BP Magazine Interview

Back in December, I mentioned that I was interviewed for the spring issue of BP Magazine (Bipolar Magazine). Well, that issue has been published! Check out my interview below. It was really cool seeing my story in print. I've been published in online outlets over the last few months, but there's nothing like having a finished product to actually hold in your hands. Call me old fashioned, but I still like print.

 

In the article, I discuss how difficult it was navigating my life around the depression. But somehow I managed to do it for an entire year. It helped that my employer was understanding and accommodating. I know that's not always the case.

 

Note: The article accurately captures my depression. However, they get my age wrong. I am 31 not 35.

 

Blogging Year-in-Review

This has  been quite the year!

When I was hospitalized in 2013 for mania I left the hospital wanting to write a memoir. The mania had me super excited to accomplish that feat. However, my mood had other plans. I became depressed shortly after the mania ended. And I spent the rest of 2013 and half of 2014 in a funk. The depression zapped my motivation and energy. And the memoir I was so excited about did not materialize.

Hospitalized yet again in 2014 for mania, I was re-determined to write a memoir. But this time I decided that starting a blog would be more manageable than a full-length book. Within days of being discharged I started Manic Monique's Meanderings. I was so manic in those early days that I managed to pump out 52 blog posts in the month of June!

However, the reach of my writing did not end with Manic Monique's Meanderings. Here's what else I've been up to:

• I was published on The Root. Being published on a black publication was really important to me.
• I was invited to blog for Huffington Post (sometimes I republish MMM posts, sometimes I write new material). My reading audience has grown exponentially. A UK mental health organization even referenced one of my Huff Post articles. I'm global, y'all!
• I was interviewed by BP Magazine. The interview will be published spring 2015. I have a subscription to BP so I was really excited for this opportunity! 
• I was interviewed by and featured on the Real Brown Girls blog.
• For Mental Health Awareness Week, I guest blogged for Strut in Her Shoes.
• I was interviewed by MyndTalk, an internet radio show.
• I was interviewed by Black Women Empowerment, another internet radio show.
• And social media has been such a godsend.
• Bring Change 2 Mind (the mental health organization co-founded by actress Glenn Close) and four NAMI chapters from across the U.S. follow me on Twitter.
• The International Bipolar Foundation shared one of my Huffington Post articles on their Facebook page.

I have no idea what 2015 will have in store for me, but I'm looking forward to continuing to share my story.

Thank you for reading my blog. Make sure you come back :)

Learning Spanish

Last year during my April 2013 hospitalization, one of my roommates was from Honduras. She did not speak that much English. She patiently taught me Spanish for two days. I was highly manic so my brain was wide open. I learned Spanish as easy as if I was a young child. To be fair, I studied French in middle and high schools and Spanish in college. But taking two languages only confused me. I know both equally poorly. In my head I can't tell the difference between Spanish and French. I have no accent for either language; I just sound like a Jersey girl trying to talk another language.

Pressured speech is a symptom of mania. It means I talk very fast, with the words rushing out of my mouth as if I'm going to lose the ability to speak in 5 minutes. The pressured speech meant that I sounded like a native Spanish speaker! I even had one of the patient care technicians ask me if I was Dominican because my Spanish was so good. That was such a compliment.

I have since lost my Spanish fluency. Use it or lose it. But I've just purchased a Rosetta Stone and I'll be moving in with a Puerto Rican friend next month. I'm going to use the Rosetta Stone and make my friend talk to me. (She used to work as a Spanish translator for PSE&G.)

I have more to say about learning Spanish; but I've put it in an op-ed for The New York Times. I'll know next week if they are going to print my article. If they don't, I'm going to try to submit it to the Bipolar Magazine.

So stay posted...