Chutes and Ladders: Stories of Bipolar Disorder
Abstract
In 2005 when I was fifteen, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It felt like my world was falling apart. My parents and I immediately began reading all the books we could find on the subject. They mostly fell into two categories: the self-help “how to deal with your troubled teen” version and the memoirs of older people recounting the disasters of their youth. I want to write the book that I wish fifteen-year-old me had been able to read; a love letter to a mentally ill teenager from her older self. One night right after I was diagnosed, my dad sat me down and told me he believed in me. As I cried, he told me that the way he saw it-- all the other kids were playing Candy Land with its straight paths and expected outcomes; while I was playing Chutes and Ladders with the jumps to the top, the tumbles back down, and no guaranteed path to the end. Neither game was better than the other, they were just different. There is no “right way” to live with mental illness and that the only way to succeed is to make it work for you.
Description
This thesis has been embargoed for 10 years and will not be available until April 2029 at the earliest.
Keywords
Nonfiction, Memoir, Bipolar disorder, Mental illness