Jamie Robinson is Bipolar, but she is so much more. One of the most inspiring mid-life women Eli knows and counts as a friend. In this episode (which we recorded three times and still haven’t been able to get the complete audio), we’ll explore Jamie’s life with a mental health disorder and how she has embraced it for the good. With a number of technical problems on this episode, we are only able to tell about one third of Jamie’s story, so she’ll be back soon to share the rest. You’ll even have to wait for our two Final Questions…they FAILED in the audio. Ah well. Enjoy and we’ll be back soon.
Episode Highlights:
- “Birth stories we tell, they’re very precious. All the details of birth. Death is like that, too. It’s precious.” 5:38
- “’Well, didn’t you get help?’ And I was like, ‘No, because I was excelling in other ways.’” 9:23
- “Bipolar isn’t only challenge and strife and lack of sleep and panic attacks and stigma and all of this. There’s other things there that are intertwined in who I am: my passion, my ability to be a really strong and effective advocate, my ability to learn and become fluent in sign language.” 16:05
- “Pain is pain is pain.” 18:06
About Jamie:
Jamie lives just outside of Boston with her husband, Jay, and kids, Grace
(13) and Tyson (12). She has been a disability rights activist for 25
years and is a national trainer for equal opportunity and nondiscrimination
in employment for the National Disability Institute. With a MA degree in Deaf
Studies, Jamie is fluent in American Sign Language and has been a part of
the Deaf community for 20 years. Five years ago, she founded
DEAFinitely, a non-profit organization that empowers Deaf and hearing
youth from multi-lingual, cultural, racial, and socio-economic diversity to
spark social change through dance and American Sign Language. As a
person living and thriving with a mental health disability, Jamie is an
impassioned advocate for celebrating differences and using them to drive
one’s life work.
Links:
Being Truly Podcast 