Augustine Ihm and his family were in and out of homeless shelters in Chicago through his childhood. Often alone and vulnerable, he was abused and the experience left him racked with shame and estranged from his mother when she didn’t protect him. He has since been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and uses mindfulness and his […]
Bipolar
Comedian and mental health campaigner, Juliette Burton
Since her teens, comedian Juliette Burton has been diagnosed with a series of mental health disorders, from eating disorders to anxiety. Juliette says comedy is a way to survive the darkness and making light of her illnesses really helps her. Having to go on stage in front of an audience reduces tension and allows her […]
Comedy is my survival technique
Struggle & success
Award-winning comedian Juliette Burton has been diagnosed with a number of mental health conditions, including eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and OCD. For her, comedy is a survival technique. “My mind can take me to some dark places so it’s vital that I seek out the light – that’s what comedy does for me.”
Tell your story with passion
Struggle & success
We are delighted to have partnered with OC87 Recovery Diaries to bring you a worksheet designed to help prompt you to dig a little deeper when journaling, or to help you start, or to help you voice your own story with passion. You can download your own version of the worksheet here. Bud Clayman, the […]
Being Friends With the Monster, Stolar
Musician and songwriter Stolar says that from a young age, he always had heightened emotions — what he calls ‘emotional superpowers’. But by the time he was studying at NYU, those feelings were running out of control. He has been diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder. With bipolar in the family, his relatives were able […]
From Harvard to Hospital, Hakeem Rahim
American Advocate Homecoming king, Harvard student at 17, yet this African-American trailblazer did not know what hit him, when a few weeks into college he experienced his first panic attack and, subsequently, a full blown manic episode and hospitalization. An amazingly frank speaker, Rahim is now one of America’s leading mental health advocates. He has […]
Living and Working with Bi-Polar
Uncategorized
Bex Simon recently gave an amazing Head Talk on her work as a bipolar blacksmith. If you’d like to know more here’s a documentary she put together on how she channels her bipolar disorder into her craft.
When Not Killing Yourself Becomes the Goal, Maggie Robbins
Bipolar Art Therapist When she was a college student, Bipolar Disorder brought her to her knees. Now well-known New York art therapist and psychotherapist Maggie Robbins helps others connect with their ‘inner monster’. ‘You can almost think of anything someone makes as a self-portrait.’ Robbins, an artist herself, wrote a semi-autobiographical novel of poems while […]
Hammering it Out – The Bipolar Blacksmith, Bex Simon
Bipolar Blacksmith Becoming a blacksmith saved Bex Simon from succumbing to bipolar disorder. In fact, the illness laid the foundations for her blacksmith business. Praised for her unusual and spectacularly artistic designs, Simon has been off medication since 2009, and lives with her husband and two children. She uses her illness ‘by building like a […]
Mental Health Campaigner & Creator of ‘Stranger on the Bridge’, Jonny Benjamin MBE and Neil Laybourn
The Stranger on the Bridge Just before his 21st birthday, Jonny Benjamin MBE decided to run away from the mental hospital he was staying in. While he was sitting on the edge of London’s Waterloo Bridge, contemplating taking his own life, a man came up and talked him out of it. Six years later, a […]
The Stigma of Bipolar, Thomas Duncan Bell
The Bipolar Businessman In many ways Thomas Duncan Bell is like any other entrepreneur: he runs successful businesses, is driven and ambitious. In his early twenties, however, he was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, after entering a local police station bleeding, pleading for help. He still occasionally suffers, yet is also directing his rather impressive […]
Bestselling US Author and Academic, Andrew Solomon
Writer, Lecturer and Activist Award-winning journalist Andrew Solomon always thought he was tough. But a series of losses, including the assisted suicide of his cancer-suffering mum, plunged him into a deep depression, which then morphed into ripping anxiety. ‘It was eating me alive.’ Driven to try and understand his condition, Solomon interviewed numerous fellow sufferers […]
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