“Mental Illness.”

“Mental Illness.”

The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. I’m advocating that bipolar depression II is misnamed, misunderstood and misdiagnosed when we refer to it as a “mental illness.” If I had a knife in my...
“Bipolar II”

“Bipolar II”

Photo credit: Bipolar II Disorder: Recognition, Understanding, and Treatment, by Ed. Swartz, Holly A.Paperback The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. We drive back to Massachusetts from Florida...
Joe was a Rock

Joe was a Rock

The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. How can a marriage survive when one partner loses her sanity, her sexuality, her capacity to mother, to work, to love and support her lover, to laugh,...
Coming Out, Ending the Stigma, Lifting the Shame

Coming Out, Ending the Stigma, Lifting the Shame

The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. I’m writing this partly because it’s healing for me to tell my story and partly because I wish I had found a guide like this, written from the inside, when...
Losing it

Losing it

The following is an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum. It is 1978 and I am a seventeen-year-old high school senior. I’ve watched my mom wrestling with depression all through my growing up years. The first time...