Media personality and mental health advocate, Nana Abena Korkor Addo has further disclosed the complexities surrounding her experience as a person living with Bipolar Disorder.
According to her, while studying Biomedical and Forensic Science at the University of Cape Coast in 2015, she was diagnosed of the mental health condition after she experienced a manic episode and ended up posting videos and pictures of herself in a lingerie, ranting and talking about others.
“So I came back to Accra; the Accra Psychiatric hospital, and that was when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder,” she said in a video on her YouTube channel, Abena Korkor TV
Abena, who is also a plus-size model, stated that people living with bipolar disorder go through severe depression to the point where they lose interest in things they originally love to do.
“Bipolar disorder involves lots of mood swings. It’s not the typical rapid mood swings all the time but you go through a spectrum. You may go through depression, the ‘normal period’, hypomanic and have experienced maniac. So during depression, you don’t feel like doing the normal activities that you usually do … sometimes you battle with suicidal thoughts,” she said.
She added that after her manic episode which made her release videos online and made her trend as a result, going back to her normal life as a student then was very challenging for her.
“Coming back to campus was not easy for me at all. At that time, I was still in heavy depression. They were days I won’t have my bath, I won’t eat, even when I make it to lectures, I will sleep throughout, and my medication was making me drowsy. So my first semester in school was very difficult.”
Watch the full video below: