere else, and as far as I could tell the reality of what that is like hadn’t been shown in a way that I knew I could. And it is terrifying, it is scary. I don’t know if it was the right thing, but time will tell.

WEBSITE OF THE UHM COUNSELING CENTER: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/counseling/ in case you or a friend needs to go. It doesn't have to be an emergency! If it is, try the ER.