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Faith twist
What’s something you believe everyone should know. I think everyone should know that living one’s life in faith doesn’t mean that one should abandon all fun things and become a super religious monk. Life is given to us by God to live it fully and to enjoy it. A life based in faith doesn’t ask… Continue reading
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How Art Helps Me Navigate Bipolar: A Personal Reflection
What is your relationship with ‘madness’? Do you agree with the strictly bio-medical approach to madness, or believe that there might be something else to it? I have been struggling with identifying myself as bipolar, and instead, focused on art as a tool to help me to cope with overwhelming stigma. I write in my… Continue reading
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Loving myself is giving me power
I am here to reclaim my personal power. You see, I am diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I am originally from Russia. I am a single mother. I am being silenced every single day. But I have dreams. I want to become a published writer. I wrote three books. I want to raise a good man,… Continue reading
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One bipolar morning everyday
What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like? Those who know me, know that I am an early riser. I wake up at 5.30/6 to the singing of the blackbirds, and try to enjoy the moment for some time before getting up and going downstairs. My cat is… Continue reading
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I just believe
Do you believe in fate/destiny? From an early age I have always believed in something. I remember how on a walk with my mum, in Moscow, I would look into the sky, up above me, and ask myself whether there was more to this world and our universe. Moscow is a city of high buildings,… Continue reading
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A job and bipolar disorder
Do you enjoy your job? I love my job, and in general, I love working. But it hasn’t always been easy, in fact to get where I am now, it took me massive efforts to achieve. I teach at universities, and try to navigate it around my bipolar disorder. I have vulnerability to psychoses. I… Continue reading
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Give Hope to Others
What is your mission? A question of today from WordPress is ‘What is your mission?’ When I saw it, I decided to reflect on it in writing, as it’s a question I ask myself daily. What is my mission? You see, I really want to contribute to our humanity and in a good way. And… Continue reading
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Tickets to Taylor Swift
What is the greatest gift someone could give you? Hello! Interesting prompt today by WordPress, asking what would be the greatest gift to receive. I would love to be very ethical and ask for a world peace, but what can I do, as an ordinary human? As everyone else I don’t understand what is happening… Continue reading
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Saying goodbye to perfectionism
What skills or lessons have you learned recently? With my bipolar disorder I have learned in the past couple of years to take it easy. I used to be a perfectionist in the past. I was always achieving something. If it wasn’t for work, then it would be for sport. At some point in life… Continue reading
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Awake in a psychiatric hospital
In my first psychiatric hospital (twenty years ago) in Purmerend, a small Dutch town, there were cameras everywhere, including in each patient’s room. When I noticed this phenomenon I wondered whether by some accident I had ended up in an episode of Big Brother, with a question -what to do about it? I had to… Continue reading
About Me
I am a doctor of philosophy, a university lecturer, and a lover of cats, fine wine, dancing, theatre, and human eccentricity. I was born in the Soviet Union (Moscow). I am fluent in four languages, and have spent all my adult life studying (except from 18 to 19) working and living throughout Western Europe. Despite a surname-Netchitailova- that translates from Russian into English as “unreadable”, my greatest passions in life are reading and writing. My personal struggles have made me appreciate the manifestations of weirdness that exist everywhere.