Stigma, Meet Hope

Extract

As a patient thriving with severe bipolar I disorder, it can be a long, hard road to recovery. And recovery is not a cure. Recovery in mental illness is living a full and meaningful life.

The journey starts with hope. It can be very hard to find or regain it. Stigma often blocks the way.

But courage and strength can clear the way. With a whole lot of hope, love, and support, recovery is possible, but only if you dare to dream it. The example of others can help show you the way.

This is where it started for me.

It started by suspecting, feeling that something was not right, but dismissing it, hoping it would pass. The stresses of social injustice, a sexual assault by a friend and classmate, academic stress, career issues, family illness, disappointments to myself and my family. Finally, a shocking diagnosis reached in just a few minutes. I didn’t even know what bipolar was. Nobody took the time to explain it to me. Nobody cared about all of my triggers. They just gave me a label and some meds. Threats of forced medical leave. I was marginalized, isolated, and withdrawn. I felt so alone, far from home on that big campus. All of that hard work to get here, to get to Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania, all of my dreams, now I’m on the verge of losing it all. And so much blind angry denial.