About Me

Hi. My name is Sue and I have lived with bipolar disorder since I was 13 years old. I didn’t know it at the time but would find out much later in life that I had something known as a mental illness. The travels that brought me to where I am now were rocky, at best. But I didn’t give in to my bipolar disorder, although there were many times that I considered doing just that.

Since experiencing my first severe depressive episode at 13, I frantically searched for any information I could find that would explain the severe feeling of hopelessness that I experienced. After several hospitalizations, ECT (shock therapy), endless amounts of different psychiatric meds, and a near stint of brain surgery known as “deep brain stimulation”, I found the correct diagnosis: bipolar 2 disorder.

It was a tough pill to swallow, one that I didn’t readily accept. Only crazy people had mental illnesses like Bipolar, right? However, giving a name to such a horrendous feeling made it tangible, something that I could put my finger on. 

I am so grateful for that diagnosis, the diagnosis I chased for so long. In the end, I was fortunate enough to find a concoction of meds that worked for me. I am beyond grateful to say that I am finally at peace. That’s not to say that I don’t have to keep an eye on the depression/hypomania, but I have the tools to deal with any adjustments that need to be made.

My goal with this blog is to continue to peck away at the stigma surrounding mental illness. Through my stories, I hope to contribute to the goal of calling mental illness a disease and not something to be ashamed of.