ASK YOURSELF

1- I think it is very difficult to know to the naked eye what someone else is really
feeling or the situation that is going through, but nevertheless, there are some
attitudes that help us to give us to have an idea of the person mood, for example, I
have always thought that the gaze of a person can transmit many things, including
if they are on a bad or a good mood. Also their way of expressing and socializing
can mean many things, a person with problems does not act or think in a calm or
passive way, the most probable thing is that his unconscious always makes him
think from the most negative point of view.

2- Everybody is different, and so, everyone has a different way of reacting to the
situations that stand in their way. Usually, it is said that a child is feeling bad
when he finds it difficult to relate to other people and does not express any
happiness or emotion, but even though that theory is true, it is also very
widespread, a child may seem very happy by the simple fact that he wants to
ignore everything that's wrong in his life, and he doesn't want other people to
interfere in his life, but when he is really alone is when he suffers and takes out all
that stuff he's got inside because he can't talk to others because of fear, either out
of fear of being mocked or just because he doesn't have enough trustness to talk
about his problems with someone. So, to know if a child is feeling bad, you really
have to know him to know how to recognize when he acts differently than he
normally does, since this change in his behavior can mean that there is also
happening a change in his life.

3- The first thing that needs to be done to help someone, is gaining their trust so that
this person can open up to you and talk to you about the situation that is going
through and how this is affecting them internally. And so, knowing what the
problem is, you can look for a solution, whether it's providing support and
company, or other types of solutions as the case may be, for example, it is often
advisable to do things that we enjoy when there are problems in our lives, then a
good tip for that person is to have a hobby that passionates him and in which he is
talented in, and that will help him gain a motivation and thus have happiness from
doing what he likes. The key to everything, is always going to be communication,
to be able to understand the other and have empathy of the situation for which he
is passing though.
 BUILDING EMPATHY

When I was two years old, my mother died for a type of cancer, and although I was very
young and had no awareness about the situation, I have very clear that it must have been
a very difficult time for my whole family and that by memories, today it still is a
difficult situation for each of us, because she is no longer with us. However, I think that
if that would happen right now, I'd be really scared, because now I have awareness about
the things that happen around me, and I fully understand that the loss of a loved one is
one of the most painful things that can happen to someone. But even if it was an
extremely complicated moment, I would not let the situation to let negativism take over
me or my family, because I believe that until it really happens, anything is possible, even
that someone can get out of a terminal illness, because faith is the last thing to lose.
So, although fear and all those things that could affect me at the moment, I would never
lose the hope that she could be cured, also because I know that it is an act of love to put
your feelings aside and worry about for how the other person must be feeling, that
probably she´d be more scared than I would be, and what she's not going to be good at
that time at seeing her family in a sad mood, so we should support her and give her
strength to get ahead. I also think it's important to trust that everything in life happens
for some reason, and whatever that will happen at the end, we should not think only in
ourselves and the impact that this would have in our lives, but also in the fact that it was
the best for that person who was surely suffering, and who although I will no longer see
her physically, she will always be there with me, accompanying me and guiding me to
always go the right way, because she will become my inspiration for every thing that I
propose to do in my life.
 STORIES

 Wairimu / https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/category/blog/bipolar
The diagnosis of bipolar eight years ago was a huge relief because I finally knew what was wrong with
me. I was so relieved because I said – ok, so I am not lazy, I’m not erratic, I’m not unfocused. I’m
sick. I got the diagnosis before I got married. My then boyfriend (now husband) was ok with it. But
some of the people in his circle were like, “no, no, no, no… you should not get married to her, how you
will be able to cope with her condition?”

 Eleanor Segall / https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/your-stories/bipolar-disorder-

what-i-wish-someone-had-told-me/#.XUsUb5MzbLY

When I was 15, I started suffering from depression and anxiety. My heart would race, I couldn’t sleep
and it was so debilitating I had to take six weeks off school in my GCSE year. I still got my GCSEs and
I recovered for a while. However the following months were filled with a manic, high episode and then
a depressive episode featuring psychosis which led me to be hospitalised voluntarily on an adolescent
mental health unit. It was there, aged just 16 years old, that a psychiatrist diagnosed me with bipolar
affective disorder, which runs in my family.
Bipolar is a serious mood disorder where sufferers can experience depression and low phases lasting
for months and manic, high phases which can make sufferers feel out of control due to the symptoms.

I am now 29, but when diagnosed at 16, this felt like a life sentence. I was a shy teenager, always
wanting to fit in and now I was told I would have a chronic mental illness, have to take constant
medication to keep well and keep regular tabs on my moods. What I didn’t know was that due to the
severity of my illness, the doctors told my parents they didn’t know if I would be well enough to go to
university. I proved them wrong, but this is what I wish I had been told when first diagnosed

 Anonymous / https://www.nami.org/Personal-Stories/My-Story-with-Bipolar-Disorder
I honestly can say that up until the end of college I had no discernible signs of a mental illness. It all
was jump-started during finals week of my second to last quarter of college. I was 23. I had one final
exam left before spring break. I was on schedule to graduate after spring quarter.
I was second in my class in civil engineering. During finals week, a classmate met me at a bar for a
pitcher of green beer. I witnessed the bartender mixing the green food coloring into the beer. The rest
of what happened that day is a blur. And not a blur in the sense of, “I got drunk and blacked out,” but a
blur in the sense that when I got back to the apartment, my roommate said I looked like I had thirty
beers. In reality, I didn’t even finish the pitcher.
I remember feeling a rush of adrenaline and like my arms were on fire. I remember my hands shaking a
lot, and a lot of anxiety for the first time in my life. I struggled through the final because I physically
didn’t feel right.
The feeling continued on the drive home from Athens to Canton, for spring break. The rush of
adrenaline continued, the anxiety built up and I couldn’t sit still at all. My mind was racing. The drive
home took what felt like an eternity. I just wanted to get home and tell my mom what was going on
and possibly go to the emergency room.
I got home and couldn’t sleep or sit still at all. The anxiety multiplied. I couldn’t even sit and watch
TV. My mom and her boyfriend thought maybe the green beer I drank was possibly laced. Either way
we knew something was wrong and they took me to the emergency room. I vaguely remember
screaming religious statements in the crowded waiting room as I waited. I was admitted into the local
psychiatric ward.
For most of the time I was in isolation I wasn’t sleeping at all. I started to have paranoid delusions of
grandeur. Like, maybe I was in here because of a crime I don’t remember committing? My mind
started playing tricks on me. I totally lost track of time. It felt like I was in that room for months. The
only people I saw for days were the nurses and my doctor. They started giving me daily medicine but
for the first couple days I remember denying it. I thought, drugs got me into this mess, how can they
possibly get me out? Then, for about the fifth time a nurse told me to, once again, take my medicine,
and I said no. Then she said, “Don’t you want to go home?”
Home. I didn’t even remember what home was. My mind had been racing at 200 mph for like four or
five days and I didn’t remember that I had a home around the corner from this hospital with my family.
It was at that point that I began taking the medicine and slowly started recovering. At that time, it was
diagnosed as a drug-induced psychotic episode, probably from drinking beer laced with PCP. My
doctor said it was probably a “one time thing.”
I stayed on my prescribed meds for the better part of a year. I did not make it back to college in time
to graduate in Spring 2007 like I planned. I needed the quarter off to mentally recover. But I returned
in Fall of 2007 for my last quarter of undergrad classes. Leading up to the time I returned, my
psychiatrist claimed I was doing well enough that he gradually weaned me off my meds. It worked out
to be that right around the time I returned to campus, I was once again medicine free, for better or
worse.
Even still I had a successful final quarter and graduated in November 2007 with a Cum Laude
Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering. Before then I decided that I wanted to pursue graduate
school in civil engineering as well, the following quarter in Winter 2008. I was having a great time and
very thrilled to see what went into the research side of engineering. It was all new to me.
I had been off my medicine for quite a while now and started to relapse while starting grad school. I
started losing sleep again. I started to have grandiose plans like designing and building my own house.
I started having racing thoughts turned into religious delusions. During these periods, I begin to think
many different delusional thoughts are in fact reality, and I was stupid to not think this way before. I
remember talking my best friend’s ear off about religion on the phone. Sleep was lost night after night,
until I eventually called my mom in a panic and said something was wrong. She drove to campus and
drove me home and took me, once again, to the local psychiatric ward.
The second episode of mine was more severe. I had fantastical paranoid delusions, thinking I was the
antichrist, the messiah or both. I believed the news channels were broadcasting me live on TV as the
messiah/antichrist was in the local hospital for all the world to see. I figured that all the people in the
hospital hated me for it, as well as all the people watching the news. I had many auditory
hallucinations, from anyone from my classmates and professors to God.
I was once again put on medicine and this episode was also incorrectly diagnosed as a second psychotic
episode and isolated incident. I was forced to withdraw from graduate school, never finishing one
quarter.
I stayed on medicine much longer, and even was well enough to work a year and a half at an
engineering firm. Then I decided to commute to grad school close to home. It went well despite being
depressed and confused about my mental condition. I graduated with a Masters in civil engineering and
wrote a 140-page thesis. But once again, a different doctor eventually claimed I was fine, and weaned
me off my meds right around time of graduation in May 2012.
All this stress triggered my third and most severe manic episode. Life was moving too fast for me even
though I had no insight. I scared my girlfriend while living with her with erratic behavior. I started
losing sleep again. I got lost once driving from Cleveland to Canton, a drive that I had memorized. I
was unfit to drive and got in a serious car accident. I lost the job in a week, lost my girlfriend and best
friend and was admitted to the local psych ward on my 27th birthday in December 2012.
This episode was an extended mania and did not occur only when I was in the hospital. It included a
fist fight with my brother, a run in with Cleveland cops, very risky behavior, grandiose ideas, shopping
sprees, auditory hallucinations and even visually seeing things when I closed my eyes, like strobe
lights, music visualizers and even aliens.
I was finally officially diagnosed with severe bipolar 1 disorder with psychotic effects. All three of my
episodes were actually severe manic episodes with some psychosis involved. I was put on medicine
again, this time for good and have been manic episode free ever since—over four years now. But at this
point in my life I want more than just self-isolation at home and feeling depressed because of it. I feel
like I have a lot to offer this world.
My plans for the future include volunteering part time to see if I can handle the stress of a part time job.
I also will train for the mental health certified peer supporter soon—as I meet all qualifications and
definitely have the lived mental health experience—which could turn into job opportunities. My
overall goal is to eventually get back in the civil engineering field and continue my career. I’ve done it
before so I know I can do it again with the right coping skills and supportive people around me. NAMI
support groups have helped me to realize I am not alone in my recovery. I truly believe recovery is
possible. My story is not over yet. I’m ready to reclaim my life.

QUESTIONS

1) Do you feel that bipolarity is a disease?

2) What impacts does bipolarity has on your daily life?
3) Which is the hardest thing for you about having bipolarity?
4) What's the most bipolar moment you've ever had in your entire life?
5) You feel special to yourself or striking among other people by having bipolarity?