Thoze Krazy Daze

There are many ways of getting information about Bipolar Disorder, and book shops all over the world, have shelves stacked with different ways to describe the condition and its affect on one’s life. We have tried to avoid replicating this wide range of approaches that are commonly available to those who wish to know more about themselves or someone who they feel could be described as a bipolar person. We have deliberately moved away from three specific approaches where the intention is to inform the reader as to what it is like living with this mental illness. Instead, we have raised questions, without seeking specific answers that seemingly give easy solutions, and by doing this we believe we have taken a unique approach for people who are looking for a book, that opens up discussions often avoided by authors for fear they are going into areas that are taboo. We have expressed our views on topics that are pertinent by proposing an introspective review into ‘the fun and fear’ of being bipolar.

Imagine you can look at your life with all its peculiarities, by analysing what you do and how you do the things you do but in an articulate way. This proposition is an introspective review, which allows a detailed understanding to be formed that provides a sense of ‘Self’ awareness. In a place that is confident in the knowledge that you are safe, to make observations about how you feel, and what you appear like to others. It is possible to look deeply into the life we have made for ourselves and reveal how we function differently with different people in different situations. Beware though; you may be tempted to deconstruct the life you now have as a bipolar person by looking at who you have become. And so move to reconstruct your bipolar life in the present, knowing more about yourself with more acute understanding. And so make it possible to live with dignity, and consequently be capable of managing situations as they arise with more confidence. There are many ways of getting information about Bipolar Disorder, and book shops all over the world, have shelves stacked with different ways to describe the condition and its affect on one’s life. We have tried to avoid replicating this wide range of approaches that are commonly available to those who wish to know more about themselves or someone who they feel could be described as a bipolar person. We have deliberately moved away from three specific approaches where the intention is to inform the reader as to what it is like living with this mental illness. Many books written about this disorder are ‘Self Help Books’ all purporting to contain the ‘answers’ to your questions and concerns. They describe techniques and methodologies you can practice, (considered to be inner knowledge) offering the reader ways to feel better about themselves, mostly by making contrived, unfounded claims, with theories that explain how to overcome the bipolar condition in order to live in a ‘normal’ way. Then there are the ‘testimonials’, which by contrast are always presented as personal accounts of events and experiences, usually written by prominent and often socially well recognized individuals with high levels of public popularity. Successfully gained in such things as sporting achievement or media fame, who share their thoughts after revealing they spent time in rehab, where they realised they have their own true story to tell. Then there are ‘the clinical texts’ which on the other hand are usually well written journals collated by Mental Health Professionals, who articulate and describe the illness in clinical terms. And with statistically supported research to prove certain treatments worked in the cases they have reviewed in studies or trials, their objective is to educate the reader with collected data. Unfortunately they can be hard to read for some because they are boring. Instead, we have raised questions, without seeking specific answers that seemingly give easy solutions, and by doing this we believe we have taken a unique approach for people who are looking for a book, that opens up discussions often avoided by authors for fear they are going into areas that are taboo. We have expressed our views on topics that are pertinent by proposing an introspective review into ‘the fun and fear’ of being bipolar.

R. Hayes-Marshall was born at St Mary Abbots Hospital in London in 1949 and was diagnosed as bipolar in Sydney Australia in 1995. The eldest son in a solitary family of two boys, he spent his early years dancing, drawing, reading and writing poetry, and building castles in the sand. From the celebrated Australian Ballet School he joined The Melbourne Theatre Company; where he combined work in the theatre with roles as a dancer in the Australian Opera Ballet, before traveling overseas to study the history of theatre. He lived in London, Holland, Germany and Paris, spending time traveling back and forth across Europe working as a teacher, a professional actor, a writer and director. At L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq in France he studied human locomotion, gesture, and physical movement combined with an articulate analysis of theatre history and the many philosophies relating to human behaviour, from where he moved to the USA and started a Drama School. Years later he returned to Australia with his wife and two daughters. In Melbourne a third daughter was born and within a few months he started to experience feelings of extreme sadness and distress, leading to several periods of psychiatric hospitalization, his wife and three daughters returned to the USA. He remained in Australia and remarried; performed, directed, wrote, produced and lectured as an aficionado of classical theatre skills at various schools including The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). The return to Australia of one of RHM’s daughters triggered a downward spiral that led to a suicide attempt, the outcome, being a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder and long periods of hospitalisation. Resilient as always, RHM remarried again for the third time, and now as a family of four we have a beautiful daughter and all live together in the Blue Mountains of NSW. In parallel with some low times, RHM has created a bountiful number of productions in theatre, film, art and music, teaching 100’s of student’s, touching their lives with depth and a profound link to knowledge of the human body. Writing this book with his friend AWJ has led him to reveal aspects of knowledge, uncovered that coincided with the dilemmas presented by being bipolar. Now he is working on another book, dealing with the ‘Self’ in crisis, a detailed account of what it is like to be ‘sectioned’ at the peak of one of life’s traumas. By continuing to transcribe many poems, and scripts that look more closely at the individual and the tribulations of living with mental illness in this, his years of supposed relaxation and easement from the many passions essential for life.