About me, the Bipolar Gypsy
My name is Jennie Ogden, and I consider myself a sort of gypsy….oh, and I also have bipolar disorder. Growing up, I was a military brat. I spent my formative years (essentially birth to age 18) moving every three or four years to a new place. While starting over every few years can be a challenge, I embraced the changes and saw them as opportunities to meet new people and explore new places. When I graduated high school in 1997, my father retired from the Air Force and we moved home to Arizona.
Life in Arizona was, for all intents and purposes, very good. I went to community college, got married, bought a house, had a great job with state retirement, and adulted pretty well for about 11 years. Flash forward to 2008 and while I still feel blessed for a lot of the things that happened, and the people that came into my life, I was suffering from clinical depression. I was put on antidepressants off and on for about a year and, long story short, it turned out to be a misdiagnosis and I was correctly diagnosed with bipolar disorder (you can read my blog about getting diagnosed for the long version).
Flash forward to today, and I am living on a sailboat in the Caribbean with my loving husband, Steven. So much has happened over the past 10+ years since my diagnosis, some bad, but mostly good. I still travel as much as possible, I have made a wonderful ‘island family’ here on St. Croix, and I am blessed with a loving family and support system.
Please note that I am NOT an expert on the subject of mental health or bipolar disorder, but I know how they effect me. I have created this site as a way for me to share my story with others who struggle with mental illness, especially bipolar disorder and anxiety. My hope is to let others like me know that YOU ARE NOT ALONE! I will share my personal struggles so family members and friends can understand what it’s like to suffer from bipolar disorder, as well as some of the things that inspire and motivate me, and some of the best resources I have found. I hope you find this site useful, and please feel free to share your stories with me!
Wishing you all the best,
Jennie