Bipolar Today

---

Veteran’s Voices provides an opportunity for veterans to express themselves creatively by publishing short stories and poems by veterans. Like the rest of the population, many veterans have mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Veteran’s Voices provides small cash awards and a creative outlet for many of those veterans, who in turn say that writing allows them to make sense of their mental illnesses. It is connected to the Hospitalized Veterans Writing Project, which encourages creative therapy. For example, Leah Ann Jones was a marine who retired after 13 years because of her bipolar disorder. She says about the program that she is “so thankful that the Veterans’ Voices magazine has allowed me the freedom to express myself and be me.” More coverage of Veteran’s Voices can be found in this article, and their main website can be found here.

Commentary

Projects like Veteran’s Voices provide a real benefit for people with mental illness. Part of the problem with an illness like bipolar disorder is that it provides us with a number of feelings that don’t make a lot of sense because they are not directly attached to our own experiences and seem to have a life of their own. Writing about bipolar disorder, whether creatively or otherwise, provides a way of fitting those feelings into concrete narratives. Even though the narratives might be fictional, it gives people with bipolar disorder the ability to consider the ways in which their emotions function so that they can be more easily handled on a day-to-day basis.

Related posts:

1. Bill-Paying Program Helps Mentally Ill With Finances
2. Iowa Mental Health Court Helps Keep Mentally Ill out of Prison
3. China Mandates That Mentally Ill Be Reported To Public Security
4. California Emergency Rooms Overwhelmed With Mentally Ill
5. Study Examines Role of Mentally Ill Fathers