Understanding The Lives Of Bipolar Women With Post-Secondary School Experience
type: CreativeWork
description: Understanding the Lives of Bipolar Women with Post-Secondary School Experience Problem: Bipolar disorder affects 2.6% of the population over age 18 and often presents for the first time during the college years (Lejeune, 2011). Students at this age already face challenges in adapting to a new lifestyle, and those with a mental illness face additional challenges amidst an environment that doesn’t necessarily provide stability for successful management of bipolar disorder. There is a dearth in the literature investigating personal life histories of bipolar adults that identify common themes in early years regarding bipolar disorder onset and later years in coping mechanisms during post-secondary school. Procedures: This qualitative phenomenological research study examined the lived experiences of six women with bipolar disorder who attended post-secondary school. This study was motivated by the research questions: (1) What are the experiences of one living with bipolar disorder? (2) What are successful coping strategies while navigating a post-secondary degree? Understanding and describing the essence of a lived phenomenon (Van Manen, 1990) was the foundation of my work. Narrative interviews (Seidman, 2006) were used to collect data to allow the participants to tell their stories and share the experiences of living with bipolar disorder. Findings: Emergent themes included home/family life, the onset of bipolar disorder, school involvement/achievement, and coping strategies, which produced the following findings: none of the participants shared their mental instability during post-secondary school with any educational professional, bipolar disorder for females is at its worst during hormonal cycles, childhood abuse is connected to adult onset bipolar disorder, participants who experienced childhood abuse later abused substances, low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness were factors amongst participants, all participants were high-achievers as youngsters, coping st…
abstract: Understanding the Lives of Bipolar Women with Post-Secondary School Experience Problem: Bipolar disorder affects 2.6% of the population over age 18 and often presents for the first time during the college years (Lejeune, 2011). Students at this age already face challenges in adapting to a new lifestyle, and those with a mental illness face additional challenges amidst an environment that doesn’t necessarily provide stability for successful management of bipolar disorder. There is a dearth in the literature investigating personal life histories of bipolar adults that identify common themes in early years regarding bipolar disorder onset and later years in coping mechanisms during post-secondary school. Procedures: This qualitative phenomenological research study examined the lived experiences of six women with bipolar disorder who attended post-secondary school. This study was motivated by the research questions: (1) What are the experiences of one living with bipolar disorder? (2) What are successful coping strategies while navigating a post-secondary degree? Understanding and describing the essence of a lived phenomenon (Van Manen, 1990) was the foundation of my work. Narrative interviews (Seidman, 2006) were used to collect data to allow the participants to tell their stories and share the experiences of living with bipolar disorder. Findings: Emergent themes included home/family life, the onset of bipolar disorder, school involvement/achievement, and coping strategies, which produced the following findings: none of the participants shared their mental instability during post-secondary school with any educational professional, bipolar disorder for females is at its worst during hormonal cycles, childhood abuse is connected to adult onset bipolar disorder, participants who experienced childhood abuse later abused substances, low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness were factors amongst participants, all participants were high-achievers as youngsters, coping st…
author: Ancona, Lori Heyob
language: en_US
keywords: Depression in women, Manic-depressive illness in women, Bipolar Disorder, College women--Mental health
date published: 2013-12
date modified: 2026-07-27T19:19:25Z
provider: Drake University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Drake University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2092/2023