Reducing the stigma around mental health
By Harriet Russell Hello again lovely readers, I thought today I would write about how I got to where I am today, i.e. in a psychiatric hospital. I’ve lead a very charmed life and am extremely fortunate in that respect, but I’d like to stress the obvious: mental illness does Continue Reading
By Joe Doyle I visited my mother’s grave on my 22nd birthday. As I stood there praying and talking quietly to her, every hair on my body rose. I believe that my mother spoke to me: she was there for a brief time. Inspiration for my songs I finished my Continue Reading
By Jonathan Reyes It’s not all that easy talking about bipolar disorder. I mean, when you bring up bipolar and mood, most of the time people just think, ‘Ehh, my woman or man is bipolar as fuck’. But when you start to mention the mood stabilising medications that you have Continue Reading
By Mel Ball Suicide. It’s a hard word to hear, let alone write. But it’s something I have now encountered twice in my life, and in a very short space of time. Two loved ones leaving this life – and it was hard to understand why. My friend Steve I’ll Continue Reading
By rebquist I am a lithium responder, which means it works well for me. I have been on it since my bipolar diagnosis several years ago, and I have had no major side effects and no reason to be taken off of it. If anything it works well enough to Continue Reading
By Patrick A. Roland The following is an extract from the book Unpacked Sparkle by Patrick A. Roland So began six days of being locked up in a mostly padded room in a long hallway of corridors that led nowhere, except to the center of the beauty I had finally Continue Reading
By Joe Doyle My father, Hugh Anthony Doyle, met Kathleen O’Meara, daughter of Joseph O’Meara, around 1974. My father moved to her home town, Newcastle, County Down, and married her on Sunday 12th September 1976. I was born Anthony Joseph Doyle on March 26th 1978. My mother died on April Continue Reading
By Patrick A. Roland I should have known I was in trouble when they started calling me The Sparkle King. About six weeks after the release of Unpacked Sparkle, I entered a New Year’s Eve dance on a large throne. 6 people, dubbed the Sparklettes, danced and swirled around me, Continue Reading
By bipolaretaeus To say I’m very disappointed is an absolute understatement. Devastated. I haven’t tried to take my own life for a few years now and thought all was in control, however this weekend it all exploded and I ended up in A&E for emergency physical treatment. **** I have Continue Reading
By bipolaretaeus Having a diagnosis of Bipolar Affective Disorder and being a mental health nurse comes with challenges. Without bipolar, it does anyway. I went into nursing because of my constant exposure to mental illness in my family, in me and some of my friends. I wanted, and still want, Continue Reading
By bipolaretaeus ‘Deciding to live’ is a journal entry I wrote at 4 am, during a crisis in 2014. It transpired I was experiencing a mixed episode, diagnosed very soon after this in hospital. I thought I’d posted this already, just realised I hadn’t, so thought I would. I find Continue Reading
By Chris J N My medication has taken away part of me With a diagnosis of bipolar, anxiety, psychosis and paranoia and the help of a psychiatrist and mental health nurse and the community mental health team and a multitude of medications, I thought I was on the path to Continue Reading