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I'm a mental health clinician who also carries a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. I'm also a freelance writer. I want to start this blog as a venue to explore the effects of mental illness as I've experienced them in myself, and also in the clients I work with. I've been inspired by the Certified Peer Specialist movement, in which mental health "consumers" who have progressed to a certain degree in their own recovery undergo training to provide peer support to other psychiatric patients. This movement has inspired me to "come out" to my supervisor at work as bipolar, as I would like to take part in it. I see the effects of stigma and shame on so many clients who are afraid to admit their own diagnosis, a shame that often inhibits them from taking the medication they often desperately need (as I do); I think that providing examples of people with psychiatric illness who function fully in the community and the working world can represent a huge step toward breaking down that stigma.

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