Gabrielle Blackman-Sheppard - Bi-Polar Girl: An irreverent look at bipolar disoder

We all have moods. We all have good days and bad days. We all have times when we feel unstoppable and we have times when we just want to stop and make it all go away. Thats perfectly normal. After all, we are all just perfectly normal human beings, arent we

But what happens when our ups are just a little bit, well, too up? When we dont just feel unstoppable but we feel invincible and when nothing could ever bring us down? We can do what we want, eat what we want, spend what we want, work hard, play hard and tomorrow, we know for certain, will simply never come. In fact, we are so up, we havent really noticed that we cant come down.

Until that day when we do. With a crash.

When that happens, we arent just a bit down, we are seriously cant get out of bed, dont draw the curtains, make the world go away, I dont care if you are my partner or my parent or my child, just leave me alone and switch off the light very down indeed.

Highs and lows are normal. To experience the highest highs and the lowest lows means there is something more sinister going on in our brains. This is the realm of bipolar disorder.

This is what this book is all about.

(with women more likely to be treated than men). In other words, if you dont suffer from some form of mental illness, someone close to you probably will.

There are a number of ways to treat a condition such as bipolar disorder. Medication is one, with any number of drugs available but a lottery as to which one will work, how, when, and with what side effects. Diet and exercise play their part too. Alcohol is a depressant even though you start off by feeling good. Exercise helps us produce serotonin, the lack of which can lead to depression. Theres another treatment too that can not only help someone with the condition, it may also help to prevent it too. Its called honesty.

In the remarkably frank and vivid portrayal of a woman whose life comes crashing down as a result of bipolar disorder, Gabrielle takes the reader on the mental roller coaster that is her illness and, if not the cure, the treatment that follows her diagnosis. And she does so with an honesty that is rarely found in a subject that is denied, hidden, maligned, and treated as a taboo (the World Health Organization quotes a public survey which revealed that most people put mental disorder down to stress or lack of willpower).

Whether you read this book because you are coming to terms with your own illness or searching within it for a better understanding of the illness of a loved one, I know that Gabrielles honesty will be of support to you on your own roller-coaster journey. All we ask of you in return is that you too talk about the illness and your experiences with equal honesty and do your bit to help others in the way that we hope Gabrielle has helped you.

Ian Gilbert

Suffolk

10 October 2010 World Mental Health Day

This little book was born out of my desire to encourage those poor souls who find themselves sitting in the waiting rooms of psychiatric clinics and hospitals.

Bi-Polar Girl is a personal story based on my real-life experience of living with bipolar disorder. It is not meant to be a recommendation for any particular treatment.

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. Symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They are different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through from time to time. Bipolar disorder symptoms can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide. But bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives.

Bi-Polar Girl eventually found her way back to a happy life, full of love, hope, and laughter.

May YOU find your way back to laughter and the life YOU want to live.

For more support visit my blog www.bi-polargirl.com

It is impossible for me to acknowledge here all those kind souls who have helped me on my journey and who have encouraged me to write this little book.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I hope by now that you all know who you are!

I must however give special thanks to my son Greg for his wonderful illustrations without which Bi-Polar Girl would have a voice but no face. He knows bipolar disorder from his personal experience as well as from my own.

I must also thank my friend and coach Lynette Allen whose financial generosity and boundless belief in me has fed my confidence and kept my dream alive.

Last, but not least, a massive thank you to my editor Ian Gilbert for his generous understanding and patience.

To you all I am grateful.

CONTENTS

How it all Started

What would help YOU feel less scared right now?

What would help YOU feel there IS light at the end of YOUR tunnel?

You are probably feeling very scared right now. I know I was.

You are also probably finding it impossible to believe you will ever get better. I know I did.

It helped me to have someone else understand what I was going through. It made a big difference for me to know that other people still believed in me when I no longer believed in myself.

I hope that following the adventures of Bi-Polar Girl will help you feel less frightened and less lonely.

I have been where you are at this moment and I am right here with you.

What mental illness do YOU have:

Bipolar disorder I?

Bipolar disorder II?

Hello! My name is Bi-Polar Girl.

I have bipolar disorder (BPD) II.

Maybe you have BPD II like me or maybe you have BPD I.

BPD I has high peaks (full manic episodes) and deep valleys (severe clinical depression).

BPD II has high wide plateaus (a hypo-manic state that lasts a long time) and deep wide canyons (severe and prolonged clinical depression).

Whichever way, you and I inhabit the same mental health territory.

When YOU look back at your past life:

What do YOU see?

What do YOU learn?

Come with me. Together we will look back at what brought ME to where YOU are now.

My journey is also your journey.

Are you happy for me to be your companion for the rest of this little book?

Yes? Then follow me.

What is it that tells YOU things arent quite right for YOU?