Jodie Goodacre

Today is World Bipolar Day, so I wanted to write a little bit about what it has been like living with Bipolar. As I have spoken about before, I have Bipolar type 2, which is categorised by episodes of 'Depression', 'Hypomania' or 'Stable', though even with stability usually comes with some underlying issues, but when not at an 'extreme' or 'intense' level, for me, that is 'good'.

I am attempting to allow myself to be vulnerable when writing this post, because as a campaigner I have often found myself emotionally detached from my own experiences, I would go into schools, or talk to the media about my experiences, but doing so in past tense and not really connecting to it. There is a lot of stigma I attach to myself, and this self-stigma has led me to only talking about how I feel in past tense, and not really being open about what I am currently going through, despite constantly advocating for openness, honesty and reaching out. I guess I feel, and others have sometimes reinforced my idea that as a Mental Health campaigner I must be 'recovered', but to excuse the cliché, recovery is very much a journey and not a particular point, and we all have very different views on what recovery (or recovered for some) means.

"Vulnerability isn't the opposite of strength. It is a necessary part."
-Meredith Grey

Bipolar Memoir Vignette