Murphy

I was in a real slump this past October.  I can think back now of coarse and see my triggers!  First of all I booked too many events.  It was hard for me to say no and I always talk myself into more than I can take on.  MISTAKE!  Then I had some rough stuff happen in my family which was emotionally awful.  Third and last I got physically sick.  So take into account all of that it turned into a nice package of depression.  JUST KIDDING.  It was awful.  Lots of crying, anger, agitation, stomping around, hard to eat, and even tougher to sleep!  So I did something wild I bought a puppy on the spur of the moment.  A Golden Retriever.  Matt named him Murphy.  He was the perfect distraction for my depression.  While Allie was at school I walked him, taught him tricks, hugged him, talked to him, and loved on him.  He is so sweet and cute how could I not get a little happy.  AND little by little he started to chip away at my depression and I came back to myself - free of sadness - at least for now.  I love our new addition to the family!  Maggie

Sea Glass

I don't know what it is about sea glass but I love looking for it.  My friend Tara and I started really getting into when our husbands went on a guys golf tournament weekend.  We took the kids to the beach every day to save our sanity!  A friend of mine told me about a couple of fun place to collect sea glass so off we went!  Little did we know we would be getting addicted to it.  Maybe it is something about the tumbled glass and beauty of each piece that intrigues me.  When we go we stay for hours looking up and down at low tide finding these small treasures that bring so much gratification to us.  Our children run up and down looking for sea creatures, building sand castles, and kicking balls into the water.  Even our husbands our happy.  They sit and kick back in their chairs reading the paper, or watching the surfers, or talking about the sad sorry Chargers!  I now need to do something neat with all these wonders of the sea.  Maybe a necklace or two, some candles, or glue them around a frame.  Sea Glass has a special place in my heart from 15 years ago.  I was in a psychiatric ward at Stanford.  One of our craft days was taking small pebbles of rounded sea glass and gluing them on a candle.  Back then it was such a big deal that I could complete an actual task.  When you are in a manic episode it feels almost hopeless to finish anything no matter how small.  Now I think of this sea glass that I collect today.  I am a well person for the most part.  I get to be out with friends and family while collecting it.  I feel the freedom and the passion while I pick up these pieces that I am alive, I am blessed, I am able to be among others.  What a privilege that is.  Maggie

Beach Walks Help Me Smile!

I love the ocean.  Something about sound of the waves, the feel of the sand beneath my feet, the birds in 6 packs running along the shoreline hoping to eat the sand crabs, and the beautiful treasures I find along the way.  At twenty two years old I moved to my first beach town.  Ocean Beach in San Diego, Ca.  It was a funky little place with tons of character.  I would ride my bike all over town, go to the farmers markets every Wednesday for cheese and fresh vegetables, and surf with Matt.  I lived two blocks from the ocean in a 500 square foot beach cottage.  It was a blast.  Even on a bad day as long as I got myself down to the ocean things would start to pick up.  This past weekend we stopped by this little town for a burger.  It was fun to show Allie where Matt and I had lived and where our love continued to grow.   Years later I lived in Coronado Island for a year with Matt and my daughter Allie while looking for a home to buy.  While living on the island, our favorite place was called Silver Strand State Beach.  On a low tide we would find sand dollars everywhere.  Even after we moved off the Island and now live 20 minutes away from the closest beach I still go to get myself out and into the world.  I love getting sandy, chasing my daughter into the waves, reading the Wall Street Journal with Matt, and most of all taking in God's beauty.  Maggie

A Fresh Start

Allie gives me a reason to get out of bed.  Even when I am really down and out I can't just crawl down in my covers like I used to.  All throughout my twenties on a bad day I would cry and do everything I could to avoid life.  It was tough when I had my job...sometimes I would cancel appointments because I was so depressed.  When you have a child you can't cancel, you can't check out, you have to feed them, clean them, get them to school.  Allie makes me want to live even when my mind is playing awful tricks on me and I want to check out.  She is the light to my daily life.  Yes my husband is too but now that I have a child I feel as though I have so much more of a responsibility to stay on top of my illness.  I need to be here for Allie 100% and that means working on what it takes to beat bipolar one day at a time.   I love Allie more than I thought I could love anybody.  I love this picture of her in her little Burberry coat in front of the famous fountain at Balboa park.  It shows happiness...it show life.  Maggie

Bipolar NDB Media Blog Talk Radio

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ndbmedia/2011/10/28/bipolar-maggie-reese-author-of-runaway-mind Hey check out my interview next week with Host Cliff of NDB Media Blog Talk Radio. He has over 100,000 listeners world wide...tune in next Thursday at 6pmPST or (9pmEST)

BIPOLAR Maggie Reese author of Runaway Mind

www.blogtalkradio.com

Maggie Reese wrote a book about her life dealing with the manic part of bipolar disorder. She started out a success as a runner but then it all fell apart. Ho Oct 27

So the story  behind my first radio interview!  I sent off a book to a Blog Radio guy named Cliff who showed interest in my book and said he might be able to give me an interview if it turned out he liked it!  He read it and loved it.  I didn't hear back for a while which is very typical in all of this kind of work.  It takes time for people to get back....they are busy with life and business!  Anyway I got an e-mail from him and he wanted to do the show.  It was so much fun and not nerve racking at all.  We did a two hour program that included my mom and dad calling in and two close friends.  It was funny my husband Matt was so nervous he had to take Allie to Walmart to go buy an Angry Bird stuffed animal!  Funny!  He then had the World Series game 6 on while the program started.   At the end he gave me tons of hugs and said how proud he was.  My mom and dad called and were all excited too.  FUN!  Cliff or should I say Zeke...radio name) was fantastic.  He also has Bipolar and it was great to connect with him.  He understood me as all fellow bipolar people do.  They just get it.  Which is comforting.  Zeke does mostly baseball type shows so it was really cool that he wanted to do a program on my book.  I hope to fly out to New York to meet him on Tri-City field where he is trying to get an event there for a mental health day.  New York I am there any day of the week.  I like to see what goes on there in my weekly Wall Street Journal.  Fantastic City + Baseball what is not to like!  This may lead to more radio interviews in the future!  Thanks to Zeke for taking that chance on me to tell my story!!  To listen to the show press on the link above.  Maggie

NAMI San Diego Event

I got to the NAMI San Diego group early so I could talk with a few of the members and maybe learn something from ask the doctor.  It was nice to meet some new people.  I didn't gain any new insight from ask the Dr. but I saw how much it helped others so that was a huge plus.  The speech went really well, the Q&A was great, and people got their book at the end.  I even had a girl sing to me at the end of the event which made a couple of tears come out.  Her father had bipolar and she was so touched by my story.  I also had a lady come up to me with an already signed copy of my book.  "Maggie I can't thank you enough for this book.  It has helped me have hope to cling too.  You gave this to my brother when you bought your piano!"  A few weeks ago I had bought a piano from this cool guy named Damion at the Salvation Army.  He and I had gone back and forth on the price of the piano and I got it for half price.  He wanted to know about my background with music.  I told him how I grew up playing and now I needed one in my home to help with a way to release stress because of my bipolar.  Damion said, "Wow that is crazy, my sis has bipolar!"  I told him I would drop off a book for him and I did. It was so amazing that weeks later here was Damion's sister with tears and her hands clutching hard to the book.  Later that month I got the Young Advocate of the Year Award for NAMI San Diego!  Maggie

Kaplan College

I found my way into Kaplan College because my friend Tara knew a friend of hers that went there and really enjoyed my book. Tiffiny gave the book to her instructor who then got in touch with me to come speak to her Psych Nursing students.  They were just about ready to graduate and looked at me with board stares as I began my talk.  I immediately knew if I was going to get the students off their iphones and laptops I had to throw in some crazy stuff to gain their attention.  I first started out with my adventures through Yosemite at 3am rollerblading around the valley floor.  A few heads popped up with curiosity.  Then I threw in the dr. threats, the horse ride in the middle of the night, and the body guard factor from my book.  With that I got the class....even the sleeping guy in the back opened his eyes.  It was fun to make eye contact with each student.  Giving them the insight about what they might see on the job and how my story just may help them out their in the real world.  At the end I had 13 of the 20 students buy a copy.  The teacher said she had never had such a great speaker!  Yes I had won the respect of a bunch of college students and the teacher!  Afterward Tara and I went out for some yummy baked potatoes.  We love to eat out.  It gave us time to recharge, laugh about the guy sleeping in the back that liked me by the end, and then go about our fun San Diego life.  Maggie