Samantha Smirin, author, coach and mental health advocate, addresses the difficulties of living with bipolar disorder in her book, Life Interrupted, writes Yvonne Fontyn
Samantha Smirin, author, coach and mental health advocate, addresses the difficulties of living with bipolar disorder in her book, Life InterruptedSamantha Smirin knows she might fall again but says she is equipped. Picture: SUPPLIED
According to the SA Depression and Anxiety Group , bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a physical illness marked by extreme changes in mood, energy and behaviour. “The person’s mood usually swings from overly ‘high’ and irritable to sad and hopeless, and then back again, with periods of normal mood in between,” says Sadag.
and becoming a “bipolar coach”. She doesn’t just mean she helps people with bipolar; she is always upfront about where she comes from. Having studied psychology as part of her BA at the University of Cape Town, she registered for an honours degree in psychology but left it when she decided that paradigm did not suit her. “I work from the standpoint of the wounded healer, which is a Jungian archetype. I have been training for this for 30 years.
Stigma is still a major problem in SA, and there is much misunderstanding about bipolar mood disorder, she says. This is one of the motivating factors for her becoming a “bipolar mental health advocate”. Helen Joseph Hospital has only nine beds in its psychiatric ward, she says. “This is literally an insane lack of resources, considering the mental health problems in SA. We are a traumatised nation.”
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