In the latest episode of the Empowerography Podcast, my guest is Mehri Coulter. Mehri is a mental health advocate who’s passion in life is helping others find their way toward achieving their maximum mental health. In this episode we discuss mental health, advocacy work, shame around mental health, the Married to Bipolar Documentary, marriage and using your platform to bring about change and help others.

At the age of 20 I was diagnosed with bipolar as a result of my fiancé bringing me to a psychiatric hospital for being suicidal.

After the hospitalization and some medication, I was relatively “ok” until I had three babies and postpartum hit me really hard. After the birth of my third child, I needed med changes. I had quite a few doctors give me different meds one right after the other. Too much trial and error, and I spent the next five years in a mix of severe depression, hypomania, mixed states, anxiety and medication withdrawals. Meanwhile, my sister (who also has bipolar) was being hospitalized for weeks at a time. My sister was in denial about her diagnosis, and I couldn’t stomach the thought of my only sister being ashamed of her diagnosis of bipolar— something she did to ask for, something she was born with. That is why I started my blog and Instagram account SoBipolar. To normalize the conversation about bipolar. To help lessen the stigma surrounding mental health.

I was approached by WebMD to create a short documentary called “married to bipolar,” after they saw my portraits of me portraying bipolar mood shifts. The documentary is the story of my husband and I and how we make marriage work with a bipolar diagnosis. Hint: our marriage not only survives bipolar, but thrives because of it. We have done a couple of talks as a married couple, helping others reclaim their marriages despite hardship.

My passion in life is helping others find their way toward achieving their maximum mental health. Especially after having lost my 16 year old nephew, Christian, only a few months ago to bipolar by way of suicide. He was like a little brother to me. No lives should be lost this way. This is a failure on society.

I highly suggest genetic testing which is ultimately what helped me to get out of the horrible mental state I had been in for so long. I received this testing after flying to the Mayo Clinic in desperation for help. That was over two years ago and I have been doing wonderfully ever since.

Website: https://www.SoBipolar.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/so_bipolar

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sobipolar

Mehri Coulter Episode