Does your friend live with bipolar disorder? Do you know how to help? We wrote HIGH TIDE, LOW TIDE: The Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder for you both. Our first book was published in September 2013, but Fran and I have always celebrated the anniversaries of our launch party rather than the publication date. On that basis, October 1, 2026 is our book’s tenth birthday. My first thought on realising this was “Wow!” closely followed by “How on earth did that happen?” I wasn’t sure how to mark the occasion. I’d left it a bit late to organise anything major. A reprise of our 2013 launch party — held simultaneously online and in person at Fran’s apartment in Maine — was too daunting to countenance. A conversation with our friend Aimee who blogs at I’m NOT Disordered helped enormously. “Could you do ten things you learned from writing the book?” she asked. “Ten reasons to buy it? Ten things someone could learn from it?” Her third suggestion really appealed to me. (Thanks, A...
I would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned. — Richard Feynman This post was inspired by a conversation with my friend and fellow blogger Aimee Wilson. Aimee said she likes question and answer posts because the structure makes them easier to put together. I agreed but said I find it hard actually answering the questions. Aimee seemed surprised. “But we’ve done them together and you’ve always done really well!” It’s true. We’ve collaborated on several Q&A posts here at Gum on My Shoe and on Aimee’s blog I’m NOT Disordered . I’ve used the format on other occasions too, including Every Grey Hair Is a Badge in response to fifteen life prompts by Holly Hatam. That doesn’t mean I find them easy or straightforward. The conversation left me wondering where my issues might lie. Aware of the irony of using the Q&A format to explore my problems answering questions, I reached out to ChatGPT. “I find Q&As challenging to answer,”...