art photo from Nick Lacke on Dribble

Bio: Colleen Wells writes poetry and creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, magazines and journals. She is the author of Dinner with Doppelgangers – A True Story of Madness and Recovery and Animal Magnetism.

Out of Chaos Comes Art

Once dubbed manic-depression, bipolar disorder is a potent malady, that wreaks havoc, making the ordered brain disorderly, a broken puzzle. Of the psychiatric disorders in the DSM-IV, it is a machine gun. Rapid-firing tongues, Sadness engulfed in inertia psychosis destroying marriages, leaving children addled in fear. A friend of mine who shares the affliction streaked through his yard like a white, hot comet. Lithium, Lorazepam, Loxapine, Wellbutrin, Depakote, Haldol, Mellaril, Seroquel, Abilify. And don’t forget the Prozac. I’ve swallowed them all to regulate my moods. Genetic or environmental factors? The uncertainty belies the certainty that without them, some of the greatest…