Sobriety Didn’t Cure Her Bipolar I. It Gave Her a Way to Manage It

For years, Louise Barnett believed stability was a destination she could eventually reach, a place she called her “gorgeous Emerald City,” if she just did everything right. She took her medication, went to therapy, got sober, learned DBT skills, tried neurofeedback and ketamine therapy. Despite all of it, she fell into a severe, eight-month depression in 2024, an experience that redefined how she understands recovery.

“Stable does not mean symptom-free,” Barnett said, calling it one of the most important messages she shares with others living with bipolar disorder, along with their loved ones. Today, stability means knowing herself well enough to notice when something is shifting, toward mania or depression, and having a plan ready when it does. That plan might mean calling her psychiatrist or therapist, adjusting medication (as she did during her 2024 depression, when adding a second medication helped her recover and has prevented another depressive episode since), reducing commitments or simply allowing herself to stop performing.

The Six Pillars of Recovery

Barnett no longer measures her recovery by whether she experiences mania or depression, or how often. Instead, she focuses on what she calls her six pillars: medication, therapy, sobriety, lifestyle (including nutrition, sleep and stress management), emotional regulation and nervous system regulation. The work, she said, is responding differently to each pillar depending on which symptoms or red flags are surfacing. “It doesn’t mean you’re not falling or flying,” she said. “It’s knowing what to do when you start to experience that.”

Barnett describes bipolar disorder as something she will always live with, never a finished chapter, but an ongoing process of learning to pivot and grow alongside it.

From Self-Judgment to Curiosity

Barnett spent much of her life believing something was fundamentally wrong with her, searching for wholeness through achievement, relationships and alcohol. Her 2015 diagnosis didn’t fix anything, and she initially rejected it, but it gave her language for her experience. What shifted over time, she said, was the question she asked herself. Instead of “What’s wrong with me?” she began asking, “What do I actually need today?”

That answer changes daily, she said. Sometimes it’s leaning into a creative surge when she feels protected by her care team and resources. Sometimes it’s leaning into depression as an opportunity for reflection, which is how her forthcoming memoir began, written during her eight-month depressive episode after she’d stripped away the usual demands of productivity.

The Role of Vulnerability

Barnett describes bipolar disorder as carrying significant emotional weight, shame, guilt and embarrassment that many patients quietly carry. Her guidance for working through it is vulnerability, in whatever form that takes for each person. For her, that meant writing a book and speaking publicly. For someone else, it might mean journaling or confiding in one trusted person. “Our collective stories will create survival guides for one another,” Barnett said, encouraging others to share their experiences, even in small doses, as a way to move through shame rather than around it.

Louise Barnett is a Jay Shetty-certified life coach, mental health advocate and host of the “I’m Bipolar. Now What? Podcast.” Her memoir, “Tainted Love: A Bipolar Memoir,” is out October 6 and available for preorder now, with 100% of presale revenue benefiting the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), a donation Barnett is personally matching.