For Bianca, the catalyst of her Borderline Personality Disorder was the cultural pressure of living in a Middle Eastern family that provided the basics in life, but no emotional connection or support. With eldest-daughter expectations, and the heavy silence that comes when a family outsources its pain to one child, Bianca became the out-of-control truth bearer in her family system.
After her tumultuous upbringing that included self-harm, suicidal thinking, and an abusive relationship, Bianca finally found mentors in her life that taught her how to break free from her trauma through intensive therapy. As a therapist, Bianca now brings practitioner-level clarity to the therapies that helped her, including dialectical behavior therapy and a move towards dignity, respect, and choice.
Is BPD destiny or environment? How do cultural narratives around “keeping up appearances” entrench shame? Why do personality disorders draw harsher judgment than mood disorders, and what happens when we reframe symptoms as human experiences with the dial turned up? For Bianca, identity instability isn’t a life sentence; it’s a signal that can be understood, soothed, and redesigned.
If this conversation helps you rethink stigma, see yourself with more softness, or pick up one new skill to use when the storm hits, pass it on. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs proof that intensity can become intention. Your story might be the mirror someone else is missing.

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping

Picking up from Part 1, Gregg is now stuck in what he calls “two years of bipolar hell.” But when he is finally prescribed lithium, within a week his depression lifts. Coming out of depression, he still had work to do—repairing familial and professional relationships.

Greg had also been angry with God for abandoning him and forcing him to live in misery. Lithium not only put Gregg’s depression at bay, but it also allowed him to repair his relationship with God. As treatment begins working, his faith gradually returned, becoming instrumental to his recovery strategy.

Most inspiring is how Gregg transformed his diagnosis into purpose. After losing his military identity, he discovered a new mission in mental health advocacy – work he now considers more important than his distinguished military career. His recovery philosophy centers on medication management, therapy, healthy lifestyle choices, and maintaining an "attitude of gratitude" even during difficult periods. And Gregg makes a stunning admission: if given the choice between never having bipolar disorder or his current life as an advocate, he would choose the latter.

Share an episode of Bipolar She during Suicide Prevention Month to help normalize these crucial conversations about mental health. Together, we can reduce stigma and potentially save lives.

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping

Major General Gregg F. Martin had, for the most part of his life, lived with hyperthymia, a continuous low-level mania that ultimately helped his military performance because he was energetic, creative, and driven. But after commanding a 10,000-soldier combat brigade in Iraq, Gregg’s descent into mania and depression would span a decade.

With a late diagnosis at age 58, Gregg challenges our understanding of bipolar disorder, revealing his belief that mental illness can progress along a spectrum rather than appearing suddenly. For Gregg, the Iraq War became the tipping point, transforming his beneficial hyperthymic traits into dangerous mania, and ultimately life-threatening depression. As his condition worsened, colleagues reported his erratic behavior, leading to forced retirement and removal as president of the National Defense University.

The most haunting aspects of Gregg's story involve his descent into psychosis and passive suicidal ideation – such as experiencing fear from an "invisible force" that could take hold of him and thrust him into oncoming traffic. His journey from battlefield commander to psychiatric patient illuminates the complex relationship between trauma, high-stress environments, and mental health. Now an author and advocate, Gregg's experiences offer profound insights for anyone struggling with mental illness or supporting someone who is.

This episode contains detailed discussions of suicide and suicidal ideation.

Gregg's book:

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping