Mental Health
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How Interior Design Helped Me Cope with Mental Illness
Interior design has a deeply rooted place in my heart. As a teen, I remember plotting out the details of my own room, drawing detailed illustrations in help in the planning process. It was very “shabby chic,” with silver and light blue being the main colors. Despite this, it wasn’t until I was much older that I truly began to fall in love with design and find my own style. I’ve always been a bit of a tomboy, so as a young adult my style reflected this. I also went through a heavy metal phase where I was really interested in black and studded everything. But at some point, things…
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On Bipolar and Finding My Own Silver Lining
Last year, I missed my own birthday. I actually went out to dinner with two close friends for my 31st birthday. But I wasn’t really there. The reason was because I was experiencing my second manic-psychotic episode during that outing. The chemicals in my brain were roaring in imbalance. I might as well have been on drugs, because I had become an entirely different person. As I mentioned, this was my second episode. My first had occurred just about 9 months prior. After the first occurrence, my doctors had written off my symptoms as being caused by dehydration. I had been sick for about a week and half straight prior to…
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How Bipolar Disorder Affected My Life in 2019
In a few (since deleted) posts I’ve shared on my blog, I alluded to the fact that the past year and half has been a tough time period for me. I struggled for a while with whether or not I should share what’s been going on, but I feel that not talking about this has created a bit of a writer’s block for me. In the spirit of unblocking myself, here’s the truth of what’s been going on in my life. I was diagnosed this past year with bipolar disorder. For me, this manifested itself in a mental breakdown that culminated in a very public psychotic episode, which resulted in…