2.06 Natalie Leeke - lived as a nun for 11 years and has recently been diagnosed with Bipolar - navigating multiple medication changes to find what works best.
Lets Talk Bipolar - by Bipolar UKShow Notes
Yogini, triathlete, vegan, mother and lover, Natalie Leeke, has created and enjoys an unconventional and beautiful life with her 7 year old daughter in South west Florida.
After 11 years as a nun and a broad range of experience, Natalie consults for small to medium businesses on marketing and business strategy.
Transitioning from one way of living to living outside of that community has been a huge shift and Natalie talks about this with me in our conversation. We also talk about the journey of navigating finding the right medication that works for you and how sometimes it can take many changes to get to what works best for each of us. Natalie has gone through 9 medication changes to find what works best for her.
We talk about how we can be softer with ourselves and offer ourselves as much compassion as we can along the way to avoid shaming ourselves when we are already dealing with so much. We also talk about the importance of having boundaries in place for our working hours and how this differs for all of us.
Since her diagnosis of bipolar in 2019, she has been learning to manage life more effectively. Friendships have been a large part of her support system. Her experience of authentic friendships prompted her to host "Social Animals" - a podcast about friendship.
FB @natalieleeke
IG @nun2fun
pondb.com
Please find support and resources on our website www.bipolaruk.org
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Twitter: bipolaruk
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Hosted by Emma Belle:
Insta: @emmakbelle
Facebook: bellekemma
www.emmakbelle.com
More from Lets Talk Bipolar - by Bipolar UK
In our last episode of the series 2 I am joined by Melissa Duncan and Jihan Gabart - Melissa was diagnosed with Bipolar 1. Jihan has been her best friend since the age of 14 and they have lived together and Jihan is a carer to Melissa to support her whilst living with this diagnosis.
Professor Allan Young MB, ChB, MPhil, PhD, FRCP (Edin.), FRCPC, FRCPsych answers your questions on bipolar:
Anastasia was seeing psychiatrists since the age of 9 so her journey has been a long one and coming to terms with her diagnosis was hard as all she had heard was fear and stigma around the diagnosis. After some research the diagnosis brought relief and made things make sense.
Paul’s son is one of 3 children and the whole family is very supportive to do what they can and be as supportive as they can in his journey of learning to manage and live with Bipolar.
Following her own diagnosis of Bipolar Clare and her husband decided to have a family and in doing so suffered with an episode of post-partum psychosis following the birth of her first born. Clare has worked extensively with specialists and Bipolar UK to work specifically about how to support and navigate this very difficult period of life. GP’s are under informed to support in the way they need to and because such little research historically has been done in this area there is a serious lack of information to offer birthing people the support they need.