Dearly Bipolar, THANK YOU!

I am no longer an island of one

Dearly Bipolar,

I am so grateful for this generous space¹ that has brought us all together.

I started my Substack called Dearly Bipolar two years ago, as a way to finally speak publicly about living with Bipolar Disorder. I chose to write my newsletter as a love letter to myself and others who (often silently) suffer.

How did I find this kind space for writers and creatives? I had been a member of an online writing community for several years, which is where I met my writing coach. Incredible author, speaker, and now podcaster, the wonderful

Kathy Izard

.

She had shared with me a Substack by

William Burleson

called Semi-colon. Knowing my story, it made her think of me when she read it, and encouraged me to check it out. I did right away and I was immediately riveted. Semi-colon was such an honest and raw telling of William’s initial diagnosis and treatment of Bipolar Disorder.

I was captivated and to be honest, a little jealous . Here I was in my fourth decade of life, trying to muster up the courage to tell my story and this kid (no offense

William Burleson

), at the time was like 18 years old and he was boldly sharing about his journey. Everything in me was screaming beneath the surface. That’s what I want! How do I do that?

Up until that point I had been on what I like to refer to as “Blog Island” lol, (my own personal website). It felt pretty lonely most of the time.

I’ve never been one to be on social media a lot, which is typically the place to you go to invite people out to your island haha. In the loneliness of it all, I was struggling to post anything consistently. It felt like a lot of hoops to jump through. Life with bipolar as many of you know is HARD, and I didn’t need sharing my story to be hard too.

Enter

Substack

. When I looked into starting my own, it looked not only easy but it was free too! What was also inviting, is that I would already be part of a community of writers and creatives. Sounded like a win win to me.

I was so excited about how user friendly Substack was, that I started sharing with some of my other writer friends. I encouraged them to look into it and think about starting their own.

My friend Shelley started

Wisdom and Grace

and my friend Natalie started

as through a glass

. We met online (somewhat) weekly to encourage each other and occasionally give the nudge we needed to post that piece we’d been thinking about or sitting on for awhile.

It was night and day different for me. I wasn’t alone on my own little island anymore. I finally had a small community of peer writers, and it was making the difference in how I was able to show up more consistently sharing my story. I am so incredibly grateful for these two women and their friendship.

The other amazing part was how it didn’t take long for other writer’s to find me who resonated with my story of living with Bipolar Disorder. Writer’s like

Bipolar Genie

,

Dopamine Dream Machine

,

CB’s Life in Writing

,

Lacee Be

, and more.

I was stunned by how many people could now find me and my story, and likewise how easily I could find them.

I was so moved by their courage and authenticity. Peers with shared lived experiences supporting other peers in pursuit of our passions and dreams. It has been energizing.

I hope each one of you mentioned here gets a chance to read this and know how much your words, your writing, your bravely sharing your story and experiences has moved me and in turn given me courage to keep showing up. THANK YOU.

Photo by Vladislav Klapin on Unsplash

Dearly Bipolar is close to my heart as I spent many years learning how to love and accept all of me. I am glad for this opportunity to share this love letter with others.

I have been so incredibly encouraged and spurred on by all of these

Substack Writers

I have mentioned above and more. I encourage each of you to pick one (or ALL) of these writers to go subscribe to right now and read their stories. They are some of the bravest people I know.

1. I ❤️

Substack