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Three springs ago I lost the better part of my mind.

I remember it starting with my feet.

I woke up one February morning and my feet were so swollen I could barely fit them into my rheumiest sneakers.

You're listening to Code Switch. I'm B.A. Parker and today we're re sharing an episode with author Naomi Jackson.

So I'm Naomi and I'm a writer born and raised in Brooklyn.

A few years ago, she wrote an essay for Harper's magazine titled

Her Kind on Losing and Finding My Mind. She wrote it as a way to come to terms with her mental illness.

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2018 and it really upended my life.

I wasn't sure what it meant for me. I didn't know if I would be writing anymore. I lost my job.

Just a lot of the things that I had assumed about myself and the way that I was moving through the world really were

transformed by that moment.

Bipolar disorder is a lifelong condition. It causes intense shifts and mood

from periods of mania to episodes of depression and

it often runs in families which was true for Naomi for this episode we asked her

to come in and read from her essay.

Just a heads up, her essay contains some intense experiences with mental health and it does

mention rape, so listen at your own discretion.

All right I'm just sitting here staring at you I'm so sorry.

No I like having the audience it makes me feel less like I'm talking into the void, yeah?

All right. Her kind on losing and finding my mind.

...