Welcome to Conversations With. My name is Shaila Kukendorn and I live with Bipolar 2 Disorder. Sharing with others is healing both individually and collectively. Sharing our stories will Educate others, bring more understanding, shed more light, and smash more stigma. Our voices need to be heard. Our stories aren't over yet. This is Bipolar. I am super jazzed because this is going to be a fun episode.
We are going to talk about Inside Out 2 from people that actually live with bipolar disorder, mental illness, and what we thought about it. Before that, I wanted to mention I have subscriptions on Instagram. If you want to go deeper, if you're looking for a community, if you're looking at the behind the scenes or extra content with the podcast, subscriptions is for you. One of ask in that community, peer support. So once a month we meet on Zoom and everyone on there understands each other.
We all have a mood disorder and we just listen to each other and show up and just witness each other's pain and struggle and also share things that work for Managee. It's open to anyone that signs up for subscriptions. If you have trouble, just message me. But everyone is invited. I cannot explain to you what it's like just being with a bunch of folks that just get it. Sign up for that. I want to get started.
If you have not watched Inside Out 2, 1 or 2, and you plan to, there will be all the spoiler alerts in here. Go watch it first. It's actually on Disney Plus right now. So for those of you that have been listening for a while, you will recognize our guests, either face or voice. Those of you that it's your first time, go back because I have done several episodes with Sharice telling her story. We did a Christmas one and we met in person in March and it was magical.
We had some time together and we're definitely fast friends. Sharice, could you tell our listeners just a little bit about yourself before we dive in? Sure. Thank you, Shaili. Thanks for that great introduction. I can't believe that was March. My name is Sharice Jewell. I am a mom of three kids, and in 2017, at age 40, I was diagnosed with bipolar I. I struggled with my diagnosis and recovery and had all kinds of adventures. I went off my meds, had to be hospitalized a couple of times.
Anyhow, the result was that I wrote a memoir of the three years following my diagnosis with everything that happened with healthcare and with myself, with my family. I actually have it right here, so I'm going to show it. It's called Crazy Memoir of a Mom Gone Mad. This is my second edition, so that's my new cover. Love it. My children were young at the time, and I always turned to books for everything, and I couldn't find anything to help them.
I found a few things, but not a lot to help them with, understanding mental illness and understanding that life can go on like relatively okay. So I decided to write another book after that one. This one, I only have my draft copy, but anyway, this one is called Normal and it's more for kids, middle grade kids. So this one was published last year and I'm working on my third one and that one will hopefully be published next, early next year.
It's for young adults also about mental illness. Oh, so you're covering everyone. I recommend all your books, but being a teacher, I recommend that book so often. I haven't even told you this. I've actually recommended it to a couple school librarians. So hopefully, yeah, I haven't followed up with them, but yeah, they were really excited about it. I think that you really encapture the experiences with the characters in a way that kids will really be able to relate. Is your new one fiction?
It is fiction as well, yeah. If you are talking to librarians, I will send it to school libraries for free. So just if you let any of them know to contact me, that way we can get them. I love it. That would be amazing. The more we can get in those libraries for those kids, the more emotionally literate they can become, which will lead us into talking about Inside Out 2.
So when I wanted to talk about this, you were the first one that came to mind because I know that you have such a heart for teaching children and making children aware early on so that they understand. For those of you who don't know, Inside Out 2 is a show where there's characters that are actually emotions. We're specifically going to talk about Inside Out 2. And in this movie, they introduce more than the primary emotions.
And I just learned this, that we are actually born with our primary emotions, which is happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, and disgust. But all the other emotions are learned emotions. Wow, I didn't know that. I know. And so things like empathy, anxiety, embarrassment, all of those are secondary emotions, which is really interesting because in the movie, the main character is now middle school. She's now hitting the puberty ages and these emotions pop up.
So, my first question to you, Charisse, is about the new characters introduced. And I am wondering what, which one of those characters was. Stuck out the most to you. Of course, Anxiety was like the main new character, but, and then Embarrassment was a close second. Like those two were, they featured fairly prominently. However, Ennui, I really enjoyed. Ennui, I found was really funny and very appropriate for when you're raising teenagers.
So you can really relate to some of those moments with Ennui.
Nostalgia, which isn't even a character for this movie was a funny like a funny little clip do you remember she was the little grandma who came out and they were like oh yeah yeah she was a funny little moment and i was like oh but i'm sure i had nostalgia when i was 12 or 13 yeah with your your stuffies or something that weird stage where you still feel attached to it but it's oh you're not supposed to be playing with them anymore exactly shortcake dolls oh the smelly ones the smelly ones yes
can you explain to some people that haven't listened yet what what on we embodied just because some people might be like why are you guys saying like i think they're french words so on we is boredom and to me it's like just that teenage oh like i just picture when i picture on we it's just lying on the couch with her hand like she's just so oh I couldn't be bothered with any of this and yet she comes in and saves the day because of her like just cavalier
I don't care kind of a response like sometimes you need that attitude to really fix a problem when you're overreacting I almost saw it too and I don't know if this was meant to be but sometimes that That represented in my life disassociation a little bit. Yeah, that's a good point. Because it's almost like in a protective way to disassociate and try to just not care, right? Because I care about everything so deeply when I'm like that and just don't care.
I can't even be bothered to give it attention or get distracted on me as the phone a lot of times. And so I was like, ooh, for me, that's a little bit what disassociation looks for me. But I'm curious for our listeners, write in, message us if you experience disassociation and if that resonates with you at all. The big character that is introduced is anxiety. I wanted to do this episode. We went as a family and then my daughter's boyfriend came as well.
And of course, we talk about everything and he knows, like everyone knows, he actually helps me sometimes with pictures for This Is Bipolar. Afterwards, he asked me, what did you think about the representation of anxiety? And what did you think? And then we had this really beautiful conversation. I really remained cool, but a part of me was just so touched that this 20-year-old dude would care enough to ask that question.
And it made me think, yes, we need people with mental illness to speak to the validity of this character and the reaction because I know you and I talk about so much misrepresentation of mental illness. My favorite thing about anxiety, it will give freedom to children. Was the compassion that was shown to anxiety and just the qualities of anxiety showing up and wanting to do well. The anxiety wanted to help Riley, the main character, wanted to almost save her, wanted to protect her.
We're always trying to get rid of anxiety. How do we fix it or just get through it or we want to push it away? And I think that it does have something to teach. When you look at it, it shows up in our lives as a form of protection. It might sound airy-fairy or foo to people, and probably 10 years ago, I would have laughed at myself. But I did this exercise with my therapist. She wanted me to think of anxiety outside of myself.
She had me write anxiety on a piece of paper and put it in a chair by me. Like physically, I could see this and ask me, what could it look like? When did it show up in your life? It's interesting because it shows there is positivity as well in anxiety because it shows up in your life to protect you. I think what we figured out happened in my life is that it stays, right?
It stays and its efforts make things worse. It was so uncomfortable, but she had me tell anxiety, thank you for what you've done, but I've got this. Please move to the back seat. I don't, I don't need you. You can trust me. It's one of the most memorable sessions I had. And I felt like a little bit of freedom and trust in myself after that. Love that idea of having compassion because I think in children and adults, if we can do that, it will help us in the long run.
Instead of just trying to hide or push it away, because then it will come back with more force. What did you think of the betrayal? Yeah, I think you nailed that. My understanding of anxiety in the movie was similar, where at the beginning, she's, actually, I don't know if they assigned any genders, but because Riley is a girl, I'm going to say that she is helpful. She comes in and she saves the day for Riley. She takes over a little bit, but everything she's doing seems good at the start.
And then I think because it's working, they keep doing it. They keep allowing anxiety to have control and anxiety keeps, everything's going pretty well until it's not. They give her so much power that she keeps building and building. And then when things are suddenly bad, they're very bad. And nobody has realized because everybody else is like taking a backseat to anxiety. And I think that's true for pretty much any emotion.
I've had severe depression and there I've had minor depression and I've had all kinds of range of emotions where, there are some times when I can say, I'm just going to like fake it till I make it, which I know is not the right attitude a lot of the time, but sometimes it does get me out of a certain kind of sadness. At other times, if I wallow in my sadness, it can go into a very serious depression. And it can really spiral almost on its own because I'm paying attention to it.
So if I allow myself to just refocus on another emotion, sometimes it can help quite a bit. And I think this was part of what I think was very realistic about anxiety was that then anxiety just got worse and worse and then it was out of control. And I think that was the part where it's like many of us are familiar with anxiety being out of control. It's no longer protecting us. It's no longer helping us. It's like ruining everything. Because we can't focus on anything other than our anxiety.
The one thing I'll say that really I didn't like about how they treated anxiety was that, and I might have misinterpreted it, but to me, do you remember that part where anxiety, it's really the big buildup and anxiety is really spinning out of control around the board. And Joy's kind of yelling at her, like yelling, stop it, anxiety, stop it. And she's not really, like Joy's not really doing anything to actually help anxiety.
And then I think she just steps back like she just is like whoa like anxiety is out of control or so there's no real i really think that could have been an opportunity where joy could have even just touched her hand or like some kind of grounding technique or just breathe come on do a breathing box breathing or whatever like something i think they really missed a moment there where they could have taught some kind of strategy to yeah i was watching to not to switch topics
on this but my kids and i were watching there's like a toy story i don't know if it's a halloween it must be a halloween special it's a short it's like maybe 20 minutes or something and there's and it's I don't know 10 or 15 years old and there's a similar it's different it's done differently but it's a similar kind of theme with Jessie the cowgirl yeah yeah and she has a lot of anxiety in this I think about this one thing but in this particular short she's got a lot of anxiety.
And there are a couple of the other characters who are really helpful in this moment where she has to overcome her anxiety overcome her fears and her doubts and she has to like really just do something and she does it and it's because like they're helping her and it was like just this moment of wow look at the way toy story did it versus joy yelling it i don't even think she was yelling but she was just speaking sternly and she
wasn't having any effects that she just backed off from what i remember i thought it was just an interesting yeah it could have really taught some i know obviously everything they're trying to do about these movies is to teach about these emotions and not having good or bad emotions and how to deal with you and talk about it. And then they just backed off in that one key moment, I thought. I wonder, oh, this just came to mind. I feel like that's a representation, possibly of toxic positivity.
Because maybe, and I literally, this just came to me, so I don't think before I speak, so it could be ridiculous, but I'm going to say it anyway. But I wonder if, because joy is just pushed down all the other emotions. She has to be happy all the time. And I wonder if it's showing that just trying to be happy, right? Just trying to do the things people tell us. Just go for a walk. Be more, think more positive. Good vibes only. Get some sun. Vitamins. Yeah. Essential oils.
And okay, don't come at me because I have some because they smell good.
Don't cure anything the same for me but I wonder I thought it was really interesting about and it could open up some conversations about that like the opposite if we really tried to look at what the opposite of anxiety isn't joy or the solution to anxiety isn't pushing it away like joy wanted to and that's a really good point because joy does that a lot throughout both movies where she just wants everything to be happy she keeps learning like
all of us that emotions all emotions are valid and we can't just push them away but she keeps her natural instinct is to push things away and yeah and silence right like silence and i think that masking and pursuing this this idea that. We will arrive when we're joyful all the time, right?
Like how she squishes sadness until realizing that when they work together, I think there's this moment where it talks about, I don't know if they say it, but it talked about how joy and sadness go everywhere together. There was this one point that they said something like, we go everywhere together or let's go together or you have to come because sadness is just, it's so sad and doesn't reluctantly though still shows up and does a thing.
I thought that was so powerful about hand in hand, because I know for years, and I know sometimes we do this with children not meaning to, but just that the goal is to be happy, right? And I think that it's unrealistic to think that life is all about the joy, because then I think that's unattainable for me, because I feel so many emotions. And And I think that those moments, like they have these balls, right, that go in and they make the sense of self for the main character.
And I think that, I think negatively about myself because I can't be more joyful or that it doesn't come naturally for me to remember all the joyful moments. And I think the idea of joy and sadness working together makes almost like a more maybe balanced or more realistic way of dealing with life. I remember someone said our number one goal for our children shouldn't be to want them just to be happy. Our number one goal as parents and job is to help our children be resilient. Yeah.
And I thought that was so powerful because I don't know about you, when you experience like just all your memories, are you the type of person or when you're depressed, do you hold on or replay or ruminate in the negative experiences? Probably yes. It just, it depends on the circumstance. If something really affected me in a negative way, then I'll hold on to that versus the positive moments from that day.
But if it's something I can brush off and it's no big deal, then it just depends how they balance out. Yeah, I find when depressed, it's very hard. It's almost like fogginess or blinders or when your glasses are all foggy, that's that I just can't see the joy as much. And that's helping me realize how much gratefulness and looking for the small wins helps me better understand. Better understand my sense of self, right? I always forget that. And then I have depressive symptoms again.
And it's so hard to think about the good things. Even as a child, I will pull out all the bad things that happen in my childhood or bad memories have stuck more than the others. And over the years, I've been asking my mom and my brothers like, Like, hey, remember when this happened around this time? Tell me a good memory. And not that I don't have good memories, but they're not as vivid. Being such a sensitive child, I held on to them.
Like they say, you can get 10 compliments and one criticism and I will hold on to the criticism. Yeah. I think I'm really severely depressed. I don't actually feel sadness or joy. Like I feel nothing. Everything is gray. I don't feel any kind of... And it's almost like when I start to feel a little bit of sadness again, it's like I'm coming out of it. Like it's just interesting. Yeah, it feels a bit of a relief. Like, okay, now I'm feeling something that's better than nothing.
I don't think that's portrayed in movies or TV. And I wonder if it's just because it's not as interesting to watch. But I think they portray this one way that depression looks like. It's just this wrapped in this cloak of blah. Yeah. What's the point? Like I'm not crying when I'm 16. Nothing. Or, you know, to me, it's always like a world is a dumpster fire. What's the point of trying to do anything? Right. And I think that's really important to explore. I did what I did not expect.
Before you tell me that, can I just comment on one thing? Because yes, you were reminding me. My daughter, I asked my daughter who's 12, what her like, the favorite things she liked or didn't like about inside out too and she had this point that she really liked it that sadness was helping embarrassment and it was true they were she was a team and embarrassment was helping sadness too but embarrassment wasn't quite as confident about it sadness was sad sadness was like.
Like to me, it was such a different, once my daughter raised that point, it made me think of the first one where sadness was sad and just very lacking confidence. Like she had no, she's a bad emotion. And one of the things they were trying to show in the first movie was like you say, there are no bad emotions. Sadness is needed. Sadness is important. And now in the second movie, it really felt like after my daughter pointed that out to me, it really felt like sadness felt loved and
valued as a part of this family. in a way. So, yeah, I think it's really interesting when we both come to similar. Because we didn't talk about this before. They absolutely worked together, which is really interesting. And I think I haven't seen shows, very many shows, especially for children that show that those emotions can do well for us. Yeah. I think I'm very excited about the future in classrooms now, emotional regulation and mental health, it's much more addressed.
We didn't talk about it forever. We were just like, stop being angry. And not mean teachers, it's just as aware. And now in the classrooms I've been in, we have these zones of regulation. And the goal isn't to be, so if you're in the red zone, it's like you're angry and you're dysregulated. We have charts that show how you might feel. It isn't just get to the better zone, right?
It's like this is where I'm at. Exactly. And so as a teacher, what we try to do is guide them through the other steps, even if it's a little one, instead of just telling them what to do, what could, what do you think would help you get to the next zone and not just telling them, go sit down, calm yourself. You ask, would it be helpful for you to go read a book? Would it be helpful for you to sit alone?
Would it be helpful for you to go for a little walk? We start in kindergarten, getting kids to recognize their emotions and how they can regulate. And I think that's going to shape the future. There is a lot of like millennial or they're lazy or there's these things that like boomers or, yeah, are saying and they're saying they're not as committed or whatever. I think they're a lot of times are actually more committed to their mental health.
So what I was taught in work, like you just push through. It doesn't matter until you get it done. You come second to the actual being productive. I know I've even been stuck in thinking that sometimes because I didn't have permission in my own mind and in society to take breaks or to have mental health days or that those were even valuable. And I think that's a product of how we're teaching people. Kids to be emotionally illiterate. I don't know. That had nothing to do with
the movie, but it made me think of that. Yeah, I agree for sure. Yeah. And I guess it does because this movie teaches emotional literacy, but I thought it would be a little bit more surface level. They're not going to go there in mental health area. They're not going to hit on actual medical mental illness.
And I think they did. I think they could have kept anxiety a little bit more like almost what we understand and acceptable but in the scene where everything just becomes so overwhelming and Riley who's a hockey player ends up in the I don't I'm not sporty box unhealthy box yeah there you go I'm like in the trouble box I'm not sporty sports and she's in there and all of the feelings and thoughts are hitting her but they showed what it's.
Physically like to have an anxiety attack what did you think about that scene that was the same scene i'm talking about where joy is not i didn't love the way joy handled it but at the same time i thought they did the scene really well showing her like panting and out of breath maybe a panic attack maybe not but borderline and so kids can recognize oh if someone's like that like maybe this is what's going on and the other thing i thought they did well about
it was they really kept it going like they didn't shorten it to make viewers more comfortable they really made it go on and you're like okay come on like she's like dying in there like what's happening but they really just showed it quite realistically i think in the movie they could have had the hockey coach comes along and yeah yeah for sure i think too the same thing you do it at age appropriate level i know there's a lot of mindfulness activities just
put in the day And it's even put on the chart, like shape of the day. And I love it when I go into classrooms that do it. And if they don't, I do it anyway, which is fine. But we'll do, the other day I did with the kindergarten class, something they can remember was called hot chocolate breathing. And so it was like they were holding the mug and it was very hot. So they were trying to, they were trying to blow on it. And then we were getting, talking about slow blowing and fast blowing.
So it did deep breaths and without them even realizing it. I was thinking this idea that sadness still had movement, like even though just repeat, this is that's so sad. And you could tell I wanted to just hide and just even the shoulders and such. However, sadness does the thing. It reminded me of those baby steps that don't cure depression, but they help a little bit, like the small thing, like getting out of bed.
And I thought sadness showed up and what sadness did like bridged between anxiety and joy. Brought it together and just showed that it had an important role. How they had to work together didn't just make one the hero, right? Yes, sadness might have had the more helpful way of quote-unquote saving the day, but it couldn't get to certain places without joy. What do you think of both of them in the first and the second, whenever it shows inside the parents' minds.
The dad is anger and the mom is sadness, is the predominant one at their little consult what do you think of that yes I did not like that no I think for all and and this will be come into my biggest criticism but I yeah I didn't like that because it was like almost like they were like all emotions are good all and I thought that little it gave permission for also little boys non-binary kids this.
To break free from this toxic gendered kind of emotion thing yeah it's okay for girls to they are more more emotional they have access to more emotions and I thought that it really within the kids it gave them more permission what I didn't like is yeah then it was almost like yeah but society still but only to a certain amount and then all of a sudden this is what you are for the rest of your life and it felt like a little bit like toxic positivity and taking away from the emotion
and I hope that the kids miss that I don't think we want to force that stereotype in this kind of yeah and I also found it confusing because it's saying that once you're adult you don't have these other emotions and i think we all have anxiety and embarrassment and on whatever the other emotions are maybe not i think it speaks to toxic masculinity in that. Boys and other genders have access to these emotions, but I think they were shut down, right?
I have seen even in, when not on purpose, right? Some people are just like, oh, that's so harsh, but not on purpose. It's like, girls, give them the dolls to be more empathetic. Here's the trucks that crash or the superheroes. We go those paths. And also there is, oh, that boy is sensitive and it's not in a positive way. And so I think it's been taught to shove it down or not give language or they don't show it because of negative reactions from adults.
And I think that, yeah, I did not like that. And did you catch this? I could not believe. I just could not believe that they had this little part in the ending. People sit around a table and decide this. This isn't just like a whim. They consult people. I just cannot believe this made it into the movie, where at the end, the father throughout it is so empathetic and just showing all emotions and just being there for Riley.
And at the end, though, it shows in the mom and dad's, in their minds, the emotions, and it just shows the mom's different emotions, like you said, predominantly sad or. Yeah, I think that's what you're saying, where she's gone for two days and all I get is fine.
What's happened? what happened to her all weekend like she's really analyzing everything over analyzing it overthinking it so then the dad for a moment is accessing that and then they go to the joke and the stereotype straight to sports oh sports i was like are you kidding me like you just undid i'm all the kids missed that because you just undid it you were just like yeah they have access but Oh, dumb old guys, that's all they care about. Or, or teaches kids, they just shut it off.
And I think it's maybe they're trying to make this funny moment at the end to end on this light note. And it does wreck everything they've been saying. I think maybe this one is supposed to appeal to like getting the adults to come and watch you and find it funny. And really, I don't know. I agree with you. It's like all of you decided that this was the way to end your movie. Like all of this movie that was making all of these really good points and then you end it here.
I just don't think that the joke was worth it, right? Because especially to do that at the end, like maybe show it at the beginning and then show how that's grown because we do look up to adults. It watered down the message and that we do that to make it palatable. And that reminds me of mental illness because it's like there's certain things we can sympathize with, right? We can sympathize with the crying and we can sympathize with anxiety and worry.
But when anxiety actually shows up in anger, which it does in me and some of my kids. And as a teacher, I can tell you it's more likely to show up as that than being scared of things. And it talks about too, I've heard people say anger is the bodyguard to sad. And I would also argue that anger is the bodyguard sometimes for anxiety, which is a secondary emotion. And usually behind my anxiety is like fear or sadness. And so I feel like it was just a really missed opportunity.
People want to look away when mental illness shows up as not showering, not being able to brush your teeth, not being able to do your job or show up at your job, right?
We only have a tolerance for a certain amount of things, and I think that's why we see so many stories with mental illness and with bipolar disorder, and I don't know if this played into you writing your book, but it definitely played into my advocacy and this podcast even, is that I wanted the messy middle, and I didn't want to wrap it in some healing, because we desperately want that, right? But I think that showing that all the time isn't a full portrayal and doesn't give full empathy.
We just get uncomfortable and don't want to lean in when we see that in other people. You said that your book, you weren't seen almost like the messy middle. And I read your book. You went there. You did not hold back. And I loved it, especially with uncomfortable things that happen sometimes in bipolar disorder, a symptom of hypersexuality. And I know this is about inside out and a kid's thing. But yeah, I just think it had the missed opportunity to look at the messy and
let us sit in it. It's almost like it had to pull us out. Yeah, but I think in a way it did. And I agree, it's a bit of a failure and it's a bit of a flaw. But I think my book, you're right, I went there. And that was my editor had said to me, like, listen, you got to show a little bit more because the people who are going to read this book are going to want to see like everything. They're not going to want to just see the moments that are showable.
Let's just be honest, they want to make money. Oh, yeah. The primary goal isn't to teach children emotional literacy, right? And I think hopefully, and if anybody from Pixar is listening, 100% they aren't. But maybe make the suggestion that they could show the growth in the dad, like some growth in the dad on that. Maybe that should be inside out three, right? Like the parents can have multifaceted emotions.
And that kids are teaching that. that because I can tell you I the one thing that I love a lot of things but one really important thing about teaching and even though it's really hard and it's known to be one in the top 10 of not hardest jobs for people with bipolar disorder one of the things why I won't let it go completely I substitute, is that the children keep me humble, but they also keep me hopeful because they don't have the stigma yet. That is learned. And so they're not born with it.
They don't have control over it. I think that we need to teach more of a balance between control and acceptance. That's why I feel more comfortable with children because they'll just show everything and I don't have to guess how they're feeling. I work with littles. I think by the time they get to puberty and middle school, they have learned and they have internalized those things, right? But the littles, K to three?
No. I love this conversation and I love, yeah, I knew that you were the right person to talk about because my tendency is just to forget about or not recognize the other things when it has such a good message. But I think that there's always room for growth and room for criticism. I think that the movie does more good, definitely. And I recommend it and not just for children. I recommend it for adults. I had high hopes for this movie because I loved Inside Out 1, the first one, so much.
And I mentioned to you that I was, I saw it right around the time when I had my first severe manic episode right before I was diagnosed. I kept re-watching it and then I was hospitalized. And then when I came out, I made my husband watch it. I was like, you need to watch this movie because he is stereotypically like repressed emotions a lot. And I was like, you got to sit down with the kids. The kids will love it. And you've got to watch this movie.
And he knew at the time I was manic and bipolar, like newly diagnosed, like I was, he would have done anything to try it out. So he was like, okay, I can watch this movie. No problem. I'll watch this movie. And he watched it. And. I really think a lot of it, a lot of the first one at least, is more for adults. Because I do think kids already have this awareness. And a lot of the kids I know, and like my kids, they do talk about it so much at school.
And maybe that's just because this movie, Inside Out, came out in 2017, I think. So maybe since then, it's gotten more and more that it's being talked about so much in school.
But my husband like he's not aware of any of this getting in touch with his feelings the way they did in inside out one so for my kids I think it was like oh that's a good movie and for my husband I think it was like wow that's like an eye-opening movie and then so the second one I don't know if I don't know if any of us were as affected by it because like you we talk about everything in our house and we've gone through so much in the last seven years so all emotions
and strategies and breathing techniques like everything grounding everything has been discussed that's so powerful because it reminds me of and I would imagine that it's the same for you we're immersed in talking about this all the time because we don't have a choice to not talk about it because it's what's something that we live with living with bipolar disorder you with one me with two and I think that And so we do talk about this in our families because it affects our families.
And we're mental health advocates. I'm online every day, this podcast, all of it. And so then I'm always surprised when I go out into like outside of like my bubble of mental health understanding and literacy and people that get it or experience it or are actually curious about experience it.
I am shocked I'm shocked that because there's just so much stigma still yeah and there's so much misunderstanding and just lack of interest lack of awareness yeah I'm shocked too a lot of the time some of the questions I get it's like how is this even a question great I will definitely answer every question I get like in a way that will help spread awareness but I don't understand And how some people don't know more about this at this point.
Yeah. Like you say, we're just completely immersed in this world. Yeah, yeah. And some people do have the choice because they don't experience to not. And I know I had a friend that said to me, it's me of your circle, like an acquaintance. Say to me like, oh, I admire you. That's your podcast. I would listen, but I don't have, but live with bipolar disorder. And I was like, no, like you a hundred percent should be listening just as much.
And I think I would love if you're listening and you feel comfortable sharing it in some way or talking about it in some way, even if you don't disclose that you live with bipolar disorder, my hope, my greatest hope is to one, comfort our people, our bipolar bears, but also to educate, to educate others. And I think it is really important too, to break stigma is to learn, make the effort to learn and understand.
Because we can tell you, there is someone that you know, that you work with, that you maybe love, that you have no idea that they live with a mood disorder. Do you get every single time I have told anyone, which is all the time now, but anytime I've told anyone that I have bipolar, do you get, oh, my uncle has bipolar? My sister has bipolar? Like just so many people who until people meet me and I'm talking openly about it, they've often never talked about it.
And sometimes it's the real therapy session for people. Right. Yeah. Yeah. People surprise me. There, of course, is crappy reactions, but the amount of positive reactions or curiosity. And I've had people like surprisingly when I'm teaching and I don't always have big connections to when I'm teaching because I just come in and out. Right. And I remember there was an education assistant and the kids were doing center time and we were just chatting.
And I don't know how it came up. Oh, if ever I have a podcast and it comes up with the title, of course, I have to say what's obvious. But unless people think sometimes that I'm making fun of it. And I'm like, no, for reals. But some people could think that, hey, some people. Yeah. And she whispered she's no one but my husband.
Been I've never told anybody about my husband but I live with bipolar disorder too and I was like all of this like emotional energy that I put into this and the emotional hangovers that I have right and just the work is worth it for that yeah exactly yeah and I just to your point that it's like. Everywhere. Guaranteed anyone who's watching knows someone that they don't know has some kind of mental illness.
Anyways, remember when I said, hey, let's do a short episode on it? I can talk to you all day. It's so interesting. Thank you for coming again. You're a reoccurring guest, and I love that so much. And we would love to hear from anyone that's listening their thoughts about Inside Out 2, and regardless if you have mental illness or not, what you thought about it. Thank you, Celie. I'm so excited to hear what people think.
I'm excited to get this out there. And I think that our conversation is a testament to some of the power of the movie because the fact that we could find this many things to talk about around as mental health advocates. Yeah. Let me add one last thing about it. It is an excellent way to open a conversation with anyone, particularly children, but with anyone about illness and just emotions and mental health in general.
I do get a lot of questions about that. Like, at what age should I talk to my children and tell them I have bipolar disorder? And I told my children right from almost the start, once I was ready to talk about it. Age appropriate, right? Age appropriate language. Finding these kinds of... Yeah, yeah, I absolutely, because they're going to find out or if it shows up in their life, they may internalize it.
And honestly, we know the stats of our children, possibly us passing it down, and then they will have, you know, they know what to look for and we can get help so much earlier. But yeah, absolutely a starting point, especially someone that it's very uncomfortable to talk about mental illness with. So thank you. This is Bipolar. Thanks again for tuning in. You can find video versions of This is Bipolar on
our YouTube channel. We also have all our previous episodes of the podcast on Apple, Podbean, Spotify, and Google Play. We spend most of our time on Instagram at this.is.bipolar. There is a vibrant community there where we have conversations and post different ideas and different strategies. And we'd just love for you to join us there. It is so helpful if you enjoy our work or think it would be helpful to someone if you could like and share and save and follow us in all or any of those spaces.
If you're a listener for the podcast if you could leave a review we would be forever grateful again thank you for being here with us let's get the word out let's share lived experiences so that we can change the ideas that people have about bipolar and help those of us that live with it feel less alone. Music.