Joshua Bader's Blog: How I Learned to Love the Bomb - Posts Tagged "bipolar"
Bipolar
Some things need to be said, whether I want to be the one to say them or not. That was the most interesting thing to me about the Book of Jonah: God's chosen man with a message would rather drown than deliver it. I'm not that opposed to my current topic, but it's not an entirely comfortable one, either.
I have bipolar disorder. Not a huge shock: a lot of creative types do. The manic highs provide flights of fantasy that allow views of worlds never written. I've been writing since I was 12 with hopes of being a professional author. When mania raised its ugly head in my late teens years, it wasn't uncommon for me to pound out four poems, three short stories, and two novel chapters in the span of one very sleepless night.
I know a lot of people with bipolar fear losing that "gift". They fear that medication will steal the spark that makes them special. It's pragmatic to counter that medication might also stave off the soul-crushing depression or the ridiculously poor judgment that accompanies mania: it is the loss of creative genius the unmedicated writer/musician/artist fears.
I wrote for 13 years without a drop of lithium in my system. My first attempt at a novel after starting lithium therapy was a difficult slough. The biggest difference came in the end result, though: it got finished. It didn't end up as two or three chapters in a cobwebbed notebook. I finished it out to 16 chapters with a beginning, a middle, and an end. That particular novel isn't published yet.... but it will be. As it turns out, that novel will be book 4 in my Modern Knights series from City Owl Press. The difference between being a writer and being an author lies in finishing what was started. That's what lithium did for me: it made me a finisher.
I hope you all enjoy Modern Knights, starting with Frostbite in July 2016. I hope even more that if you're struggling with untreated mental health issues you consider getting help. Not all medication is good medication, but the right medication can make all the difference.
I have bipolar disorder. Not a huge shock: a lot of creative types do. The manic highs provide flights of fantasy that allow views of worlds never written. I've been writing since I was 12 with hopes of being a professional author. When mania raised its ugly head in my late teens years, it wasn't uncommon for me to pound out four poems, three short stories, and two novel chapters in the span of one very sleepless night.
I know a lot of people with bipolar fear losing that "gift". They fear that medication will steal the spark that makes them special. It's pragmatic to counter that medication might also stave off the soul-crushing depression or the ridiculously poor judgment that accompanies mania: it is the loss of creative genius the unmedicated writer/musician/artist fears.
I wrote for 13 years without a drop of lithium in my system. My first attempt at a novel after starting lithium therapy was a difficult slough. The biggest difference came in the end result, though: it got finished. It didn't end up as two or three chapters in a cobwebbed notebook. I finished it out to 16 chapters with a beginning, a middle, and an end. That particular novel isn't published yet.... but it will be. As it turns out, that novel will be book 4 in my Modern Knights series from City Owl Press. The difference between being a writer and being an author lies in finishing what was started. That's what lithium did for me: it made me a finisher.
I hope you all enjoy Modern Knights, starting with Frostbite in July 2016. I hope even more that if you're struggling with untreated mental health issues you consider getting help. Not all medication is good medication, but the right medication can make all the difference.
How I Learned to Love the Bomb
A blog talking about how life forced me to be a writer and I couldn't be happier about it. Topics should include writing with children, mental health issues, discrimination, and science fiction.
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