A good friend of mine was once telling me about a professional athlete who’d recently been open about having bipolar disorder. My friend asked me, “Do you think it’s hard to be in professional sports and have mental illness?” I replied, “It’s hard to just be a human being and have mental illness.” I’ve known I had bipolar since I was the young age of 19. Although I’ve had bipolar since April 12, 1984, my birthday.

I refuse to sing the blues over bipolar. And I hope you refuse to sing sad songs without hope about whatever ails you as well. Yes, it is hard to be a human being with mental illness. But it’s difficult for all of us to be good humans, full of humanity and love, to ourselves and to our fellow mankind.

What doesn’t destroy us makes us weaker. What makes us weaker causes us to…