Riding BipolarIt was during the 2019 Covid-19 lockdowns, I was miserable because my business sales just stopped overnight and I felt hopeless. This made me bored out of my mind and feeling even more miserable by the day. There is nothing worse than boredom and Bipolar. I needed a reason to get up in the morning. I needed a project to work on.
I was meditating one afternoon and I got this idea that I could make an online course to help those effected by Bipolar, whether living this way personally or in someone's close support network.
My mind considered what I would say to my younger self after the first major episode, 13 years ago. What knowledge has helped the most? What strategies, that I have implemented, made the biggest difference? Both physical and psychological. Not everything I learned made any real difference, so I'd be able to skip all that.
The idea tickled my mind for a few weeks, I then thought, what the hell! Let's act on it and take a step.
Step 1: Testing the waters
I made the first 2 hours of the course and sent it to a bunch of people who live with Bipolar. Many were online acquaintances.
Everyone gave me extremely good feedback. Like, really good and very detailed. People that would, otherwise, tell me straight that it's rubbish. I'd say, don't be shy, tell me what you think.
With the feedback received, this project quickly became an obsession. I could think of nothing else but how to help as many people, as much as possible. I wholeheartedly believed that the course would make a difference to people.
Step 2: The platform
The next idea was that I needed a website to make the course available. Aside from my lived experience in relation to Bipolar, I also happen to be a experienced software engineer. Specifically online platforms.
Having made the above website, I thought I should add a forum to discuss all things Bipolar and the course itself. Then I thought a mood journal would be a good thing to have, something really quick to do but extremely informative on key aspects. The things that psychiatrists and other health professionals always want to know.
Things just snow balled from there. One idea led to the next and it is now, what it is. Before I knew it, £80k worth of development hours had been invested. For this reason, I feel it is fair to ask for help with the running costs of the platform.
We all now have a platform where we can come together for the de-stigmatisation and normalisation of Bipolar. Most importantly to help and support one another, not to mention the combined knowledge and experience of us all that will be left behind for future generations.
Step 3: The course
Next is the video course. For 23 years, I have pushed myself to the edge, consistently. When I got into sales at 18 years old, the employers training wasn't enough. I wanted to be at the top of my game. I got my hands on as many books as I could, from body language to self-development to NLP (neuro linguistic programming). I then got majorly into spirituality, presence and meditation/mindfulness.
13 years ago, I had my first major episode and eventual diagnoses. I'm diagnosed type 1, as in I experience full blown mania and psychosis. I studied everything I could about this thing called Bipolar. I attended some psycho educational and mindfulness courses, mingled with people who also live with the same condition. I even attended a course about making a course.
I contemplated what I would say to myself 13 years ago, in an attempt to fast track my recovery and reclaim a relatively good quality of life. Well as good as I could. There will always be depressive episodes, I've had to adapt and implement many strategies, psychological and physical.
Lastly...
To conclude, my mission is to help you as much as possible. I'm going to spend whatever time is needed to develop the course. At present it is in development. I've consistently put my heart and soul into this project.
If it helps a bunch of people, even just a little, then it will make the huge investment of time worthwhile.