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Bipolar experience discussed in new book

Terri Callsen is launching her first book I Am Normal ... If You’re Bipolar this Wednesday, Feb. 9 on Bell Let’s Talk Day.

Terri Callsen is launching her first book I Am Normal ... If You’re Bipolar this Wednesday, Feb. 9 on Bell Let’s Talk Day about mental illness during Mental Health Awareness Week.

Callsen, who is originally from Williams Lake and now makes her home in the Canim Lake area, says the book will be available only as an eBook for now but if she has 5,000 eBook readers the book will be put into print.

Callsen says she suffers with bipolar disorder and wrote the book to help others who are also struggling with the disorder.

“In my area, people look at me as if I was from the moon and when they read my book they’ll probably find themselves in there and maybe just maybe they’ll have a greater depth of understanding,” Callsen says.

She says she talks about her experiences, anxiety in general, repeat exposure to circumstances, use of drugs to ease the condition, and basically how to help yourself.

“I wrote the book because I was tired of no one understanding what bipolar disorder is and how it can effect and affect individuals’ lives,” Callsen says. “I’ve done a lot of research on the subject matter as well as going to Interior Health for the last five years to understand how my emotions have become more and the typical behaviours of the chemically imbalanced.”

She says the book has been professionally edited by Amy Lignor who has also written a review about her book.

“The material is fantastic and it’s because it’s personal,” Lignor says. “I have read books about everything from bipolar to PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) written from only the medical or professional point of view, and it is truly missing the ‘reality’ of these subjects.

“... You have the ability to open yourself up, which allows the reader to really ‘see’ a person struggling with the bipolar world and learning how to grasp life and overcome the difficulties that come with all this.

“You’re blunt, honest, direct and funny ... .”