Christine resides in Houston, Texas where she was born and raised. She is employed full time as a Senior Human Resource representative and has worked at the same company for 13 years. She was an accountant for most of her career, but decided she needed a change of pace. Switching to Human Resources allows her to work with people, which is what she loves most about her job. She is fortunate to have an employer who is fully aware of her bipolar diagnosis and works with her during the challenging times of recovery.
For most of her adult life she has dealt with depression, anxiety and bipolar without treatment. She decided to finally seek treatment for what she thought was depression after she had her fourth child. Like many others she was misdiagnosed with depression. She hid much of her struggle from family, friends and co-workers because she felt embarrassed by her mental illness. During her treatment she started having thoughts of suicide and shortly after had her first suicide attempt in 2007.
She was diagnosed with Bipolar II in 2010 after she had extreme mania in which she overdosed on clonazepam and was admitted into the hospital. That particular event started her journey to recovery. The diagnosis was not accepted with open arms; in fact she was scared and terrified. She knew very little about the illness or the medicines that were prescribed to her, and there was no one to talk to. She again had another manic episode that led to her second suicide attempt, which involved swallowing almost a whole bottle of Benadryl. She decided to take her treatment and her life serious. Since then she constantly strives to tackle this disorder and not let it win or destroy her life.
In 2013 after several med changes her doctor decided to take her off all meds to observe her for a possible misdiagnoses. Only a few months into this observation she had 2 manic episode that she handled on her own with out meds. She is back to the drawing board with her treatment but will not give up. During all of this she is able to still have the strength and will to keep living day to day and maintaining a successful career. With the support of family, friends , her therapist and co workers she is able to openly share what she is going through making treatment and living with Bipolar at lot more bearable then if she did not have any support.
In her spare time she works to bring awareness to bipolar and mental illness by working on her soon to be non-profit Pepper Vintage. Christine is no longer embarrassed about her mental illness and embraces it. She is an open book and hopes to show the world you can thrive and live life with Bipolar.
