A care ecosystem to end stigma around bipolarity

Mental health conditions need to be managed — not just by individual, but by their entire ecosystem, including caregivers, friends and allies, work colleagues, medical professionals, and anyone who loves and cares for us.

Today is a day of personal celebration and inner reflection for me, and for millions like me around the world. Because today, March 30, is World Bipolar Day — a day to spread awareness and reduce the stigma of this serious mental condition, which causes extreme swings in mood and energy levels. Previously known as manic depression, I have lived with bipolar disorder for 23 years. It has been a rollercoaster journey of highs and lows, as well as extended periods of equilibrium.

I believe there has never been a better time to pay attention to World Bipolar Day in India. (Shutterstock)

I believe there has never been a better time to pay attention to World Bipolar Day in India. Because March 30 is the famous artist Vincent van Gogh’s birthday. Van Gogh suffered from mental illness for most of his life and was declared bipolar posthumously. This year, Van Gogh 360°, a global digital exhibition of his paintings, is touring 17 Indian cities. Currently showing in Mumbai, it will move to the main metros as well as smaller cities such as Surat, Bhopal and Nagpur.

The immersive exhibition presents hundreds of Van Gogh’s most famous works creatively, delighting children and adults with its artistry. It also highlights his mental health condition in some detail — his challenges with medication, his time in psychiatric facilities, and his suicide. Thus, it reinforces the trope of the “tormented creative genius”, a brilliant individual who took his own life because of his volatile mind. While this is true, I also believe that this is not the only portrait of bipolarity that one would want to sketch.

World Bipolar Day is also particularly relevant in India this year because of a similarly tragic incident in Odisha in January. Gopal Das, an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) in the Odisha police, shot and killed Odisha health minister Naba Kishore Das in public. Newspaper reports suggest that he is bipolar, and that he intentionally stopped taking his medicines in the weeks leading to the assassination. He is now being investigated by government officials.

Together, the van Gogh exhibition and Das’s assassination suggest that a serious mental health condition such as bipolarity can have terrible, violent consequences. But that is not the only truth, or even the whole truth. For example, media reports also said that ASI Gopal Das is a decorated police officer with an excellent track record in investigations over a 31-year policing career.

In my case, while I have had extreme mood swings, I have stabilised over the last five years. I have two sons and a growing career — and I have never been violent. A former CEO of my family’s office furniture business, I have written two books and over 250 newspaper articles, I teach at a university and am a public speaker. I like to say that I am happy, thriving, and bipolar.

There are several others like me with serious mental health conditions who have pursued their dreams. For example, 40-year-old Daniel Lobo, the Mumbai-based founder of BecauseYOU, a startup providing a community-focused approach to mental health. Diagnosed as bipolar in 2015, Lobo is leveraging his lived experience to create safe spaces for others. He is also a parent to a toddler.

Or a 28-year-old woman (whose name is being withheld for privacy reasons) who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia three years ago, a condition just as serious as bipolarity, if not more. She earned a PhD at Ulster University in the United Kingdom and is now working as a research associate.

These examples highlight that it is possible for those living with mental health conditions to lead fulfilling — and illuminating lives — despite the challenges. For Lobo, “finding balance internally has been difficult and life-changing, but being on a mental health journey consciously has allowed me to understand myself better, prioritise what’s important, form deeper relationships, unlock my creativity and hone my leadership skills.”

So how do we arrive at positive outcomes and avoid tragic deaths such as those of van Gogh and Das? The answer is straightforward: Mental health conditions need to be managed — not just by individual, but by their entire ecosystem, including caregivers, friends and allies, work colleagues, medical professionals, and anyone who loves and cares for us.

In my book, Chemical Khichdi: How I Hacked My Mental Health, I outline a number of coping mechanisms for healing and recovery. Foremost among these is the idea that mental health is a team sport. It is not like Covid-19, where isolation is prescribed. Mental health, whether bipolarity or more common conditions such as depression and anxiety, needs acceptance, empathy, patience and unconditional support. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community of allies to heal a mind. Unfortunately, the vast majority of mental health conditions are undiagnosed, untreated and stigmatised in India today.

Today, let us start with dismantling our belief that those with mental health conditions cannot live full and meaningful lives. Let’s instead celebrate those of us who find resilience, strength and illumination in our very human vulnerability.

Aparna Piramal Raje is a writer, speaker and educator and the author of Chemical Khichdi: How I Hacked My Mental Health

The views expressed are personal