1.02 April Kelley Bipolar 2, Borderline Personality Disorder, Therapy fatigue and healing our inner child

April is an actor and producer, and an Ambassador for Bipolar UK. April started her own company at 21 to bring stability to her career as an Actor. For April working for herself works better than working for someone else, so this career path she feels is best suited to her. April lives with Bipolar type 2 and Borderline Personality Disorder; she has suffered since she was 15 but didn’t receive diagnosis and help until she was 27. She has been on medication since the age of 18 and feels that in the last year she has stepped into therapy whole heartedly after hitting rock bottom. We talk about how receiving a diagnosis can be bittersweet and how this can land so differently for us all and how Bipolar can be partly genetic and partly triggered by trauma. When April was diagnosed, April’s dad said “I always knew there was a stroke of genius inside of you” The feeling of being invincible and absolute certainty that we are able to carry out an immense number of tasks without any doubt in our highest selves versus how low we can go and not be able to even to the smallest of tasks. We talk about the differences in our experiences of taking Quetiapine, April’s hunger has been totally suppressed and in my experience my hunger was insatiable, and I needed 3 breakfasts before I my normal level of hunger came through for a normal hunger. We both know the feeling of a medication hangover and how it can take a few hours in the morning to shift. We also talk about how experiencing balanced mood is something that feels alien to us after having spent most of your life affected by Bipolar. Inner child work can be very healing in learning how to reparent our younger selves and offer those parts of us compassion, grace, love and understanding. April is currently working through these parts of her journey and grieving for the parts of our lives in the past where we were doing our best and forgive ourselves for the things we didn’t know at the time and do know now. TW: Auditory intrusions, Hypomanic, Paranoia and Mania Please find support and resources on our website: Website www.bipolaruk.org Insta: bipolar_uk Twitter: bipolaruk Facebook: bipolaruk Find the links to April’s profiles below: IG: @april_kelley Twitter: @april__kelley www.aprilkelley.com Hosted by Emma Belle IG @emmakbelle www.emmakbelle.com