In the last six months, there has been immense progress with this blog and with This Life is Beautiful, and I felt the need to update my followers. I’ve talked a very great deal about how Bipolar can have effects outside of the stereotypical view of the illness and I’m pleased to reveal that I accomplished all of this under a fairly manic state. Critically, I was aware that I was in this state and tried my best to put my heightened energy levels and enthusiasm to constructive use.
Those who have been following the page and the book from the beginning can’t help but notice the explosion in reach. The page has moved from having hundreds of likes and followers to having millions. We’ve branched out further with these articles and with video content but I see the site expanding continuously, as we’ve only recently employed our current means of raising awareness of the site and of Bipolar.
As for the site’s goal or raising awareness about Bipolar and about learning difficulties in general, This Life is Beautiful has been taken in as a piece of relevant literature by the Bipolar Association as well as by local concerns here in Bangladesh. As for the more general readership, we’ve been wonderfully successful in getting the book translated and it currently exists in 18 languages! It was around the time that the new articles and new translations started appearing that we premiered the print version of the book at the Dhaka Literature Festival and just previously, the book had appeared at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. It was from this point on that myself and my team started to prioritise communicating with the readership and getting the book into as many homes, hospitals and lives as possible. I don’t think this would have been possible without the energy I cultivated in my manic state, where I was able to isolate myself and ensure I was creative and constructive right the way through the last six months.
In the midst of this, I was hospitalised for two weeks while the full extent of my symptoms was assessed but again, this was an instance of very small behaviours creating a very great deal of worry in my nearest and dearest. Ultimately there was little to worry about – I was aware of my state and was exercising a strong degree of control over it and even during my convalescence I made further plans to expand This Life is Beautiful’s reach.
The main advantage of this will be with future projects, where I can share both new fiction and new writing on learning difficulties on a much larger platform. We want to thank everyone that has followed the page of late and we can’t encourage you enough to keep watching this space for new writing and new thinking.