In this episode, we discuss

Kate Mohler on bipolar disorder, accommodations, self-care and supporting colleagues. What is bipolar disorder like? What accommodations can we make for students. How can colleagues be more supportive?

Highlights include:

1. How have you reintegrated yourself into the campus community? (1:33)
2. Reconciling our actions (5:23)
3. How do we recognize signs of a mental illness both in students and in colleagues? (7:23)
4. What can supporters do for their own self-care when supporting colleagues going through depression, mania or aggression? (12:10)
5. What about those with the actual mental illness? What can they do for self-care? How can they avoid an episode or at least avoid it interfering with work? (14:07)
6. Acceptance (17:04)
7. As we know, anyone can become disabled at any time. What accommodations can be put in place in order to anticipate mental health issues? (20:00)
8. What might an awareness campaign look like? (22:55)
9. Can we put some kind of notice in the syllabus? What should it say? (24:43)
10. Do you have any last advice that you’d like to give our listeners? (26:00)

Resources Mentioned

• "As a Disabled Person, Embracing 'Crip Time' Helped Me Define My Own "Normal"" by Javed Avidi Foundation. https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2020/10/embracing-crip-time-lessons-from-teaching-and-learning-during-the-pandemic/
• "Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time" by Ellen Samuels. https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/5824/4684
• Price, Margaret. Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life. University of Michigan Press, 2014. 

About Kate Mohler

Kate Mohler earned a B.A. in English from Bemidji State University in Minnesota in 1989 and an MFA in creative writing from Arizona State University in 1994. She has taught composition for Mesa Community College since 1995. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016.

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