The girl in the photo

"The girl in the photo, it's me. I remember her but she seems like someone I loved, but lost, and now grieve for. I want to write in the second or third person, to isolate myself from the 'Black Dog', to give the Dog its own entity, to show depression and me as two separates, living in parallel, occupying the same single, inseparable unity, greedily possessing and devouring each other..... I stopped being me a long time ago, and I grieve for the things the Black Dog has taken from me and buried like a bone in the dirt."

This is from a book called ' Journeys with the Black Dog'. The book comprises a variety of contributions from sufferers of Bipolar Disorder, working with the Black Dog Research Institute at UNSW. I had the opportunity to partake in a 12 month study with the Institute. They do great work there in raising awareness of Bipolar Disorder and in and researching effective treatment for this illness.