Category: BipolarBrave

  • Happy Feelings Are Here Again!

    Happy Feelings Are Here Again!

    I’m ecstatic, and I’m happy I am. For a long while I have not experienced a happy moment or the emotion of happiness. I mean, I’ve had joy and contentment and peace for a long time, but today I found that moment where I scrunched my face from pure glee and…

  • Writing The Fear Away (And An Excerpt From My Memoir)

    Writing The Fear Away (And An Excerpt From My Memoir)

    I guess I’m afraid, since writing experts attribute procrastination to fear.  In my case it’s due to multiple factors: -not enough reading (you must be a good reader to be a good writer, they say) -not enough life experience (see quote by Tim Kreider below) -what I write sounds silly when…

  • A Review of “Touched With Fire”

    A Review of “Touched With Fire”

    The movie was intriguing and the characters pulled me in. I enjoyed watching the crazy banter and it reminded me of a time in my mania that my sanity was drowned out by the fury and flourish of the illness. I can identify with a few things: The creativity: rap, poetry, art…

  • Pregnant With A Story: I’m Expecting!

    Pregnant With A Story: I’m Expecting!

    Ah, did I catch you off guard? Let me do it again: I’m expecting a BOOK. Not a baby. Yet. I will have you know that as I work toward the publication of my memoir, I have just completed the first draft of the manuscript. The tentative working title I…

  • The Science (& Very Fragile Art) of Friendship

    The Science (& Very Fragile Art) of Friendship

    I roll my eyes trying to shape this blog post. With the virtual reality of Facebook and the superficialities of social media, there are modes of friendship and then there is the art of friendship. I don’t speak to this subject as an expert, for there is so much I…

  • My Greatest Fears In Psychosis

    My Greatest Fears In Psychosis

    I breathed in violently and my insides reverberated in an almost epileptic manner. I was both hot and cold and utterly psychotic, the equilibrium of my mind out of key. Like a cancerous tumor, the lies overwhelmed me in this paranoid state of mind. I couldn’t come out of it…

  • What I Wish I Knew In My Last Episode

    What I Wish I Knew In My Last Episode

    I just looked over some admission documents from the last hospitalization I underwent almost five years ago. Wow, what I was missing!  I thought I was right the whole time. Ha! On August 31, 2012, I voluntarily admitted myself to a behavioral hospital. It was an experience unlike my first hospitalization…

  • Blessed To Be Bipolar

    Blessed To Be Bipolar

    There’s a stigma around being bipolar and I totally get that. I am sometimes afraid to tell people I have it because one, they don’t need to know, and two, you put yourself out there in the questionable zone. People may think “What is that?” or “Watch out, she’s got…

  • “Mental Illness: Misconceptions and Projections” An Interview with Carol Kivler

    “Mental Illness: Misconceptions and Projections” An Interview with Carol Kivler

    For professional speaker Carol Kivler, life threw a curve ball a decade into her executive coaching career. After being diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and failed trials of medications, her decision to use Electroconvulsive Therapy to “reboot” her brain proved successful. She now speaks to thousands around the world promoting the education…

  • "Mental Illness: Misconceptions and Projections" An Interview with Carol Kivler

    "Mental Illness: Misconceptions and Projections" An Interview with Carol Kivler

    For professional speaker Carol Kivler, life threw a curve ball a decade into her executive coaching career. After being diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and failed trials of medications, her decision to use Electroconvulsive Therapy to “reboot” her brain proved successful. She now speaks to thousands around the world promoting the education…