I'm resigned to living with bipolar disorder for the rest of my life. The fear and shame are gone; I speak about my illness openly with both family and friends and have even ventured out into the public arena, sharing my story of my battle with bipolar disorder in Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania, published by Random House. This was probably the hardest thing I had to do with my illness - to go public. But I did it because I wanted people to know that there were 2.5 million people with bipolar disorder diagnosed in this country - and millions more undiagnosed. And I thought that my sharing my story - a very personal story - would bring people out of the closet to seek treatment, help family members in understanding their loved ones, and also help mental healthcare professionals in treating their patients.
In the fall, the film version of Electroboy will go into production with Tobey Maguire and it will be the first big budget Hollywood movie with a bipolar protagonist. I'm currently working on a sequel to Electroboy, and I still maintain a mental health website at www.electroboy.com Since my diagnosis ten years ago, bipolar disorder has become my mission, an illness I had honestly never heard of until that day and something I never would have imagined I would be doing in ten years.
It's been a long journey for me, but a very rewarding one. Learning to cope with the illness has been tremendously satisfying for me, and passing on my knowledge of my coping skills is the most important thing that I can do with my life. And every day I remind people suffering, there is hope - you will get better.
