Special Report: The Scrapbook of a Bipolar

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The reason I am writing this is to help someone who is in the same situation where I found myself eighteen years ago so they can benefit from my own funny, unique, sometimes hurtful, painful, uncomfortable and even humiliating personal experience.

I am writing this is to answer the questions I had about myself, the discovery that my depression was not clinical depression but that it was manic depression, the onset of my mood swings and Christianity in my own life. If North America can be described as the ‘Prozac Nation’ by the North American author Elizabeth Wurtzel and the USA coined the terms ‘hype’ and ‘spin’ then why is mental health such a low on the list of priorities of the people we voted into power when it basically affects everyone around us directly or indirectly, in a significant manner or otherwise?

Bipolar or manic depression is a psychiatric illness also known as bipolar mood disorder or having mood swings. I have lived with this debilitating, mysterious and deadly disease my whole life. I have struggled to overcome the stigma attached to this disease by people who are intimidated by anything that they do not have any control over.

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This is my story. Sometimes I imagine that I am standing on a stage giving a seminar when I say those words.

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Abigail George
Abigail George is an award-winning short story writer, author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and an award-winning poet. She is a Pushcart Prize, two-time Best of the Net nominated, Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Prize longlisted, Writing Ukraine Prize shortlisted, Identity Theory's Editor's Choice, Ink Sweat Tears Pick of the Month poet/writer. In 2021, her writing was recognised by Afrocritik among the 20 Remarkable African Essays. In 2023, she was the winner of the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award. In 2023, she was shortlisted for the Writing Ukraine Prize; in 2024, her poem, “Rebirth” received an Honourable Mention in the New Coin Poetry Prize, and in 2025, she was shortlisted for the Erbacce Prize. In 2025, she was longlisted for the Erbacce Prize and her poems were selected for the Erbacce Journal. She is a two-time recipient of grants from the National Arts Council in Johannesburg, one from the Centre of the Book in Cape Town and another from ECPACC in KuGompo City. She won a national high school writing competition in her teens. She was interviewed by BBC Radio 4, for AOL.com, the USA Today Network, The Tennessean, and Radio Ikrikya in Algeria. Her writing has appeared in Agbowo, Botsotso, Critical Muslim, Jalada, Kalahari Review, LitNet, Ons Klyntji, Piker Press, The Eastern Province Herald, The Ovi, and others. She was educated in Port Elizabeth and Swaziland. She is the Contributing Editor for African Writer Magazine based in New Jersey, and an editor at Mwanaka Media and Publishing situated in Zimbabwe. Her latest book is "Did You Get Married to Her When I was in the Mental Hospital". Find it on Amazon and at the ZamaShort shop. Find her on Bluesky, LinkedIn, Substack, and Instagram @abigailgeorgepoet.