Batavia Resident Gives Voice To Mental Illness In WebMD's 'Living Bipolar'

When I learned that Susan Atkinson, 66, of Batavia, was featured in the WebMD series "Living Bipolar," I was ecstatic about interviewing her. As a person with bipolar 2 disorder, I Google "people with bipolar disorder" pretty often because I want to learn about other people who live with bipolar disorder.

Usually, I run across forums that haven't been updated since 2015 or YouTube videos that are brief and don't give me exactly what I'm looking for: a way to humanize bipolar disorder. Through "Living Bipolar," Susan Atkinson humanizes bipolar disorder in a way that makes the uninitiated understand the nuances of living with the disorder and how it affects your family, friends, and even casual acquaintances.

Struggling With the Stigma

Atkinson told me it's difficult for her when she hears peers speaking about bipolar disorder in a way that seems gossipy. Often, mid-conversation, she'll stop them and say, "I have that. I'm bipolar." To which they'll often respond, "You don't seem like you're bipolar." Taken to another level, it's almost as if saying, "You don't seem like you're bipolar," means as if there's something wrong with people who have bipolar disorder. As if they're not normal people.

At the same time, bipolar and other mental illnesses are rarely approached with the same sympathy of physical illnesses. Atkinson has been hospitalized 13 times in the last 15 years and she tells me people shouldn't expect an outpouring of support and gifts from friends and relatives. “I always say that you don’t get casseroles with bipolar when you’re in the hospital. Casseroles or flowers. You don’t get them. Mental illness is different”

Sue's Story

To Atkinson and her adult daughters, Alicia and Amber, bipolar disorder isn't different; its "just how mom is." It's been the norm since Susan was diagnosed at 34, when her daughters were very young. In their 'Living Bipolar' video, Amber and Alicia recall a later birthday party their mother didn't attend. They say that when they left the house, she was sitting in a chair, nearly "catatonic." When they returned, she was in the same state until an ambulance came to take her to a hospital.

Susan still has stretches of time when she can't muster getting out of bed. Her daughters —one a nurse, the other a former 911 operator— are her support system. They say they know when Susan teeters into mania because they'll start receiving random packages from QVC (compulsive shopping is a hallmark symptom of bipolar mania). She also has days when she successfully balances organizing events, working with the local community, and running a bipolar support group she started in Naperville.

'Living Bipolar'

Atkinson became involved with Living Bipolar because of the work she's done for the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) in Chicago. Susan runs the bimonthly Fox Valley DBSA meetings that take place in Naperville. For Atkinson and her daughters, "Living Bipolar" was a game changer. "My daughters and I are so much closer because we've never talked about [my bipolar disorder] before. We text each other every day or talk on the phone. We're just much closer."

'Living Bipolar' has also given Susan some perspective on how far she's come since she was first diagnosed. She talks of struggling to function in the early days of her illness and adds, “Now I’m running a support group.” That may be a bit of an understatement. Susan not only runs the Naperville DBSA support group, she also uses her home landline to take calls from bipolar patients who can't make it to meetings, but still need support and solidarity. "Those people don't come to the meetings, but they get something from the call."

Taking Back Bipolar

Susan hopes 'Living Bipolar' will help people with mental illness in the same way her support group does. "If [the 'Living Bipolar'] video can help somebody feel like, 'Oh, that’s just like me,'" Atkinson feels she's been able to do more to help reshape the public image of the illness that shaped her life.

She says she used to try to hide the fact that she was bipolar. These days, she's hell-bent on being transparent about her personal struggles with bipolar disorder. She's owning it.

For more info on bipolar disorder, visit WebMD, where you can also watch the full series of 'Living Bipolar' videos.

>>Image via 'Living Bipolar'