Podcast appearances and mentions of jaime lowe

This week on Wellbeing we talk with New York based author Jaime Lowe about her journey with bipolar and experiences with the lithium medication she took. This is the tenth instalment in our series on bipolar. Jaime is known for her 2017 bipolar memoir Mental: Lithium, Love, and Losing My Mind. Her book gives an in-depth look into lithium, the gold standard medication used to treat bipolar disorder. In 1993 Jaime was diagnosed with bipolar at the age of 16 and thus was soon prescribed lithium which offered her stability in her condition. However, years later due to the negative side effects of the medication she had to go on alternative medication. In this interview, Jaime talks about lithium, her journey with bipolar and the struggles she had in having to change medications after years of stability. Jaime also talks about her book Mental, how her bipolar diagnosis impacted her, how teenagers can help friends going through bipolar, what lithium's role is in bipolar treatment, lithium's under utilisation, what she liked about lithium, and her journey in having to go on alternative medication after coming off lithium. "The other beautiful part of lithium is that its on the periodic table of elements and so . . . in America you can't patent it. So, it is one of the cheapest medications and often for that reason its not prescribed because you don't have pharmaceutical companies lobbying on its behalf." - Jaime Lowe on this episode of Wellbeing Tune in next week when talk with Ellen Forney about her bipolar journey. We would love to hear from you! If you would like to suggest topics, give us feedback, or just say hi, you can contact us on wellbeing@2nurfm.com Host: Jack HodginsWellbeing website: https://www.2nurfm.com.au/wellbeingSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Wellbeing we are talking with Melody Moezzi about her journey with bipolar and experiences with the bipolar recovery sector. This is the 9th instalment in our series on bipolar. Melody is an author, attorney, activist, and visiting professor of creative nonfiction at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She authored a bipolar memoir in 2013 called Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life in which she covers her experiences with the condition. In this interview we cover her perspective on the bipolar recovery sector and its faults but also the solutions to fix those faults. In this episode Melody talks about her journey with bipolar, the impact mania had on her daily life, the criminalisation of mental health, the challenged ability of law enforcement to manage and identify mental health, the racism that may be present in the public recovery sector, how depressive episodes impact daily life, and the brilliance those who are not not neurotypical can bring to the world around them. "One of the things for me to talk about is I am very lucky that I was hospitalised and not put in jail. Where I live, and in a whole lotta of other places in the US at least, we have criminalised mental illness to the point that the largest mental health facilities are actually and jails and prisons." - Melody Moezzi on this episode of Wellbeing Tune in next week when talk with Jaime Lowe about her bipolar journey. We would love to hear from you! If you would like to suggest topics, give us feedback, or just say hi, you can contact us on wellbeing@2nurfm.com Host: Jack HodginsWellbeing website: https://www.2nurfm.com.au/wellbeingSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode 119, Keri Blakinger joins me to discuss her debut memoir, Corrections in Ink, a mind-blowing personal story, also speaks to the broader issues of addiction and women in the prison system. Keri went from being an elite figure skater in her youth to being arrested for possession of heroin while a student at Cornell, and then serving two years in the New York prison system. In her memoir, Keri is self-reflective, sharing what is ultimately a hopeful and redemptive story, despite the dark places it goes along the way. This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). Highlights When and why Keri decided to share her story in book form. How the pandemic impacted her journalism career and writing her memoir. The connection between her figure skating, her mental health, and her drug addiction. Some of the bigger surprises she experienced in prison. How Keri thinks she managed to overcome the statistics and “make good on a second chance.” An example of the ways inmates work around some of the arbitrary and unwritten rules of jail. All about ‘books in jail': requesting and ordering books, time allotted to reading, access, and prison libraries. Keri's personal reading experience in jail and covering this topic as a journalist. Current issues Keri is investigating within the prison system. Keri's Book Recommendations [32:02] Two OLD Books She Loves Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro | Amazon | Bookshop.org [32:17] The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein | Amazon | Bookshop.org [33:56] Two NEW Books She Loves Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough | Amazon | Bookshop.org [37:30] Breathing Fire by Jaime Lowe | Amazon | Bookshop.org [39:33] One Book She DIDN'T LOVE Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn | Amazon | Bookshop.org [41:47] One NEW RELEASE She's Excited About A Deal with the Devil by Pamela Colloff (November 2023) | [44:04] Last 5-Star Book Keri Read Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia | Amazon | Bookshop.org [47:20] Other Books Mentioned On Lynchings by Ida B. Wells-Barnett (new edition on November 15, 2022)  [26:43] Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson [27:13] The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern [29:30] The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger [29:42] Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman [30:28] The Keep by Jennifer Egan [30:32] About Keri Blakinger Website | Twitter | Instagram Keri Blakinger is a Texas-based investigative reporter and the author of the Corrections in Ink, a memoir tracing her path from figure skating to heroin addiction to prison and, finally, to life as a journalist covering mass incarceration.  Currently reporting for The Marshall Project, her work covering criminal justice, has previously appeared in VICE, the New York Daily News, the BBC, and The New York Times. She previously worked for the Houston Chronicle and was a member of the Chronicle‘s Pulitzer-finalist team in 2018.  Her 2019 coverage of women's jails for The Washington Post Magazine helped earn a National Magazine Award.

Jaime Lowe - Author of the nonfiction book “Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires.” Jaime joins Tavis for a conversation against the backdrop that as of Sunday morning, the McKinney fire in Northern California has ripped through more than 51,000 acres in two days near the California border.

California's fire seasons have become more like year-round fire years. For firefighters on the frontlines, safety is the number one priority when wildfires erupt. When these fires strike, there's often a shortage of civilian firefighters to stop the spread. California has a long history of using incarcerated labor to supplement industries in need of additional assistance- including firefighting. For Gabriel Perez, a formerly incarcerated firefighter, his passion to serve his community by protecting it from fires began while he was incarcerated, and continues every day while he works to keep his community fire safe, even during a pandemic. Roundtable guests: Brandon Smith, co-founder of the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, and Jaime Lowe, author of Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires.Learn more about FFRP: https://www.forestryfirerp.org/  Learn more about Breathing Fire: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374116187/breathingfire Episode Transcript: https://app.trint.com/public/3627988c-df1f-4c16-8705-2eeb7ee757db Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

excerpt from "Long Way Down," by Jason Reynolds, published by Simon and Schuster. Where we talk about: the work of Jason Reynolds;  Long Way Down;  Ghost;  All American Boys;  Brendan Kiely;  Ain't Burned All the Bright;  Jason Griffin; Stuntboy, in the Meantime;  Raul the Third. His picture books are the "Vamos!" series: "Vamos! Let's Go to the Market," "Vamos! Let's Go Eat!" and "Vamos! Let's Cross the Bridge." Tired as F*ck by Caroline Dooner;  Breathing Fire by Jaime Lowe;  and more!

Jaime Lowe is the author of Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine. For a long time, a stereotypical idea of what California might be would have this Hollywood glamor. Now it's this Silicon Valley glamor, and it's this sheen of wealth and success and privilege and manifest destiny and gold. And I think that we need to acknowledge that that is actually absolute destruction. For the majority of people, that is a detrimental vision and not even something that really exists. [...] I think finding the people who are actually making the state work is much more useful in terms of finding ideals. Notes and references from this episode: @kicklikeagirl1, Jaime Lowe on Twitter Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires, by Jaime Lowe   “Ten Sessions,” by Jaime Lowe, This American Life “The Incarcerated Women Who Fight California's Wildfires,” by Jaime Lowe, NY Times Magazine “Essential California newsletter - Nov. 17, 2021,” by Justin Ray, LA Times “The Super Bowl of Beekeeping,” by Jaime Lowe, NY Times Magazine City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965, by Kelly Lytle Hernández “Los Angeles Goes to War With Itself Over Homelessness,” by Jaime Lowe, NY Times Magazine  Mental: Lithium, Love, and Losing my Mind, by Jaime Lowe “Deputy cliques in L.A. County Sheriff's Department likely growing, study finds,” by Alene Tchekmedyian, LA Times “‘Our Origin Story': Queen Calafia Returns to California in New Theatre Production,” by Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman, KQED ===== Theme music by Sounds Supreme Twitter: @WhatCalifornia Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com Support What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia   Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.

There's a good chance that the firefighter saving you from a wildfire is actually an incarcerated person. As of summer 2021, about 1,600 work at conservation camps, also called fire camps, in California. These are minimum-security facilities staffed by incarcerated people who both volunteer and then qualify for the program based on their conviction offenses and behavior in prison. Other incarcerated persons serve at institutional firehouses. Once they finish serving their sentences, some might continue on to a training and certification program at the Ventura Training Center in Ventura County, or the The Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program. In this episode, we consider how much we all owe these firefighters and hear about two programs to help them find work – and a renewed sense of purpose – in fighting fires after they finish their sentences. We also speak with Jaime Lowe, author of Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Frontlines of California's Wildfires.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim and Elizabeth Logan. Our music was written and recorded by I See Hawks in L.A. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires for less than a dollar an hour On February 23, 2016, Shawna Lynn Jones stepped into the brush to fight a wildfire that had consumed ten acres of terrain on a steep ridge in Malibu. Jones carried fifty pounds of equipment and a chainsaw to help contain the blaze. As she fired up her saw, the earth gave way under her feet and a rock fell from above and struck her head, knocking her unconscious. A helicopter descended to airlift her out. As it took off, she was handcuffed to the gurney. She was neither a desperate Malibu resident nor a professional firefighter. She was a female inmate firefighter, briefly trained and equipped, and paid one dollar an hour to fight fires while working off her sentence. As California has endured unprecedented wildfires over the past decade, the state has come to rely heavily on its prison population, with imprisoned firefighters making up at least 40 percent of Cal Fire's on-the-ground fire crews. Of those imprisoned workers, 250 are women.  In Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Line of California's Wildfires (MCD, 2021), Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine to follow Jones and her fellow female inmate firefighters before, during, and—if they're lucky—after incarceration. Lowe takes us into their lives, into the prisons and the women's decisions to join the controversial program, into the fire camps where they live and train, and onto the front lines, where their brave work is unquestionably heroic—if often thankless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires for less than a dollar an hour On February 23, 2016, Shawna Lynn Jones stepped into the brush to fight a wildfire that had consumed ten acres of terrain on a steep ridge in Malibu. Jones carried fifty pounds of equipment and a chainsaw to help contain the blaze. As she fired up her saw, the earth gave way under her feet and a rock fell from above and struck her head, knocking her unconscious. A helicopter descended to airlift her out. As it took off, she was handcuffed to the gurney. She was neither a desperate Malibu resident nor a professional firefighter. She was a female inmate firefighter, briefly trained and equipped, and paid one dollar an hour to fight fires while working off her sentence. As California has endured unprecedented wildfires over the past decade, the state has come to rely heavily on its prison population, with imprisoned firefighters making up at least 40 percent of Cal Fire's on-the-ground fire crews. Of those imprisoned workers, 250 are women.  In Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Line of California's Wildfires (MCD, 2021), Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine to follow Jones and her fellow female inmate firefighters before, during, and—if they're lucky—after incarceration. Lowe takes us into their lives, into the prisons and the women's decisions to join the controversial program, into the fire camps where they live and train, and onto the front lines, where their brave work is unquestionably heroic—if often thankless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies

A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires for less than a dollar an hour On February 23, 2016, Shawna Lynn Jones stepped into the brush to fight a wildfire that had consumed ten acres of terrain on a steep ridge in Malibu. Jones carried fifty pounds of equipment and a chainsaw to help contain the blaze. As she fired up her saw, the earth gave way under her feet and a rock fell from above and struck her head, knocking her unconscious. A helicopter descended to airlift her out. As it took off, she was handcuffed to the gurney. She was neither a desperate Malibu resident nor a professional firefighter. She was a female inmate firefighter, briefly trained and equipped, and paid one dollar an hour to fight fires while working off her sentence. As California has endured unprecedented wildfires over the past decade, the state has come to rely heavily on its prison population, with imprisoned firefighters making up at least 40 percent of Cal Fire's on-the-ground fire crews. Of those imprisoned workers, 250 are women.  In Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Line of California's Wildfires (MCD, 2021), Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine to follow Jones and her fellow female inmate firefighters before, during, and—if they're lucky—after incarceration. Lowe takes us into their lives, into the prisons and the women's decisions to join the controversial program, into the fire camps where they live and train, and onto the front lines, where their brave work is unquestionably heroic—if often thankless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law

A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires for less than a dollar an hour On February 23, 2016, Shawna Lynn Jones stepped into the brush to fight a wildfire that had consumed ten acres of terrain on a steep ridge in Malibu. Jones carried fifty pounds of equipment and a chainsaw to help contain the blaze. As she fired up her saw, the earth gave way under her feet and a rock fell from above and struck her head, knocking her unconscious. A helicopter descended to airlift her out. As it took off, she was handcuffed to the gurney. She was neither a desperate Malibu resident nor a professional firefighter. She was a female inmate firefighter, briefly trained and equipped, and paid one dollar an hour to fight fires while working off her sentence. As California has endured unprecedented wildfires over the past decade, the state has come to rely heavily on its prison population, with imprisoned firefighters making up at least 40 percent of Cal Fire's on-the-ground fire crews. Of those imprisoned workers, 250 are women.  In Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Line of California's Wildfires (MCD, 2021), Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine to follow Jones and her fellow female inmate firefighters before, during, and—if they're lucky—after incarceration. Lowe takes us into their lives, into the prisons and the women's decisions to join the controversial program, into the fire camps where they live and train, and onto the front lines, where their brave work is unquestionably heroic—if often thankless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/geography

A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires for less than a dollar an hour On February 23, 2016, Shawna Lynn Jones stepped into the brush to fight a wildfire that had consumed ten acres of terrain on a steep ridge in Malibu. Jones carried fifty pounds of equipment and a chainsaw to help contain the blaze. As she fired up her saw, the earth gave way under her feet and a rock fell from above and struck her head, knocking her unconscious. A helicopter descended to airlift her out. As it took off, she was handcuffed to the gurney. She was neither a desperate Malibu resident nor a professional firefighter. She was a female inmate firefighter, briefly trained and equipped, and paid one dollar an hour to fight fires while working off her sentence. As California has endured unprecedented wildfires over the past decade, the state has come to rely heavily on its prison population, with imprisoned firefighters making up at least 40 percent of Cal Fire's on-the-ground fire crews. Of those imprisoned workers, 250 are women.  In Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Line of California's Wildfires (MCD, 2021), Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine to follow Jones and her fellow female inmate firefighters before, during, and—if they're lucky—after incarceration. Lowe takes us into their lives, into the prisons and the women's decisions to join the controversial program, into the fire camps where they live and train, and onto the front lines, where their brave work is unquestionably heroic—if often thankless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires for less than a dollar an hour On February 23, 2016, Shawna Lynn Jones stepped into the brush to fight a wildfire that had consumed ten acres of terrain on a steep ridge in Malibu. Jones carried fifty pounds of equipment and a chainsaw to help contain the blaze. As she fired up her saw, the earth gave way under her feet and a rock fell from above and struck her head, knocking her unconscious. A helicopter descended to airlift her out. As it took off, she was handcuffed to the gurney. She was neither a desperate Malibu resident nor a professional firefighter. She was a female inmate firefighter, briefly trained and equipped, and paid one dollar an hour to fight fires while working off her sentence. As California has endured unprecedented wildfires over the past decade, the state has come to rely heavily on its prison population, with imprisoned firefighters making up at least 40 percent of Cal Fire's on-the-ground fire crews. Of those imprisoned workers, 250 are women.  In Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Line of California's Wildfires (MCD, 2021), Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine to follow Jones and her fellow female inmate firefighters before, during, and—if they're lucky—after incarceration. Lowe takes us into their lives, into the prisons and the women's decisions to join the controversial program, into the fire camps where they live and train, and onto the front lines, where their brave work is unquestionably heroic—if often thankless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-west

A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires for less than a dollar an hour On February 23, 2016, Shawna Lynn Jones stepped into the brush to fight a wildfire that had consumed ten acres of terrain on a steep ridge in Malibu. Jones carried fifty pounds of equipment and a chainsaw to help contain the blaze. As she fired up her saw, the earth gave way under her feet and a rock fell from above and struck her head, knocking her unconscious. A helicopter descended to airlift her out. As it took off, she was handcuffed to the gurney. She was neither a desperate Malibu resident nor a professional firefighter. She was a female inmate firefighter, briefly trained and equipped, and paid one dollar an hour to fight fires while working off her sentence. As California has endured unprecedented wildfires over the past decade, the state has come to rely heavily on its prison population, with imprisoned firefighters making up at least 40 percent of Cal Fire's on-the-ground fire crews. Of those imprisoned workers, 250 are women.  In Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Line of California's Wildfires (MCD, 2021), Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine to follow Jones and her fellow female inmate firefighters before, during, and—if they're lucky—after incarceration. Lowe takes us into their lives, into the prisons and the women's decisions to join the controversial program, into the fire camps where they live and train, and onto the front lines, where their brave work is unquestionably heroic—if often thankless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Jaime Lowe connects us with the female inmates who are battling California's wildfires. In her new book "Breathing Fire" she takes readers inside the fire camps where inmates are paid $5 a day and pay a physical and emotional price for putting their lives on the line to protect us.

On the front lines of California's raging wildfires, teams of incarcerated men and women work alongside free-world crews to stop our state's increasingly dangerous forest fires. They make a fraction of the pay to confront the same dangers and show the same bravery. In a new book, Breathing Fire, Jaime Lowe paints a deep portrait of one group of incarcerated women firefighters, delving into how they got to prison, the dangerous work they do to get themselves out, and what happens when the fires end, and they're back out in the world. We'll talk with Lowe and two of the firefighters she chronicles in the book about life, inside and out.

On the front lines of California's raging wildfires, teams of incarcerated men and women work alongside free-world crews to stop our state's increasingly dangerous forest fires. They make a fraction of the pay to confront the same dangers and show the same bravery. In a new book, Breathing Fire, Jaime Lowe paints a deep portrait of one group of incarcerated women firefighters, delving into how they got to prison, the dangerous work they do to get themselves out, and what happens when the fires end, and they're back out in the world. We'll talk with Lowe and two of the firefighters she chronicles in the book about life, inside and out.

Homelessness in Los Angeles was already a crisis when the pandemic hit. Jaime Lowe, contributor to The New York Times Magazine and author of three books, including the forthcoming Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Frontlines of California's Wildfires (MCD, 2021),  talks about how unhoused residents have become a political flashpoint in L.A., and how the city and state are attempting to confront the crisis.

Scientists took about 300 years to lay out the Periodic Table into neat rows and columns. In one hour, we’re going to mess it all up.  This episode, we enlist journalists, poets, musicians, and even a physicist to help us tell stories of matter that matters. You’ll never look at that chart the same way again. Special thanks to Emotive Fruition for organizing poetry performances and to the mighty Sylvan Esso for composing 'Jaime's Song', both inspired by this episode. Thanks also to Sam Kean, Chris Howk, Brian Fields and to Paul Dresher and Ned Rothenberg for the use of their song "Untold Story:The Edge of Sleep".  Check out Jaime Lowe's book Mental: Lithium, Love and Losing My Mind Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.   

What if someone told you about a type of therapy that could help you work through unhealed trauma in just ten sessions? Some people knock through it in two weeks. Jaime Lowe tried the therapy—and recorded it.

Author and journalist Jaimie Lowe joins us to talk about her riveting memoir and a fascinating investigation of the history, uses, and controversies behind lithium, an essential medication for millions of people struggling with bipolar disorder.

Many American states use the labor of inmates to help fight its fires, but none so more than California. Using incarcerated firefighters saves the state’s taxpayers an estimated $100 million a year.The women that choose to enter the firefighting camps are afforded better pay, by prison standards, and an improved quality of time served. However, the money they earn from putting their lives on the line is dwarfed by the salaries of the civilian firefighters they work alongside — one woman reports to earn $500 a year, compared with the $40,000 starting salary on the outside.On today’s episode of The Sunday Read, Jaime Lowe explores California’s invisible line of defense against wildfires.This story was written by Jaime Lowe and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Dan takes a break, Susanna and Amanda discuss the article "The Super Bowl of Beekeeping" by Jaime Lowe in the New York Times Magazine: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/magazine/the-super-bowl-of-beekeeping.html --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/artistmaterialist/support

"As a magazine writer, I’m always looking for other people’s stories and trying to talk to people about what their lives are like. I always knew that that came from a place from having some pretty crazy experiences as somebody who’s bipolar and that I had all these stories that seemed outlandish and bananas, and that maybe I had to start with my own story. It all definitely started when lithium, the medication that I was taking for bipolar disorder, stopped working for me. All of a sudden, bipolar disorder and lithium became so much more prominent and important in my life. And it became much more clear to me that it was a bigger part of my identity than I ever imagined."

This week we're revisiting the story of a woman making a very difficult decision. Jaime Lowe started taking lithium when she was 17, after a manic episode landed her in a psychiatric ward. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder,and for more than 20 years, the drug has been her near-constant companion. She’s taken it for so long that she can’t say for sure where she ends and lithium begins.   “It’s hard to know if lithium is actually -- like, if it dampens my personality, or if it normalizes my personality, or if it allows me to just sort of be who I am,” she says. Jaime tried to go off of lithium only once, in her mid-20s, and the result was not good. She developed grand delusions. She would start an organization to defend the First Amendment. She would marry a friend she only recently met. She would change the world. She sent wild emails to would-be employers, adorned herself with glitter and stacks of necklaces, and barely slept. When she finally pulled herself back together again, Jaime made a resolution. She’d stick with lithium. And that worked -- until she learned last year that her long-term lithium use has taken a physical toll. It’s damaged her kidneys. Now, she faces a choice that’s not much of choice at all: an eventual kidney transplant, or going off the drug that has kept her sane all these years.

Jaime Lowe started taking lithium when she was 17, after a manic episode landed her in a psychiatric ward. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and for more than 20 years, the drug has been her near-constant companion. She's taken it for so long that she can't say for sure where she ends and lithium begins. “It’s hard to know if lithium is actually — like, if it dampens my personality, or if it normalizes my personality, or if it allows me to just sort of be who I am,” she says. Jaime has tried to go off of lithium only once, in her mid-20s, and the result was not good. She developed grand delusions. She would start an organization to defend the First Amendment. She would marry a friend she only recently met. She would change the world. She sent wild emails to would-be employers, adorned herself with glitter and stacks of necklaces, and barely slept. When she finally pulled herself back together again, Jaime made a resolution. She’d stick with lithium. And that worked — until she learned last year that her long-term lithium use has taken a physical toll. It’s damaged her kidneys. Now, she faces a choice that’s not much of choice at all: an eventual kidney transplant, or going off the drug that has kept her sane all these years.   Have your mental and physical health ever collided? Tell us. Comment below, send an email to health@wnyc.org, or leave us a voicemail at (803) 820-WNYC (9692).  //