Today on Bipolar She, Janine looks at how mental illness shows up on screen from the neurotic, quirky TV musical Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to the critically acclaimed Silver Linings Playbook with Bradly Cooper’s pitch perfect bipolar performance, to Taylor Tomlinson’s bold comedy special Look at You that dives right into being a bipolar millennial, and the deep psychological trauma revealed by creator Richard Gadd in the haunting Netflix original Baby Reindeer.

This episode moves from the psychologically light content to psychologically dark and asks: What screen stories get mental illness right? What can we see differently now about the public’s perception of mental illness on screen? Has anything changed?

Bipolar She is an independent mental health storytelling podcast. To support the show and help keep Janine and her editor afloat, help with a micro-donation at Buy Me A Coffee

Have a mental health story you want to tell? Whether it becomes a journal entry, essay, memoir, podcast episode, or something you say out loud for the first time, it starts with story. Janine is preparing a storytelling class for people ready to write and speak about the hard stuff. Visit BipolarShe.com and sign up for updates.

Support the show

Help Bipolar She Today! Buy Me A Coffee is a platform for podcasters to receive support, even if just a micro-donation. It's finally time to grow! Let's amplify voices of mental illness in all their raw details.

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain. 

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

What Happened to You? The Neurosequential Model With Diane Vines

In this powerful conversation, Janine sits down with Diane Vines, a seasoned clinician and Neurosequential Model practitioner whose work bridges trauma, brain development, family systems, and real-world healing.

Diane has worked with childhood abuse victims and subsequent developmental trauma since 1988. Her approach is far from prescriptive, and she is an innovator when it comes to creative and specific therapeutic treatment.

At the center of this episode is the Neurosequential Model, developed by psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Bruce Perry. Perry’s groundbreaking work helped bring a crucial question into the mainstream: not “What’s wrong with you?” but “What happened to you?” His research and clinical model connect early experience, brain development, stress response, relationships, and healing.

Diane explains why the Neurosequential Model is not a treatment by itself. It is a framework. It helps clinicians understand what parts of the brain and nervous system were shaped by early life, what remains disorganized or underdeveloped, and what kind of support may help create new pathways. For Diane, a once-a-week approach with talk therapy seems like too little time to change your life. So she deeply questions how to keep her patients learning the other 167 hours in a week.

Diane talks about the brainstem, limbic system, cortex, and the importance of working from the bottom up in therapy contexts. She brings new tools to therapy to prevent dysregulation. She also describes how a person’s survival tools may look like symptoms later in life, even though those tools once made perfect sense.

 Janine and Diane also discuss dissociation, psychosis, bipolar disorder, shame, developmental trauma, and the hope of neuroplasticity.

Inside the conversation:

Why the brain is a survival organ

•  How early stress shapes later functioning
•  Why “regulate, relate, reason” matters
•  Why talking may not work until the body feels safe
•  How trauma can affect trust, empathy, connection, and isolation
•  Why relationships are central to healing
•  How therapeutic support can include rocking, rhythm, animals, movement, weighted blankets, occupational therapy, family mapping

Support the show

Help Bipolar She Today! Buy Me A Coffee is a platform for podcasters to receive support, even if just a micro-donation. It's finally time to grow! Let's amplify voices of mental illness in all their raw details.

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain. 

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

Janine shares how writing about her own mental health crises in an MFA program helped her see that illness can be written, shared, and received (mostly) without shame. She currently teaches classes on writing the hard stuff—but to do so, you’ve got to start reading some nonfiction. In this episode she highlights four standout memoirs on mental illness. For more on Janine’s upcoming class, visit BipolarShe.com and sign up to be notified when enrollment opens. 

Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult by Maria Bamford 
Wry humor, short chapters, and visual elements temper the intensity of Maria Bamford’s memoir. It’s no surprise an actor and comedian has brilliantly pulled this off. 

Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind by Andy Dunn 
Andy Dunn writes directly about bipolar I disorder, masterfully letting us into mania, psychosis, and the damage a mental health crisis can cause.

My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward by Mark Lukach 
Mark Lukach tells the story of his wife’s sudden onset of severe mental illness, how he navigated the overwhelm, revealing what it’s like for family to confront bipolar disorder

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Jennette McCurdy’s memoir is a strong example of scene-based writing and a good read for a new writer—dialogue and behavior can do heavy lifting.

Support the show

Help Bipolar She Today! Buy Me A Coffee is a platform for podcasters to receive support, even if just a micro-donation. It's finally time to grow! Let's amplify voices of mental illness in all their raw details.

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain. 

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

In this solo episode of Bipolar She, I talk about how a lithium dose reduction triggered a bipolar crisis and led to brain fog, confusion, sleep disruption, exhaustion, and intrusive suicidal thoughts--thoughts about suicide that were clearly not my own--but still deeply disturbing. What began as a small psychiatric medication change turned into nearly a month of instability, pulling me away from life and even away from the podcast. Ugh!

I had started this adjustment in my lithium dose because of my tremor (see episode Lithium: Why I Shake) A med adjustment can often have so much hope attached to it. Will I feel more like myself? Will life be richer and fuller? Will my senses work better and will I even excel more athletically? 

But for my bipolar disorder 1 disorder, even a small lithium taper (a form of medication change), sent me on a roller coaster of a month this March--and potentially a life threatening ride. Ultimately, I was met with defeat. I rarely have any luck during a change, but I still take the risk, with the hope of having a better life. This episode is about bipolar disorder, lithium, suicidal thoughts, psychiatric medication tapering, and how destabilizing even a small med change can be.

Support the show

Help Bipolar She Today! Buy Me A Coffee is a platform for podcasters to receive support, even if just a micro-donation. It's finally time to grow! Let's amplify voices of mental illness in all their raw details.

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain. 

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

In honor of International Women’s Day, I’m joined by executive coach Rachel Wexler for a real conversation about what happens when you look “fine” on the outside—but inside you’re pushing, overthinking, and quietly unraveling. Rachel shares how early pressure to appear successful can create perfectionism and people-pleasing, and how a personal turning point helped her finally get support and shift the way she cared for herself.

We connect the dots between imposter syndrome (that “I’m a fraud” feeling), anxiety, and the slow slide into burnout—especially when your workload grows faster than your sense of stability or support. Rachel explains how imposter thoughts can pull you out of the “productive stress” zone and into chronic self-doubt, and why that uncertainty can spiral into exhaustion over time. 

Rachel also breaks burnout down into three clear parts:

Exhaustion (emotional, physical, or both)

Cynicism / depersonalization (withdrawing, losing connection and meaning)

Reduced efficacy (losing your edge and feeling less effective than you used to) 

I also share how imposter syndrome can feel compounded when you’re already “passing as normal” with a mood disorder—how the pressure to perform can stack on top of what you’re already managing internally. 

And we get practical about what helps: why remote work can strip away the small moments that build reassurance and belonging, and how to intentionally recreate those feedback loops by asking directly for feedback, scheduling connection, and choosing psychologically safe environments with authentic leadership and a solid job-fit dynamic. Rachel offers so many actionable words of wisdom. Start taking notes!

Work with Rachel: Rachel Wexler Leadership: Next Level Executive Coaching for Modern Leaders and Organizations

Follow Rachel: Rachel regularly shares reflections, learnings, and perspectives on leadership on LinkedIn and Instagram

JEWEL: Joining and Empowering Women in the Exploration of Lived Experience celebrates professional women leaders' journeys, with the intention of using their stori

Support the show

Help Bipolar She Today! Buy Me A Coffee is a platform for podcasters to receive support, even if just a micro-donation. It's finally time to grow! Let's amplify voices of mental illness in all their raw details.

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain. 

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

Spring doesn’t just bring longer days—it often puts people with bipolar disorder at higher risk for manic symptoms and hospitalizations. Changes in sunlight at the edges of the day, circadian rhythm shifts, increased dopamine, and a faster social pace--tempts us to sleep less and do more.

With earlier wake-ups, I start to see and feel vibrant colors, have chills that arrive with a thought, telling me my nervous system is a little wound up. So I keep on top of my sleep and have a provider that makes sure I do.

Luckily, I can catch mania early on because of sleep deprivation. Even if the world feels electric, I soon carry a heavy tiredness behind my eyes. It's hard to admit, but I then know mania has arrived.

Firm up your spring routines before the lift becomes a launch. If you or someone you love navigates bipolar disorder, this conversation offers a mix of lived experience and actionable tools to keep spring and summer steady.

If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who needs it, and leave a quick review—it helps more listeners find strong, practical support.

Support the show

Help Bipolar She Today! Buy Me A Coffee is a platform for podcasters to receive support, even if just a micro-donation. It's finally time to grow! Let's amplify voices of mental illness in all their raw details.

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain. 

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

Today I sit down with EFT practitioner and creator of the Soar With Tapping app, Amy Vincze. When I heard Amy is leading a class: The Wisdom of Feminine Rage beginning February 24 (Details Here), I immediately wanted to have a conversation on rage and how it develops in women and how essential it is to us having better lives.

We share childhood memories of when we suppressed our anger for survival, which led to shame and taking on the “agreeable woman” script and its toxic byproducts: anxiety, depression, perfectionism, and quiet resentment that erodes relationships and self-worth.

Amy breaks down her approach to her upcoming tapping class.

1) Dismantle fear—fear of punishment, labels, and ruptured roles.

2) Honor collective rage—personal heartbreaks and the global injustices women carry.

3) Find balance—use anger as a truth teller that flags unfairness, set boundaries with clarity, and move forward without living in the burn.

Most importantly, Amy reminds us that connecting with rage leads to ambition, creativity, and leadership—the energy that propels us to ask for more, protect what matters, and model healthy anger for our kids. 

If you’ve ever felt your hackles rise and doubted your right to speak, this conversation offers language, tools, and community to reclaim your voice.

Join Amy on Feb. 24 for The Wisdom of Feminine Rage (Details Here)

Discover Amy's EFT Work: Soar With Tapping

Soar With Tapping App on Google Play or Apple

Support the show

Help Bipolar She Today! Buy Me A Coffee is a platform for podcasters to receive support, even if just a micro-donation. It's finally time to grow! Let's amplify voices of mental illness in all their raw details.

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain. 

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

Grief doesn’t follow a script, and it certainly doesn’t end on a schedule. Psychiatrist Dr. Lisa Benton-Hardy joins us to unpack loss—why you may be met with a flood of feeling years later, how relief and laughter can coexist with tears, and what it really takes to support someone beyond the first year when the casseroles stop coming and month 13 begins.

We dig into the crucial difference between grieving as a process and grief as the lasting state we learn to carry. Lisa shares how deeper the attachment, the greater the loss. And what about deaths like suicide and homicide? Whether a stigmatized death or the loss of a loving spouse, Lisa guides us to reach out and ask someone grieving simply where they are. Practical short check-ins, honest questions, and letting the bereaved lead the pace.

We also explore how kids understand death at different ages, why direct language matters, and the surprising ways children often sense loss before adults say it aloud. Pet loss gets real attention too: the 2 a.m. comfort of a dog can be a lifeline, which is why losing that bond can intensify anxiety, OCD, and depression. Lisa offers a compassionate micro-step strategy from a bereaved mother—on the hardest days, the job is simple and brave: just get up. The path forward isn’t closure; it’s continued connection, honest language, and care that adapts long past the first year.

If this conversation resonates, share it with someone who might need it, then subscribe, rate, and leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help more people find the show. Your support keeps these stories going.

Support the show

Help Bipolar She Today! Buy Me A Coffee is a platform for podcasters to receive support, even if just a micro-donation. It's finally time to grow! Let's amplify voices of mental illness in all their raw details.

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain. 

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

I’ve been on lithium for 16 years. For the past two years my hands quiver and my body noticeably shakes. My tremor was subtle at first, but now it can be impossible to hide. This episode is about how a drug that is helping my mood stay stable also makes my body feel out of control.

Lithium is now believed to be the best—even the gold standard of medication—for bipolar disorder, and it has been a good drug for me, keeping depression and mania at bay. Tremor is a known side effect, and my hands shake fast like hummingbirds.

Today, public interactions can make my entire body shake, which is unlike my younger self. This episode is about identity and grief, and how a body can quietly announce mental illness to the world. Sometimes the dark side of a medication isn’t headline-worthy. Sometimes it’s private, daily, and challenges who we believe ourselves to be.

Support the show

Help Bipolar She Today! Buy Me A Coffee is a platform for podcasters to receive support, even if just a micro-donation. It's finally time to grow! Let's amplify voices of mental illness in all their raw details.

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain. 

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

In Part 2, Tracy Otsuka digs into ADHD with candor and science, pulling apart the “disorder” narrative and replacing it with a focus on strengths, interests and purpose. 
 
We also walk the tightrope between ADHD and bipolar disorder where misdiagnoses often happen in college. Racing thoughts, impulsivity, and sleepless nights can mimic hypomania, but context matters: dorm food, lost structure, no movement, and constant stress create a similar picture of poor mental health. Tracy asks why isn’t a full biopsychosocial lens—sleep, exercise, nutrition, social connection, purpose—considered when diagnosing young women struggling with their mental health? 
 
If your mornings start with negative self-talk like “Who doesn’t like me?” or “Who did I upset?” you’re not alone—and you’re not stuck—you may be experiencing rejection sensitive dysphoria. We talk through neuroplasticity, and the questions and old stories we tell ourselves and the power of “slow dopamine.” Tracy shares how mindfulness and a healthy daily routine solves 75% of the ADHD equation and how removing friction turns workouts into medication-grade focus without side effects and, again, neuroplasticity is the key.

The final takeaway is a compass you can use for the new year: follow your internal rudder. Positive emotion signals alignment; negative emotion signals a course correction. You’re the best expert on you. If this conversation resonated, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs a lift, and leave a review so others can find us. Your story might be the evidence someone else needs to hear.

Support the show

Help Bipolar She Today! Buy Me A Coffee is a platform for podcasters to receive support, even if just a micro-donation. It's finally time to grow! Let's amplify voices of mental illness in all their raw details.

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain. 

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.