What Does Bipolar Disorder Feel Like? Fourteen Lost Years, Recovery & Healing Humour | Dave Mowry

Content warning: This episode includes discussion of severe depression, anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, an incident involving a firearm, psychiatric hospitalisation, homelessness and mental health stigma. Please listen with care and step away if you need to.

What does bipolar disorder actually feel like from the inside, and what happens when years of silently struggling finally become impossible to carry?

Dave Mowry joins Ellie to share the honest story of what he calls his fourteen lost years. Once a successful businessman with financial stability and a loving family, Dave experienced a devastating mental health breakdown that changed every part of his life. He discusses losing his businesses, experiencing homelessness, living with overwhelming anxiety and depression, and receiving a bipolar disorder diagnosis that finally helped him understand the cycles he had experienced for years.

Dave also speaks movingly about his beautiful wife, Heather, whom he describes as the hero of his story, and about the love he has for his children. Their story shows the profound effect serious mental illness can have on an entire family, but also the extraordinary strength that can exist within those relationships.

Recovery began to take shape when Dave joined a stand-up comedy class for people living with mental illness. Learning to find humour within some of his darkest experiences changed the way he related to his memories and eventually led him to perform comedy, teach others and help people tell their own stories one joke at a time.

This is an open, funny and deeply human conversation about bipolar disorder, masking, mental health recovery, family, stigma and the healing power of feeling understood.

Topics include:

• What bipolar disorder can feel like from the inside
• Mania, depression, severe anxiety and panic attacks
• Masking distress and pretending to be okay
• Psychiatric hospitalisation and receiving a diagnosis
• Losing financial security and experiencing homelessness
• The effect of mental illness on partners and children
• Dave’s relationship with his wife, Heather
• Finding humour within painful experiences
• Teaching stand-up comedy to people with mental health challenges
• Mental health stigma and the importance of honest storytelling
• Dave’s books, OMG That’s Me! and Healing with Humor
• Hope, recovery and helping people realise they are not alone

Dave shares his personal lived experience rather than medical advice. If anything in this conversation resonates with you, please consider reaching out to an appropriate mental health professional or trusted source of support.

Learn more about Dave and find his books at:
https://davemowry.com/