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BipolarCoaster is a blog about the ups and downs of bipolar disorder as well as other neurodivergencies, including autism and ADHD.

Elliot Gavin Keenan, author of On Being Insane (in sane places), is a bipolar and autistic transgender person (he/him pronouns) and a PhD Candidate studying psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

You can find links to all of my published works on the writing tab, and you can find my other information on my Carrd.

Latest from the Blog

If Autism Isn’t a Mental Illness, What Is?

My name is Elliot. I’m an autistic psychologist with bipolar 1 disorder (and ADHD). I’ve been mentioned in passing [1] [2] in news articles about autistic autism researchers, but I prefer to keep on the science side of things. I usually only use Twitter for personal entertainment, sometimes biting my tongue as I weigh the…

1. Does loneliness warp the mind?

I’ve often experienced loneliness as a toxin. A chemical that corrodes, gnaws through my bones a chasm, a gaping wound in the depths of my ribcage. This characteristic feeling alerts me to the river tide drawing me in, the cosmic forces of mania & depression. It is a fundamental emptiness; it destroys everything, it leaves…

Bipolar Disorder vs. Manic Depression

If you’ve heard anything about the term “manic depression”, you might know that it is an older term for bipolar disorder. Here’s my unpopular opinion: “bipolar disorder” is a less accurate and more dehumanizing term than “manic depression”.  Why? There are several reasons. The new name “bipolar disorder” was coined for the wrong reasons, and…

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