Resources
Ideas & inspiration:
- Mood charts (or if you want to use one of mine, I’ve made this & this)
- Bipolar Bingo (another freebie I’ve made, but you can make your own of course!)
- Memes & quotes
- Other cool resources on Pinterest
Useful & inspiring non-fiction films & books:
- The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive (BBC)
- The Not So Secret Life of the Manic Depressive: Ten Years On (BBC)
- Maggie in Wonderland (Silver Films AB)
- An unquiet mind (Kay Redfield Jamison)
- Bipolar 101 (Ruth C. White & John D. Preston)
- Living with Bipolar (Lesley Berk, David J. Castle, Michael Berk & Sue Lauder)
- Loving someone with Bipolar Disorder (Julie A. Fast & John D. Preston)
Helpful mental health websites:
- Narratives of Hope
- BipolarUK
- To Write Love On Her Arms
- Rethink
- Mind
- Sane (including a support line)
- bpHOPE
- Mental Health Foundation
- World Health Organisation (Read more about Suicide Prevention)
- Halfway2Hannah (Hannah Blum’s blog)
- Bipolar Babe (blog)
- Bipolar Happens (Julie A. Fast’s blog & website)
- Suddenly Bipolar (Deborah’s blog)
- Bipolar Burble (Natasha Tracy’s blog)
- Love, Learn & Live with Bipolar (Kitt O’Malley’s blog & website)
- Bipolar Barbie (blog)

If you’re in a crisis:
W a i t . Breathe. Don’t do anything yet.
Try and get somewhere safe and, when you’re able to, reach out to someone you trust or, if you don’t feel ready to do that, call a crisis line. I have the Samaritans on speed dial (their number is 116 123 if you’re in the UK; it’s free and you can call 24/7 every day of the week!) They have helped get me out of dark places several times; it’s not so much about they say, or even what I say, it’s about getting out of my own head and getting those dark thoughts out where they can’t spiral and take me with them, and to be able to voice those thoughts to someone who will listen without judgement.
If you don’t feel up to talking and you rather text, you can text Shout on number 85258.
Or, if you don’t want actual engagement with a person, but you need someone to talk you out of your dark place, a good app to have on your phone is BetterStop. it’s helped me several times when I’ve been struggling and been in too much of a state to reach out to an actual person. If you check out the website, they have other mental health apps too.