New Member Saying Hi!

Good morning to all you amazing people,

I have just joined the forum and I wanted to say hi, I have been reading other posts and all of you are such incredible people. I personally searched for a place like this for support a few years ago and was at a loss, but now I have found you guys, I think I have some valuable stories to share, if anything to show you that eventually, you can make it out the other side because there is always hope!

So firstly about my bipolar. To be clear, my bipolar is not actually mine... it belongs to my best friend, my partner in crime, my soulmate, but most appropriately my superhero! My partner was diagnosed with depression in his early 20's and not long into our relationship (after much encouragement from me to seek help), it wasn’t until his mid twenties we changed tack (and GP) and approached his condition as bipolar. Seems like a great story right... but yes, we too have been through the nightmare that is diagnosis, medication cocktail balancing, ups, downs, violence, hospitalisations, police call outs and many counselling options... but guess what, we made it... we are here, just shy of our thirties, with a good balance of medications, regular check in's with our psych, and now tackling "normal" life challenges without too much interference from his crazy side. Don’t get me wrong, he has his days... as I have mine, but mostly, we live a fairly normal existence, which is an amazing achievement from where we began!

I know what it is like to search in all corners of the internet at all hours of the day and night for advice, support, understanding...hope... so I feel if I can help anyone else avoid feeling like they are the only one living this struggle, then that is the least I can be doing.

Thanks for having me, and I look forward to contributing wherever I can

Tigs xx