Photo taken by a woman who has been diagnosed with bipolar type II. She has recently been cycling between depression and an agitated hypomania. Her medication and therapy are up in the air which is not helping the situation. She feels hopeless and helpless but is trying to stay afloat for her husband and young daughter.

About this photo: “This is a photograph I took of my little boo on a trip to the Jersey Shore. It is hard to be her mom because of severe mental health issues, but as she is growing – learning to walk, run, play – I am trying to do the same on my journey towards recovery. One step at a time. One milestone at a time. I still slip back – I admit this has been an impossibly difficult week and it’s hard to even get out of bed – but I know I must follow her lead and keep moving forward, no matter how hard it is or how far I slip back. As Dori the fish says in one of my daughter’s favorite movies, Finding Nemo, ‘When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.’”

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