FROM A FELLOW TRAVELER

From a Fellow Traveler

by Dr. Martha McMillian

I’m lucky.  My experiences with bipolar illness have been less severe than others, but still painful. When did I first realize I had an illness of manic depression?  Perhaps I realized after my child was born in my late 20’s when I experienced a depth of post-partum depression that was debilitating.  I should have known this might happen due to my family background, although few like me wish to acknowledge our greatest fears.   This doesn’t mean I’d been immune to signs and negative emotional experiences prior to that: as a 5 year old, I look baths and changed clothes 4-5 times a day; I was obese and weighed as much as 100 pounds as early as 7 years old; I was anorexic and bulimic as a young adult; but I was smart and my teachers loved me—thus beginning my habit of spending most of my time in books.

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