I have conflicting thoughts about writing about my mental health. In one sense, what goes on inside my brain is private and is not anyone else’s business. But I have also seen so many people struggle with the self-inflicted stigma of mental health and with so many fears and insecurities that I feel like I need to do something. So I figured I would start blogging about what being bipolar is like. I like writing, and feel that writing can be a form of therapy, so I am sure this blog will be good for me. I might even manage to help someone else.

My faith in Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring people to peace with myself has transformed my life, and it hurts when I hear people portray genuine Christianity as something unattainable for people who have mental health struggles. The help that I have received through my church has helped me in ways that are hard to describe, but I have also seen that among Christians there are plenty of harmful ideas about mental health that need to disappear. This blog is not for retribution or scoring cheap shots, but I hope to help people come to a proper, Biblical understanding of what mental health is and isn’t, and to understand what it actually means to be a Christian.

Over the past decade or so society has placed a higher priority on addressing mental health, which is good. One issue that I see with how we discuss mental health is that we don’t always distinguish between legit mental health disorders and the mental struggles of people who have no formal disorder. Someone who has genuine, overwhelming depression is even close to the same as someone who is having a bad week at work. Helping someone who has a legit disorder requires a different toolset and mentality. Understanding what people with actual disorders go through is almost impossible, so I’ll try to describe what it is actually like to have a dysfunctional mind.

And finally, I think I have some funny stories. Humour is a beautiful thing that can be used to understand serious issues, and I have every right to laugh at myself.