Stepping Forward2Day: July 2019

RECENTLY, a friend introduced me to her sister and said: This is my Bi-Polar Sister! I immediately thought... That's not nice! Should I have introduced my baby sister as: This is my fat sister or my Depressed Sister, or my Normal Sister?
...I still think it's not nice to "OUT" people; let them do their own inventory and share their own labels. But what I did learn from this experience is that often it's hard to tell or recognize what TRAUMAS look like or define us - A death, a divorce, a profound saddness, a baby lost at birth, a rejection, an anxiety about performance, a war or disaster-related incident, overeating or obesity, and on and on and on!
...What's obvious, in my opinion, is that life is traumatizing and our experiences affect our MENTAL & PHYSICAL HEALTH. So let's talk about what's going on. Let's not merely label people! Here's a great article doing that. It's about someone who didn't judge someone else but shared her own story about COPING with changes inside herself! Feel free to leave your comments below.

Local Author Shares Her Story In Memoir

‘Defying The Verdict: My Bipolar Life’

4/5/2019, 6 a.m.

Charita Cole Brown has lived in bipolar recovery for more than twenty-five years. She chronicles her powerful story in her debut book “Defying the Verdict: My Bipolar Life.” Courtesy Photo

Charita Cole Brown was diagnosed with a severe form of bipolar disorder during her final semester as an English major at Wesleyan University. Doctors predicted she would never lead a “normal” life. Despite that prognosis she sought treatment and went on to marry, raise a family, earn a master’s degree in teaching and enjoy a fulfilling career in education.

Her powerful story is chronicled in her debut book, “Defying the Verdict: My Bipolar Life” (Curbside Splendor Publishing, June 2018). Brown will be in conversation with Dr. Karen Swartz (of the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center) at Barnes and Noble, 3330 St Paul Streeet, Baltimore on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Bipolar Disorder (formerly known as manic depression) is highly treatable. However of the estimated 5.7 million Americans living with the disorder over 50 percent refuse to seek treatment. The fact that the suicide rate for people who have bipolar disorder in the United States is 20 times higher than that of the general population is even more sobering.

“I felt compelled to write this book to help reduce the stigma for people living with bipolar disorder and to encourage people living with the disorder to seek treatment,” Brown said.

Charita Cole Brown, author of Defying the Verdict: My Bipolar Life, earned a BA in English from Wesleyan University and an MAT in Early Childhood Education from Towson University in Maryland. A retired educator who lives in Baltimore, she is committed to helping others create strategies to defy their personally challenging verdicts.