From The Courageously.u Podcast: “Karin Jervert is a fine artist, writer, and psychiatric survivor labeled Bipolar at 21. She is currently working on a memoir exploring the medicalization of suffering and the parallel loss of language around emotional pain. Her work explores empathy, identity, normalization of suffering, and the power of creative expression to transform trauma, particularly the types of trauma inflicted by the psychiatric industry. Her study of Buddhism and improvisational comedy find their way into her work as well. Karin currently works for Mad in America.
In this episodeâŚ
- How Karin almost lost her life to her mental health treatment
- The symptoms and events that led Karin to be diagnosed with bipolar
- Karin’s experience being hospitalized for mental health reasons
- How Karin was led to believe she had a ‘broken brain’
- Why Karin started using substances to cope
- Factors in Karin’s childhood that played a role in her mental health
- The biggest trauma of Karin’s life
- What it looks like to be involuntarily hospitalized
- Karin’s process of withdrawing from mental health medications
- The role community, support, and hormones play in mental health
- How Karin found her laugh again
- The pros and cons of being diagnosed with bipolar
- Karin’s struggle with suicidal ideations”
