Your article spoke to me so deeply, especially this line:

“having written a book-length work whilst recovering from acute bipolar is something I’ll always be proud of.”

I, 2007, I was diagnosed with bipolar one disorder after the birth of my daughter. I’ve written a book titled “Birth of a New Brain – Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder” with a foreword by Dr. Walker Karraa.

Two months ago I received an email on my birthday of all days informing me that my book proposal had been accepted by Post Hill Press for publication.

Your words validated my sense of pride in my accomplishment. Not everyone has understood the significance of my work, but you understand, and it’s truly wonderful to know that.

I wish you the absolute best.

Thank you!
Dyane

The book sounds brilliant. I’m also really looking forward to reading it. A really great realization for me, too, is that we’re not in competition as writers but each provide facets of the truth. A neurolinguist once told me “People need to hear your voice; the language that only you speak in. It’s your duty, in a way, to write”. I was thinking of this about you too; your language. Thanks so much for the truth you express, your strength and honesty. It inspires many, as you know.

R. M. Ridley

http://creativityfromchaos.wordpress.com/

It’s strange how a difficult life event that could be perceived as a misfortune (bipolar in your instance, chronic/intractable migraine in mine) ends up being the catalyst for a life spent doing what we love. There’s a gift in everything, if we just know how to find it. Recognizing that and accepting it usually helps keep the regrets and resentments at bay. (At least it did for me.) I am awed by your experiences, and I can’t wait to read your memoir. Bipolar and other mood disorders run in my family, and while I don’t have the diagnosis myself, I know very, very well what you’re describing here. Thank you for sharing your story. May your words inspire others.

Warm regards,

Sarah

:0) Looking forward to your book!

Thanks for your beautifully honest portrayal of writing through mental illness. I was moved by your discussion of the relapse of bipolar disorder, and how you did not want to admit it. In some ways, I think our writer’s minds have a sort of sixth sense about what is coming before we are actually ready to consciously admit it. Writing gets us to admit the truth about your circumstances, helps us process what’s coming before it in fact presents itself. My novel was about a young woman coping with cancer, and then less than six months later, I was hit with my own health crisis. I wonder if the writer in me saw it coming….

“It would be wrong to say I’m grateful for my relapse…..but the emergence of my voice as a writer feels like a gift” That’s so how I feel. I sometimes wonder if growing as a writer is a pyrrhic victory given the pain we must sometimes go through to get there, but I quickly put that worry aside, and hope people can learn from the story that I have to tell as a result of that struggle. That’s just victory! But it does sometimes feel like a Sophie’s Choice.

I have students working through various personal struggles within their writing, and they often have some apprehension about publishing. One of my students, like you do in paragraph #9, described hitting the “submit button” as a “what have I done?” type of reaction. I really like your point that there’s a lot of value to simply writing through the illness (or any situation that a person may go through) even if its not read by a mass audience in published book form. It’s awesome that 38,000 people read your blog post though.

I’ll look forward to following your blog in your future, and learning from it. You write with such strength and honesty. All the best to you.

Take care,
Christina, author of the blog “Writing the Storm: The Hard Stuff, and How to Write Through It”

THIS. I’m experiencing THIS, children included. And looking back at my twenties and struggling with the fact that normal people got so much done. It is so easy to feel left behind–stunted. But yes, also grateful for the fact that we learn, through illness, how not to take the normalness for granted. Thank you for this post. 🙂

I loved this paragraph about your Memoir, that it is the book that wants to be written. Also the linking back to previous interests / experiences of channeling and archaeology:

“I don’t claim it will be easy to read but I have a strong sense that this, and not something gentler and less challenging, is the book that wants to be written. Sometimes, when work is going well, I almost have that old sense of channeling. At other times peeling back the layers of my life feels like archaeology.”

You do a beautiful job in threading your themes through your essay, and end it with grace:

“I don’t fully understand how being unwell has helped me come full circle and see myself as a writer again, but that’s OK. I’m happy to put it down to magic and mystery.”

Wonderful! – Anora McG, Editor