All writer, content creator, content consumer, research buff, cat parent, amateur Baker. These may be just some of the things that define me, but what doesn't define me is bipolar disorder. Hi, I'm Priyanka Sahul and I'm here to tell you it's OK to have a mental illness. Yes, I have bipolar disorder. It's a disorder that can cause extreme mood swings. So imagine being on a roller coaster where each high is euphoria, is extreme happiness and need to know is the weird depression. So one minute I may be baking 2 mango cheesecakes at the same time and the other moment I can be sitting on the floor covered in flour paralyzed by severe depression. So on good days I may be ready to take on the world, hyper productive and you know, taking up activities, but on bad days I may have trouble getting out of bed or even, you know, getting through daily chores. And no, I'm not Moody. I have a condition. A condition for which I have sought help. I have sought therapy. I was lucky that I found the right doctors and the right therapists, but it was the support system that helped me get through it and made my life a little easier. My partner, my family, my friends, they've been absolute gems throughout this journey. Coming to terms with mental illness is probably as difficult as the experience of the illness itself. There's so much confusion. There's a nagging sense of shame. And all of this made it very difficult for me to, you know, even ask for help. It was a difficult bridge to cross, but I'm glad I crossed it. And I have no shame in admitting that I have a mental disorder. I mean, would you be ashamed if you had diabetes?When i was interviweing  For jobs, my family and friends thought that it would be wise not to tell the interviewer about my condition. But I mean, they thought, what if they judge you? And you know what if they think that this disorder affects your work? But I mean, it's if you have diabetes and you don't take care of diabetes, it will eventually affect your work, right? So it's pretty much like that. So when I was interviewing for my job here at TCS, I mentioned my condition to the interviewer and the interviewer. Showed empathy and they checked on me whether I was getting the help that was needed. My colleagues have been absolutely supportive. They even check on me regularly to see how I'm doing, you know, mentally. In my journey to coming to terms with my condition, I've realized that if I'm comfortable in my own skin, people around me will learn to adapt. I found people who see me for who I am. Personally, but more importantly professionally, and I mean it's very difficult to find jobs when you have a mental illness, but I'm glad I found one. Once I started talking about my condition and being open about it recently, a former colleague got in touch with me and said that she was going through something at the same time that I was. And we sat across each other for years and we never knew that what the other person was going through. I hope that changes with this conversation. I hope we talk more about it. And it's OK to have mental illness. I've been very vocal about my condition and ever since I opened up there have been judgmental stares and comments. But I've been surprised by the kindness that people have shown me and at the end of the day, it's kindness that Trump's although judgmental stares that you can get. So I am crazy. Aren't we all a little crazy in this mad world?