Polar Opposites is a set of memoirs of trauma and healing, mental illness and resilience, new beginnings and triumphs over our authors’ pasts. This compilation of as-lived stories that make up Polar Opposites, were written and compiled, first and foremost to raise awareness about bipolar affective disorder and how it manifests itself in varying degrees of severity. It has a recognisable pattern of behaviour that gave it the name by which it was formerly manic depression. The swings between the ‘highs’ of the manic state and the alternating plunges into deep despair is debilitating for the person affected, difficult for family and friends, and disruptive to stability in personal interactions and everyday life.
What sets these brutally honest, poignantly written personal accounts apart from other publications, is that there have not been many books that have the same rich mixture of accounts from both those diagnosed with bipolar as well as a close member of their family or friend - providing a lasting eye-opening insight that both warms and enlightens all our experiences. I am (as the person leading this book), myself bipolar, and, like too many others of us, waited many long years for the correct diagnosis that would allow medication and psychiatric therapy to begin thus, enabling a happier, more normal, and chemically-balanced life to realize itself, finally.
New Zealand research states that one-third of patients with bipolar disorder will have been initially diagnosed as having major depression. Those wasted years when we might have been much more productive in all facets of life, and more secure and stable in our relationships. Also, less liable to squander money that was often hard-earned, or lose it in the exuberance of mania after a phase of depression, which left us vulnerable to financial exploitation. The latest figures given in the statistics for those experiencing mental illness in New Zealand puts it at 28% of the population, or one in four. Bipolar disorder is up there with the top five that includes anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and other psychoses and dementia. In New Zealand/Aotearoa, where 7 out of 8 of our authors contributing to this book reside, our statistics say that (* !) 41,000 people were diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the year ending 2022, and sadly, and shockingly, (*2) bipolar may account for a quarter of all completed suicides in this country. Our commitment is that there be a copy of Polar Opposites in every GP waiting room in New Zealand, Australia and the entire world. As a result, a family member, friend or the person who is bipolar, picks it up, reads it, and says to
‘Aaah – that’s my sister’ or ‘That’s my grandfather!‘, and then takes the necessary actions to have their loved one seek the medical help they require to be diagnosed, substantially earlier than the average time it currently takes.
Each of our authors have something unique to offer in terms of their life story; no case is the same. One of our authors was convinced she was Jesus at a certain time in her life. During one of my multiple manic high episodes on an East German border in 1988, while surrounded by East German soldiers, I gestured the Seig Heil Nazi salute with my right arm extended to the sky and my left hand under my nose! The potential situation on-looking soldiers taking umbrage to a perceived insult. These are just a couple of extreme examples of how anti-social and debilitating this illness can be for all who are in its path.