Crazy. Just keep telling yourself you’re not crazy. Even though that’s all anyone tells you is wrong with you.

Mental health, and its hydra of heads, is something of which humanity is only recently taking back the reigns from fate. Understanding these ailments and disorders, and proper diagnoses, is the first step in this process.

Bipolar Disorder is one of these monsters which is so often misunderstood. Lesser-informed think of mood swings, and intense mania and depression. But there is so much more to it than being “moody”.

I connected with Taylor about her relatively recent diagnosis of Bipolar II - a classification of the disorder which does not take an individual into full manic episodes, but rather ebbs and flows between hypomania and extreme depression.

And Taylor and I talked I began to grasp what this malady really is. The sleep depravation, the flurry of activeness, the extreme pits of depression, the suicidal thoughts, and the need for routine to balance the scales. It’s a monstrous disorder to comprehend, and I cannot imagine what it is like to live with it everyday. With no way to get off that train.