Bipolar Type 2

December 1st, 2010 during my annual job review I fell apart. Just started wailing until the wad of tissues in my hand was the size of a large grapefruit.
You see I had never had anything but an exceptional or at the very least, meets expections during my 35 year career.

Let me digress a minute, nine months earlier one of my eleven year olds came to me and confided he had tried to strangle himself and that he felt purposeless and unnessary on this planet. He was admitted to Arizona's only childrens hospital with a dedicated pediatric psychiatry unit. Phoenix Childrens' Hospital. Now a year later he is stable on meds until the next mood swing.

One month after that my other eleven year old was aggressive and frightening to the point I was afraid of being physically harmed by him. He was admitted, diagnosed and started treatment. He is stable on meds now.

So the busy single mom working 50 hours a week that I was just kept going and going and going, until that fateful day in my review where I fell apart completely.
I went to my family doctor who took me off work immediately and referred to a psychiatrist for treatment of Major Depression. That was December 1,2010, I am still on leave.

After anti-depressant changes each month due to side effects or ineffectiveness, the last two meds caused me to have a period of mania lasting less than seven days. But causing significant financial consequences due to the irrational (rational in my mind) choices I made during these periods, like going on a cruise I couldn't afford, or the next one, I ordered carpet I cannot afford.

The good news is now I am on a different medication, a mood stabilizer. I feel like my old self today. Not depressed, not over the top happy and irrational, just content, peaceful, glad to be alive and ready to do laundry.

I will not lie to you, the cost of my children's illnesses and mine have left us without savings or retirement. We eek out paycheck to paycheck.

There is no second income or extended family.

However, today is a good day.

Please help me raise awareness and funds for Phoenix Childrens' Hospital department of psychiatry by visiting Connecttocharity.com and type youngmindsmatter in search line and click fundraiser. If you can give no amount is too small.

Thanks for reading,
Robbin