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What happens when your mental health is challenged in the blink of an eye? Can keeping your head down and reading help hold you together?

When a devastating skiing accident in Patagonia leaves her husband, Conrado, in a coma with only a 10% chance of survival, Argentinian born journalist and author Juana Libedinsky suddenly finds herself navigating a stark family medical crisis, confronting uncertainty, and knowing that her life and that of her young children would be changed for a long time—or for good.

In her new book, Downhill: A Memoir of an Accident, Two Comas, Many Books, and Starting Over, Juana recounts how books became an unexpected lifeline. From literary classics like Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking to cozy mysteries and cookbooks, Juana grasped for a book at all times. Keeping the simple act of reading as part of her routine, offered a way to stay grounded amid exhausting days in the ICU waiting room, the burden of questions about care, and the persistent anxiety and fear of losing Conrado.

Juana and Janine also explore Argentina's remarkably open culture around mental illness, where there is less stigma and shame about seeking care to stay on top of your mental health. They explore the kindness of friends and strangers, and the peculiar pressure to emerge from a crisis stronger, wiser, and transformed. Perhaps resilience isn't always about transformation. Sometimes it's about holding on to the ordinary pleasures and people we already love.

Buy Downhill Here

Juana's Instagram Here @jlibedinsky

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Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain.

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

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You're waking up at 4 AM, your body craves donuts, your anger is deep, and the midlife health industry insists you buy supplements, protocols, and magic smoothies. Fortunately, Nancy Fisher, a women’s health educator, yoga teacher, and the founder of Zevah, takes us on a deep dive into thriving during perimenopause and beyond.

We have a few more disordered eating topics to go over, including low hunger signals and anorexia; orthorexia, disguised as “clean eating;” and why "intuitive eating" is more nuanced than just “listen to your body.” Nancy shares why vilifying carbs and sugar backfires, and how recent nutrition trends can turn life into an exhausting set of restrictions. With the bottom line being that there are few nutrition studies to date that have strong data correlating specific foods to good health.

From there, Nancy builds her practical framework around five pillars: sleep, mindful movement, healthy eating, getting outside/nature, and connection. We dig into sleep hygiene that supports the nervous system, how poor sleep changes appetite hormones and what sustainable movement looks like for longevity and health span.

We also talk sunlight and vitamin D, and the risks of an under-regulated supplement industry. As part of connection, Nancy speaks about being in community and one's connection to self. And when women begin to feel "invisible," are they grieving a sudden change, or the possibility that they have never been known? Finally, we get real about midlife symptoms, HRT and hormone therapy myths, and the belief that women have suffered enough--so let's get through this as peacefully as possible.

Books mentioned in the episode

Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison: Challenges diet culture and explores intuitive eating and food freedom. View on Bookshop.org

Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch: A practical approach to making peace with food and rebuilding trust in your body's signals. View on Bookshop.org

Estrogen Matters by Avrum Bluming and Carol Tavris: Reexamines the research and controversies surrounding menopausal hormone therapy. View on Bookshop.org

Our conversations are meant to inform and inspire, not to replace medical advice. Guests share their own knowledge, experiences and perspectives, which, at times, may differ from those of the host.

Support the show

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain.

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

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We were taught that thinness meant beauty, discipline, and good health. But what if some of those lessons were lies?

Women's health educator Nancy Fisher joins me for a talk about eating disorders, body image, and the beliefs about food and weight that have followed us for decades.

Nancy and I attended the same college, where academic excellence coexisted with rampant disordered eating. We revisit those years—the restrictive eating, the pressure to stay thin, and the painful contradiction of looking our best while feeling our worst.

Nancy shares how her eating disorder began in high school and went largely unnoticed by her parents. She also introduces the fascinating research of Cynthia Bulik on the genetic underpinnings of anorexia nervosa, challenging the assumption that eating disorders are simply about diet culture or even family dynamics.

We explore the relationship between undernourishment and mental health, including my own questions about restrictive eating, depression, and bipolar disorder. For Nancy, becoming a mother brought new urgency to learning how to eat healthfully. She wanted to nourish herself not just physically, but emotionally—to have a greater buffer against stress and more patience and stability for her children.

Decades later, we're still confronting old habits, from scrutinizing our bodies in gym mirrors to refusing to step on a scale.

Nancy also shares surprising research on weight and mortality, including findings that people classified as overweight have, in some large population studies, experienced lower mortality rates than those classified as normal weight. It's a provocative challenge to the assumption that thinner always means healthier. And it's a reminder that disordered eating can affect women at any point in their lives.

This is Part 1 of our conversation about eating disorders, the lies we learned about our bodies, and the hard work of unlearning them.

In Part 2, Nancy returns to discuss five pillars of women's midlife health.

Nancy Fisher's Substack: HERE

Research Mentioned

Cynthia Bulik and colleagues — Genetics of Anorexia Nervosa
Nature Genetics (2019)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6779477/

Katherine Flegal and colleagues — BMI and All-Cause Mortality
JAMA (2013)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4855514/

Please note: Guests on Bipolar She share their personal experiences, knowledge, and perspectives, which may differ from those of the host, Janine Noel. Our conversations are intended to inform and inspire, not to replace professional medical advice.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, for free, confidential support 24/7 in the United States.

Support the show

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain.

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

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Introducing the Nutty & Slutty Podcast. Hosts Janine & Isadora have candid conversations on sex, mental health and everything in between.

Links: Listen to N&S on Apple podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of Nutty & Slutty, Janine and Isadora explore obsessive-compulsive disorder — and why it is far more complex than the familiar stereotypes of spotless houses, rigid organization, and repeatedly checking whether the stove is off. Isadora reflects on growing up with parents whose need for order once felt like criticism, while Janine shares how OCD became entangled with her experience of bipolar disorder.
Janine describes the relentless cycle of intrusive thoughts: unwanted ideas about sexuality, identity, violence, and other frightening subjects that can feel impossible to resolve. The two discuss an essential distinction — the thoughts that accompany OCD may be deeply upsetting precisely because they do not reflect the person’s character, desires, or intentions.
The conversation also examines treatment, including working with an OCD specialist and using exposure therapy to reduce the power of an obsession. Janine explains the counterintuitive process of allowing a distressing thought to exist without fighting it, analyzing it, or performing a compulsion — until what once felt like a hard ball ricocheting through the mind becomes something softer and easier to let pass.
With warmth, humor, and their characteristic honesty, Janine and Isadora reveal the exhausting private terrain that may be hidden behind an ordinary exterior. It is a conversation about stigma, empathy, and the courage required to speak aloud the thoughts that cause shame — and to discover that having a thought is not the same as wanting it or acting upon it.

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Welcome to NUTTY & SLUTTY. Where Mental Health, Sexuality and Unfiltered Truth Take Center Stage. NUTTY & SLUTTY is a bold, sex-positive podcast exploring the messy, complicated and often hilarious intersections of mental health, sexuality and real life — without shame, filters or pretense.
Hosted by Janine Noel (living with bipolar disorder) and Isadora O’Boto (ex-escort), this show brings together two radically honest perspectives for conversations that are as raw as they are insightful. From navigating mood swings and medication to unpacking the realities of sex work and desire, nothing is off-limits.
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Isadora O’Boto (co-host) is a Juilliard Drama grad. Under the pen name Sephe Haven, she is the author of two award-winning memoirs: My Whorizontal Life and A Someday Courtesan, and playwright/performer of the solo show: “My Whorizontal Life: The Show!” Isadora co-hosted the podcast My Index to Sex with Lynn Ferguson. Find her at: isadoraoboto.com
Janine Noel (co-host) is creator and host of Bipolar She podcast, where guests sh...

Support the show

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain.

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

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What happens when the joyful arrival of a baby triggers postpartum bipolar disorder with psychosis? When Susan returned home with her newborn, she was in a manic state on the edge of psychosis. Fueled by little sleep with an infant to care for, her behavior became erratic--rushing around the house, even handling her baby carelessly. Her husband, David, told Susan that it felt like he was suddenly living with two strangers--a wife he didn't recognize and a child he didn't yet know.

It would take their doula's observation and advice that Susan was not just a fatigued new mother, but that she needed immediate psychiatric help.

However, without effective treatment for postpartum bipolar disorder and psychosis, Susan went back to work while experiencing bipolar mania. She would then alternate between a depressive fog and a manic state, ultimately landing her at McLean psychiatric hospital for a harrowing three week stay. Rebuilding her life would include Electroconvulsant Shock Therapy (ECT), years on disability, and finally getting care from expert providers.

Susan's mothering instinct now shines through in her most current work as a career navigator for neurodivergent clients with mental health disorders to help them meet their full potential, through increasing productivity, and designing a new life that reflects their Best Productive Self (BPS). More on Susan Munter's TruNeuro Here.

Susan's also a dedicated volunteer and facilitator with Bipolar Social Club, an online support group with weekly meetings, special programming and an online discussion board. As a member, I am grateful for the support BSC offers!

Perhaps most movingly, Susan developed a profound bond with her child, now eighteen years old despite such rough early years.

Support the show

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain.

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

TEXT US: Have a Story? Feedback for the Show?

What do babies learn before they can even explain what they feel? And how much of our adult mental health is shaped by those first relationships?

Jungian psychoanalyst Katherine Olivetti joins Bipolar She to talk about infant attachment theory, early childhood development, the parent-child relationship, and the invisible rules and family dynamics we grow up with. We explore what children do when a parent can’t tolerate their anger, sadness, neediness, intensity, or independence—and how those early adaptations can shape adult mental health, relationships, identity, depression, anxiety, and emotional regulation.

We also talk about repression, the Jungian shadow, parent-child rupture and repair, and the selves we create in order to stay loved. What happens to the feelings we bury? What happens when the parts of ourselves we learned to hide keep showing up in adulthood? And can healing those early patterns change our mental health decades later?

This is a conversation about infant attachment, psychotherapy, and the childhood lessons that may still be shaping our mental health long after we grow up.

More on Katherine Olivetti HERE.

Books

The Guided Dream Journal: Record, Reflect, and Interpret the Hidden Meanings in Your Dreams

Support the show

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain.

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

TEXT US: Have a Story? Feedback for the Show?

Today I sit down with Deirdre, my first guest whose parent had mental illness. Her mom, Minnie, managed bipolar disorder and Deirdre grew up fast. By age 6, she experienced the childhood trauma of her mother’s suicide attempt. Later, when Deirdre asked her mom why she would want to leave her daughter, Minnie would describe her deep depression as being "in a deep, dark hole with no visible way out."

Life with a bipolar parent became chaotic for Deirdre as she was stuck in the middle of a custody battle, suffered the loss of a brother, and now went on visits to her see her mom at a psychiatric facility. Living with her dad gave Deirdre some stability, but no one consistently showed in her daily life and asked young Deirdre, How can I help you?

Fast-forward years of school hopping, active duty in the military, a career in crisis communications and experience in community mediation--Deirdre had to make a critical decision. If your mom and grandmother have bipolar disorder, is having a child the right thing to do? Is the genetic likelihood of having a bipolar child simply too risky?

Deirdre is now in grad school fulfilling her lifelong dream to be a psychotherapist. With the gift of listening and letting her patients know they are always prioritized, Deirdre is driven to provide support that was not always available to her.

This episode includes the following topics: having a bipolar parent, children of bipolar parents, parental mental illness, psychiatric hospitalization, family mental health, resilience, suicide attempt, intergenerational mental illness.

Support the show

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain.

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.

TEXT US: Have a Story? Feedback for the Show?

Check Out BipolarShe.com to Register For Janine's Writing class. Starts September 13.

Enjoy this Summer Remix of Kathleen Adams' Episode "Journaling for Your Bipolar Brain."

Can journaling help your mental health—or sometimes make things worse? Journal therapy pioneer Kathleen Adams explains why unstructured free writing can become overwhelming for people dealing with trauma, dissociative disorders, depression, anxiety, mood disorders, or other intense emotional states. She shares how structure, pacing, and containment can make journaling safer and more useful, including techniques like sentence stems, brief sensory-based “captured moments,” reflection writing, and knowing when to stop.

We also talk about what writing can look like during mania and depression, why “rage on the page” may help in some moments but deepen distress in others, and how to recognize when journaling is helping you process an experience versus pushing you further into it. Adams explains why writing does not have to be positive, polished, or even kept—and why tearing up a page can sometimes be part of the process.

The episode also explores journal therapy, expressive writing, trauma recovery, dissociative identity disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, mania, emotional regulation, and neuroplasticity—with practical ideas for using writing as a mental health tool without simply writing yourself deeper into the pain.

Support the show

Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain.

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.