Something I am proud of in my journey:

I was diagnosed at 26 with Bipolar 2 after not knowing why I was struggling through life with extreme highs and lows. I faced the worst depression of my life in 2022 that lasted around 9 months, and I believed I would never recover. I went from a high period, self-employed and making money, living in my flat in London. I was making music and auditioning for projects (which was my wildest dream), and I crashed into a depressive episode. I had to start again in a new city away from my friends and put on hold my career that had taken a decade to build. I couldn’t stomach any food and was a 26-year-old who weighed 40kg. The way forward felt impossible. I then had a car accident a couple of days before Christmas, and I completely spiraled. My ability to function was so impaired that I couldn’t manage to do simple tasks, which is something I feel people don’t understand enough who don’t have bipolar.

I saw psychiatrists, tried different medications, went a year and a half sober and attended MBT & DBT. I studied psychology, biology and health practice remotely part-time for a year as I began to stabilize to understand how I could help myself and get out to a coffee shop for an hour a day. The UK’s healthcare can be amazing, but I was constantly on waiting lists for months at a time, which I felt was making me worse, so I was trying to find out what I could do independently to help myself recover. I slowly became a healthier weight and was able to use the routine to keep me more stable than I had been in years. Fast-forward to today, I am now (just starting) my second year as a psychiatric and general dual nursing student, working with other people to share what I have learned and hopefully make a difference in the darkest moments of other people’s lives. It is a huge challenge, but the university has been really accommodating and supportive. I’ve been lucky enough to do some amazing things in my life, but my biggest victory has been overcoming bipolar episodes and choosing to keep going when my heart was broken and I had nothing to fight for. I have so much respect and time for anyone who is in or has been in a similar place.

Message for those who are newly diagnosed:

I would have said to myself, just think about today. Being bipolar isn’t all bad; embrace the good times and keep going even when you don’t want to. It took me so long to feel human again after being diagnosed, but if you hang in there, better days will come. I read that so many times from other people – and I didn’t believe it – but they were right. The road to recovery takes a lot of patience and resilience that you didn’t know you were capable of producing. Anything long-lasting and worth having takes time to build, and just because you don’t have it all together now doesn’t mean it’s not coming. There are so many people in the world who will understand you, even if you don’t know them yet. The rest of your life might look different, which isn’t necessarily negative. Hard days happen, and honestly, every day takes work for me to stay stable. By putting one foot in front of the other and committing, I have a life worth living now – and if I can do it, you can too.