About Me

Hello, I am Angela Fox-Thomspon and I have Bipolar Disorder.  The reason I have started this blog is to share my experiences with this illness with you if you have it and to let you know that you are not alone.

I hope to provide some insight into this disease so if you are going through some of the same things you will hopefully gain some insight into some of your own experiences.  If you just know someone with the illness, I hope I can provide some comfort to you as well, and some understanding of how it is to live with this problem.

This is a disconcerting and often misunderstood disorder.  It is terrifying--to you if you have it, and to those around you who just don't know what to make of it or how to help.  I'm no expert on Bipolar Disorder, but I have lived with it all my life, although I wasn't diagnosed with it until I was in my 20s.  I hope to simply provide awareness and empathy to you if are also Bipolar or if you know someone who is.

I will be providing you with not only facts about this troubling illness, but hopefully my own experiences with it will afford you some options on how to cope with it and lead as normal a life as possible.

In the meantime, here are some basic facts about me, aside from my disease:

• I grew up in Iowa and lived there for the first 29 years of my life.  I had a job with a national    telemarketing company which allowed me to travel all over the country, which ultimately led me to where I live today. 

• I now live in the desert of West Texas—a huge change from the fertile, temperate plains of Iowa!  I am gainfully employed by a huge national electronics retailer.

• I am the mother of two amazing teenage daughters.  They are the joys of my life!  (More on them later through some posts.) 

• I am also the mother of a silly old fat cat named Penelope (who my oldest daughter named after her favorite TV character from her favorite show:  Penelope Garcia of “Criminal Minds”, because they are both a little “quirky”.), and a box turtle name Sylvia.

• I have a degree in Theatre from the University of Iowa and actually taught Theatre for 12 years at a junior high school here.  It was a lot of fun and I loved it, but unfortunately, budget cuts a few years ago forced me into the world of retail.  Since then, I have been a kitchen designer and sold a lot of appliances. 

• I love music and was a Radio DJ through high school and college.  I like most kinds of music, but I primarily listen to 80’s punk and pop, 90’s grunge, and 2000’s hard rock.  My favorite bands range from The Replacements and The Indigo Girls to Nickelback, Sixx A.M., Staind, and Bowling for Soup.

• I don’t watch movies that much, but I do like stuff that is off-beat and a little dark and makes you think.  Specifically, my faves include “My Own Private Idaho”, “The River’s Edge” (Keanu Reeves version), “The Breakfast Club”, “Sex, Lies, and Videotape”, “Four Rooms”, “The Matrix”, and “Bicentennial Man”.

• My favorite books also fall into the “things that make you go HMMMM” category.  Once again, stuff that is off-beat and a little dark.  My favorite authors include:  Jodi Picoult, Dan Brown Anais Nin, and plays by Sam Shepard.

• I love design and watch HGTV all the time.

• I have recently become enamored with Netflix and have been binge watching old series like my absolute favorite “The X-Files” original version, as well as “Californication”, “Weeds”, and “Dexter”.

Please email me at angelasblogemail@gmail.com to let me know some of your experiences with Bipolar Disorder, if we have anything else in common, and what you think of my blog!

Thank you,

Angela