No longer silent: Man with bipolar commotion speaks adult about his illness …


A few months ago, Logan Noone finished a preference that everybody told him would be a terrible idea. He started talking.

In May 2011, Noone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a psychiatric condition noted by swapping durations of heated basin and good or irked moods.  While seeking diagnosis for his mental health during a hospital, his doctors and associate patients all told him a same thing – don’t tell anyone about your illness.

“They all said, ‘You have to be clever about who we tell, given people competence distinguish opposite you, and it could hurt your career,’” Noone, a 23-year-old Connecticut local who now lives in California, told FoxNews.com. “And it was unequivocally frustrating for me given we thought, ‘Yeah, nonetheless they competence not.’”

Though he adamantly disagreed with a suspicion of gripping quiet, Noone finished adult holding his physicians’ recommendation and eventually kept his condition to himself.  

“I’m usually a normal guy, and we can still fit in with everybody else.  We all have something wrong with us; no one’s DNA is perfect.”

– Logan Noone, on his new opinion towards being bipolar

The overpower tore him apart.  For a subsequent 6 months, he spiraled into one of his misfortune depressions, feeling zero nonetheless contrition for his condition and a life he was leading.

“I suspicion it was a flaw; we didn’t consider we could be anything successful,” Noone said. “I didn’t have a expostulate to get better, given we suspicion we was unfailing for suicide.”

Then a clearly tiny impulse would mortar Noone into a totally opposite proviso of his life.  Just dual days after relocating to California for a pursuit transfer, Noone nonchalantly told his new Craigslist roommates his biggest tip – that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Then something implausible happened.

Nothing changed.

His roommates did not distinguish opposite him and embraced Noone for who he was.

“I’ve been means to learn them what bipolar commotion is and change their misconceptions about it,” Noone said.  “…They also taught me a doctrine that I’m usually a normal guy, and we can still fit in with everybody else.  We all have something wrong with us; no one’s DNA is perfect.”

Since then, Noone has purposefully left opposite a “keep quiet” mentality, creation a choice to step adult and pronounce out about his believe with mental illness.  Having recently been hired by a California Speakers Bureau, Noone travels to opposite colleges via a state, giving speeches about his life story and how people can assistance erase a tarnish surrounding mental illness.  He has given posted a video of his debate on YouTube, that is fast entertainment views and huge support.

Now, Noone and others are staid on a margin of what they are pursuit a mental health polite rights movement, directed during enlivening those with mental illness to mangle their overpower and pronounce about their practice as something certain – and not something to hide.

Depression vs. mania

Having grown adult with a amatory family in Litchfield, Conn., Noone had always been a happy, normal kid.  He would infrequently believe durations of basin and anxiety, nonetheless he could always spin it around quickly.

It wasn’t until he complicated abroad in Scotland while attending his youth year during a College of a Holy Cross that he started to notice something wasn’t utterly right.

“I started to have racing thoughts that were so consuming,” Noone said.  “I couldn’t focus; we had problem interacting with people.  I didn’t feel like we knew who we was.  It eventually lead to jubilee and self-medicating, that is positively not healthy.”

Noone questioned all from a adore of his friends and family to his sexuality.  And a thoughts showed no pointer of going away, vivid him via his youth and comparison year – causing him to besiege himself and spin intensely anxious.  Then when it came time for his final week of college, a lot of vital changes happened all during once.  He had usually recently damaged adult with his girlfriend, was about to transport a theatre for graduation and was starting a new pursuit in usually a few brief weeks.

He pronounced his relatives likened it to a ‘Perfect Storm.’

Noone finally motionless to pronounce with his friends about how he had been struggling.  While he was revelation them, his mood unexpected started to spin around.  He started to have feelings of euphoria and felt as nonetheless he had a ton of energy.  As his friends began their celebrations for comparison week, Noone felt vehement adequate to join in on a fun – nonetheless a merrymaking didn’t stop.

“I was carrying a blast, nonetheless we couldn’t spin it off,” Noone said.  “I had a constant, violent volume of energy, and it continued to get worse as we continued to remove sleep.  I started carrying all these showy ideas that we suspicion could make work.  I suspicion we could make a billion bucks off of them in a week.  I was pursuit investors before we had even created anything down, and it even got to a indicate where we suspicion people were going to take them from me, that people were monitoring my email and cellphone.”

It didn’t take prolonged for his friends and family to figure out something was unequivocally wrong.  After about a week of not sleeping, Noone himself started to comprehend he competence be pang from something unequivocally serious, and meaningful that bipolar commotion ran in his family, it wasn’t tough for him to put a pieces together.

Seeking help

Realizing he indispensable help, Noone’s family organised for dual psychiatric illness experts to come to their home in sequence to advise him about what to do next.  

Facts About Bipolar Disorder

– People with bipolar commotion swap between durations of basin and exhilaration or infrequently mania

– The condition customarily starts between a ages of 15 and 25.

– Symptoms of a manic proviso can embody problems determining temper, high energy, brazen behavior, and small need for sleep.

– Symptoms of a basin proviso can embody unequivocally low moods, miss of energy, problem concentrating, isolation, and even thoughts of genocide and suicide.

They told him he eventually had 3 options.  He could do zero and continue to suffer, report an appointment with a therapist (which could eventually take weeks), or he could do something even some-more extreme – check into a hospital.

“Saying we should go to a sanatorium was shocking,” Noone said, “but it unequivocally usually took my 5 to 10 mins to make that decision.  I finally usually pronounced we should siphon it adult and, ‘Let’s do this.’”

The believe was rough, nonetheless necessary.  Over a subsequent 5 days, Noone worked with his doctors to figure out a best treatments for relocating brazen and a right multiple of drugs that would assistance control his symptoms. He wasn’t authorised to leave a building until a routine was done.

It was during his time during a sanatorium that Noone schooled about a tarnish surrounding bipolar commotion and mental illness in general.  Everyone he met pronounced gripping his commotion a tip was a best march of action, as people would eventually perspective and provide him differently.  Even his associate patients during a sanatorium pronounced articulate about their symptoms and struggles was usually too risky.

The overpower contributed to his misfortune basin yet, and Noone spent a subsequent 6 months feeling ashamed of himself and his condition.  But in those final few months, he started to have a change of heart.  His employer, Hanover Insurance, motionless to send Noone to California for a new position, and he spent 5 days in a automobile with his father, meditative about life and vouchsafing all penetrate in.

Those 5 days would after change everything.

“During that time period, we thought, ‘I’m not going to live this life anymore,’” Noone said. “‘This is stupid, and I’m not going to be ashamed.’”

Starting a movement

This preference to tell his roommates about his commotion had an rare impact on Noone.  His instincts had been right all along.  Not usually was it OK to pronounce about bipolar disorder, nonetheless it was indeed therapeutic, moving him to spin his life around in a approach he had never imagined.

“It started this transformation of complacency in my life,” Noone said. “I started operative out, eating better…. we started this final May, and until now I’ve mislaid 70 pounds.”

Just a elementary act of divulgence his condition to his roommates speedy Noone to start attending meet-up groups for people with bipolar commotion and other mental health issues.  He began listening to all of their life practice and schooled useful insights and coping mechanisms he could request to his possess life.

“This was a pivotal to my recovery, given we didn’t feel all alone,” Noone said.  “Five percent of a race has bipolar disorder, and they consider that series is grossly underestimated.  So it was unequivocally rewarding being means to bond and accommodate some-more of them, given that’s how people are going to get desirous to get a assistance they need.”

Noone’s impasse with a bipolar village eventually held a eye of William Taylor from Mental Health America, who runs an eventuality called “Recovery Happens,” a jubilee of people with mental illness who have finished recoveries in their lives.  Taylor approached Noone about presumably vocalization out about his bipolar experience, and Noone was fervent to pointer up.

Now, Noone is set to transport to opposite colleges to give speeches about his life story. His initial debate during Sierra College in Rockland, Cali., incited out to be a good success and speedy Noone to go one step further.  Given a response he received, he available a apart video of his debate in his kitchen and posted it to YouTube, anticipating to improved widespread a word online.

So far, a response has been overwhelming.

“I’ve been removing messages from people we don’t know, people in opposite countries,” None said.  “They tell me, ‘I can unequivocally describe to this story, and you’ve desirous me to live a healthy life.’”

Besides his vocalization engagements and YouTube video, Noone is operative to start a non-profit, that strives to emanate an online village revolving around mental illness pride, as good as a selling debate called “Repaint a Picture,” directed during erasing a misconceptions of mental illness and swelling mental illness pride.  And Noone is not alone in this endeavor.  He has already perceived estimable seductiveness in starting his possess initiative.  Many high-profiled celebrities – such as Carrie Fisher, Linda Hamilton, Russell Brand, Howie Mandal, and Robert Downey Jr., to name a few – have already come out about their struggles with bipolar disorder, swelling believe and recognition of a disorder.

Overall, Noone feels a whole mental health village is on a margin of a polite rights movement, in that people with mental illness are about to come out of a shadows and widespread their stories for a universe to hear.  It is by this effort, he says, that things will fundamentally start to change.

“We’re going to try to tell a success stories,” Noone said. “The stories people need to hear. The truth.”

Interested in Logan Noone’s updates? Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • email
  • StumbleUpon
  • Delicious
  • Google Reader
  • LinkedIn
  • BlinkList
  • Digg
  • Google Bookmarks
  • HackerNews
  • Posterous
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Tumblr
  • Tumblr
  • Tumblr