Tag: The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive

Bipolar isn’t the whole story of my life and definitely not my teens, where I started to become ill but was mostly unable to cope under the psychic pressure that teenagehood is, a stew of hormones, trauma, the Manic Street Preachers and very shitty make up.  It was a pretty lonely, pretty frightening time, pretty READ MORE

I wish I could go back time and never have taken psychiatric medication. I’m not even sure how much I credit it with my stability. There are definitely times that it was helpful, but did I need to take it always, forever? When I was prescribed carbamazepine when I was 16, nobody told me why, READ MORE

I have a one year old. How the hell did that happen? Happy first birthday to Sunny Boo, little Bean, beautiful Oisín. It is a singular joy being your mum and watching you grow from a mini Bean to a human Bean. At one, you still love the cats, you love music and dancing, shaking READ MORE

Hello you lovely lot. I wrote a Buzzfeed article about my dad- 7 Things I Learned As The Child of an Alcoholic.  Do check it out and tell me what you think. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know my dad’s story.  Hopefully it helps someone out there. There’s a lot READ MORE

So much I want to write about! I’m still gathering my thoughts on Bowie but I posted this on Facebook on the day he died (he died?) and it sped around Twitter with startling speed. For now, here’s a quick update from MentalLand. Officially able to parent without psychiatric assistance! Er, yay? I was discharged READ MORE

So, at the moment, there’s a storyline on Eastenders where Stacey Slater, who has bipolar disorder, develops postnatal psychosis after the birth of her child. Luckily, I didn’t develop postnatal psychosis (I did develop postnatal anxiety, which is partly why I’ve been blogging less, but it’s mostly because I’m knackered), but ever since the blue READ MORE

The baby stage is passing with incredible swiftness. Here are some things I love (shared here and not just privately, who knows): His big grin when Robert Molloy-Vaughan​ picks him up. Even if he’s crying and feeling crap, he grins when Robert picks him up. Every night, Robert takes him up the stairs to bed READ MORE

Mentally Interesting: I wrote this in 2014, and am republishing it now after reading Eva Wiseman’s piece in the Guardian. Some has changed- I have a baby, I see my husband a lot more now he’s a stay at home dad, so I feel less lonely, more that I belong, somewhere (if not anywhere else). READ MORE

I meant to write my therapy tales as a weekly series, but it ended quite abruptly. Not for any bad reasons, but because my therapist was off to Peru (!) and wanted to finish the sessions before he left- which would involve squeezing a few into a week, which was the week before I went READ MORE

Hello!  I wrote a blog for Mind on self harm,  stigma and conflicting messages.  “Stigma” has two meanings. One is religious- they’re the literal marks on the hands of Christ at the crucifixion, and then bestowed upon those whom were holiest- and by extension, those who suffered the most. The other is social- a mark READ MORE