Lets Talk Bipolar - by Bipolar UK

2.10 Melissa Duncan and Jihan Gabart - Melissa was diagnosed with Bipolar 1. Jihan has been her best friend and carer to Melissa, living through 9/11 and navigating Mel living with with bipolar


Listen Later

In our last episode of the series 2 I am joined by Melissa Duncan and Jihan Gabart - Melissa was diagnosed with Bipolar 1. Jihan has been her best friend since the age of 14 and they have lived together and Jihan is a carer to Melissa to support her whilst living with this diagnosis.

They were childhood friends and then moved to New York City together to be college roommates at the age of 17 and 18 and lived through the 9/11 disaster on just their second day living in New York. Living through this traumatic event as well as living together whilst Melissa was living undiagnosed with Bipolar was truly friendship changing.

There is a history of mental illness in Mel’s family which pushed her diagnosis further down the road because there was a lot of fear around what she had witnessed with family members being sectioned and committed. When her diagnosis did come there was a lot of denial and resistance around it, as Mel was only ready to accept that she had anxiety at that time and really believed that her doctor had got it wrong and that her friend Jihan had it wrong too.

Johan and Melissa have grown alongside each other and their friendship and relationship is full of beautiful and hard moments as they have walked through this journey. Jihan being Melissa's point of truth and grounding and having to stand firm on the different boundaries required within their friendship dynamic to support Mel in being stable, well and accessing help. 

Thank you so much for sharing your joint experience with me in this conversation.


Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org

Insta: @bipolar_uk

Twitter: bipolaruk

Facebook: bipolaruk


Find Melissa and Jihan here:

www.instagram.com/somypolar

www.somypolar.org
www.twitter.com/somypolar


Hosted by Emma Belle:

Insta: @emmakbelle

Facebook: bellekemma

www.emmakbelle.com

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Lets Talk Bipolar - by Bipolar UKBy Bipolar UK

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

2 ratings


More shows like Lets Talk Bipolar - by Bipolar UK

View all
Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe by Keep It Light Media / Spotify Studios

Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe

998 Listeners

this is bipolar by this is bipolar

this is bipolar

78 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

13,109 Listeners

Huberman Lab by Scicomm Media

Huberman Lab

28,527 Listeners

The Wargame by Sky News

The Wargame

121 Listeners

The Rest Is Politics by Goalhanger

The Rest Is Politics

3,289 Listeners

Inside Bipolar by Gabe Howard & Dr. Nicole Washington

Inside Bipolar

238 Listeners

The News Agents by Global

The News Agents

983 Listeners

The Mel Robbins Podcast by Mel Robbins

The Mel Robbins Podcast

20,604 Listeners

I'm ADHD! No You're Not by Dr Mine Conkbayir MBE & Paul Whitehouse

I'm ADHD! No You're Not

30 Listeners