🔨Breaking the Silence: Reclaiming Power Through Storytelling📚

Welcome to our very first newsletter! We're excited to have you here. As a woman after my own heart, who is focused and driven, you are truly admired for your accomplishments. But let's be honest for a moment – behind the curtain lies moments where you feel like you’re being pulled under . In this edition, I'll peel back the curtain from my own life and share my personal journey as a professional woman with bipolar depression. By sharing my story, I hope to inspire you and others to find strength in vulnerability. Get ready for gems of curated content including incredible stories from other professionals, practical tips to form new habits, and a moment of reflection. Now, let's take a deep breath... exhale... and let the adventure begin.

TIME TO READ: 9 mins

A powerful story binds the writer to the reader.

At the age of 21, sitting in my University’s wellness center, I had never heard of bipolar depression. Little did I know that this unfamiliar term and all that came with it, would be my constant companion for decades to come.

Fast forward through a series of debilitating symptoms: crippling anxiety, relentless racing thoughts, prolonged periods of depression, constant fatigue, and a pervasive feeling of being shattered and scattered. My story moved into a new chapter, one where I embraced suffering in silence as a badge of honor.

As a performer who loved to sing and dance since childhood, my strength was on the stage. I loved and still love the art of practicing and performing. I discovered that if I powered through and played my part, I could be believable. As a professional, I pushed myself to perform, to volunteer and give back, and to endure. I felt like an imposter and in my mind. I never felt like I was doing or being enough.

I became tired of performing for a life that in the end felt empty and hollow.

I searched for a solution that remained elusive, constantly seeking stories of others who had faced mental health challenges and spoke their truth. Yet, I found few who resembled me or resonated with my experiences as a professional.

It took me years of doing the work, falling down and getting back up again to my present path of authenticity and ever evolving stability. I longed for a narrative where success and simplicity coexisted, where my focus and drive propelled me forward without sacrificing my sanity or self-worth. It became a delicate dance, a tightrope walk, where focus and ease intertwined.

Through years of trial and error, I slowly began planting the seeds and gathering tools that mattered most to me. Then, in 2019, while returning home from work and climbing the stairs from the garage, thoughts of doing more consumed my mind.

In a world where loneliness and stigma still loom large around professionals and their mental health, I remember the days, weeks, and months spent searching for a voice that could illuminate a path for me. It suddenly dawned on me that breaking the silence started with embracing the strength found in vulnerability.

Since 2019, I have openly shared my story as a lawyer with a diagnosis of bipolar depression. I pull back the curtains to reveal the raw and uncomfortable truths—the lies, the embarrassment, the hidden struggles, and ultimately, the freedom I found on my journey to stability.

The power of my story extends beyond myself. Its true strength lies in utilizing whatever you need to support your own journey of change. It encompasses the lessons I learned along the way. My intention was to share my voice and experiences with other professional women who may find themselves in the place I once was. My hope is that they can hear it, feel seen and understood, and use my story as inspiration to rewrite their own narratives. A powerful story has the ability to forge a bond between the writer and the reader, and in doing so, it can create a transformative force that reverberates through countless lives.

I’m all about intentional quick actions (even if they aren’t perfect). Quick start actions help to build your muscle for planting seeds and building habits and tools that serve you.

1. Go to “My favorite things” and follow at least 1 person and read their bio or “about me” summary to learn more. Estimated time to complete: 2-5 mins.

2. Take 5 mins to write about or reflect on the signature story. How has being more transparent about your wellbeing contributed to your personal growth? If you are not transparent about it, Why? How has it challenged your growth? Estimated time to complete: 5-6 mins.

I wanted to share and highlight other professionals with powerful stories that are all unique and show that everyone’s journey and path is different and authentic. I encourage you to learn more about their journey and how their stories and work are helping to shape the mental health and wellness landscape through transparency, vulnerability and tools for change.

Rob Stephenson- a wellbeing campaigner, speaker and entrepreneur who is bipolar and thriving (most of the time..). He just recently launched a podcast with a focus on the future of wellbeing (including featuring those with powerful stories).

Stephanie Mitchell Hughes is an attorney, speaker and writer who shares her deeply powerful story of lived experience with depression. She writes and speaks about resilience and living with depression as a black woman, attorney, and person of faith. Read her story here, to learn more about her goal to respectfully disrupt the stigma associated with mental illness in each of these communities.

Gavin Alexander is an experienced and passionate advocate and thought leader in the areas of mental health, well-being, and diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession and beyond. Currently, Gavin Alexander serves as the Wellness Director of Jackson Lewis PC. Earlier, he served as the first-ever Fellow of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being. Alexander has also served as Co-Chair of the Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association and as a board member of the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association. In addition, he serves on the Boston Bar Association’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Section Steering Committee, the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs’ DEI Committee, and the Institute for Well-Being in Law’s DEI Committee. Most recently, Alexander was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey to the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission. Gavin is a powerful speaker sharing his own lived experience that you can learn more about here. 

Nathalie Walton is the exited CEO and Co-Founder of Expectful, which is a mental health app for before, during and after pregnancy. The platform offers affordable and accessible maternal wellness support for moms and moms-to-be. Nathalie shares a powerful personal story with her challenging birthing experience and how this empowered her to take control of her mental well-being during pregnancy and birth and create an app for others to do the same. You can learn more about her journey here , or listen to a fantastic podcast feature here.

Gayathri Ramprasad is the Founder & President of ASHA International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting personal, organizational and community wellness through culturally-responsive mental health education, training and support. She is also the author of Shadows in the Sun: Healing from Depression and Finding the Light Within. The book is a cross-cultural lens to mental illness through the inspiring story of Gayathri’s thirty-year battle with depression. You can read more about her journey or watch her powerful TedX Talk.

Natasha Bowman is a featured LinkedIn Top Voice for Mental Health. She is a two-time author, TEDx Speaker, Forbes Contributor, media maven, and President of NYC-based leadership development firm, Performance ReNEW. If you don't get a chance to hear Natasha's personal story, you are missing something powerful especially because she created and produced a film on her mental health journey. I was blown away by the raw honesty that she brings and although her work centers around workplace mental health, I wanted to also highlight her story since she is a master storyteller. She was recently featured in Cosmopolitan for her raw honesty on her mental health journey.

When have you experienced a situation where you felt the need to suffer in silence? How did that impact your well-being and sense of self-worth?