Mental Illness Under a Microscope
Mental Illness is rampant in America and around the world. I would know. My name is Leigh Winters and I have OCD and bipolar disorder. Story of Hope is my story, the story of how I went from a prestigious university with many friends to alone behind the locked doors of a mental institution. This website is for anyone with a similar experience or anybody looking for help. Because there is help.I
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Hey! So Glad You're Here.
My name is Leigh Winters and I’m more than my mental illness. I’m recovering from addiction (alcohol and caffeine). I absolutely love horror movies and any form of adrenaline. I compete in poetry slams and can’t shoot pool to save my life. Drop me a line. I’d love to say hi.
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I was diagnosed with OCD at age 11 after I was tortured by obsessions and compulsions such as checking and counting. I like to say OCD is a disorder based on doubt. I doubted everything. My faith in God, my parent’s love, my morality, and myself. Medication has helped enormously. I’ve sampled almost every medication under the sun but the medication that worked best for my OCD was Prozac, an antidepressant. Unfortunately, high doses of Prozac can also trigger mania in bipolar patients.
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I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder halfway through A Story of Hope (spoiler alert). Looking back, it makes a lot of sense but most people don’t start exhibiting symptoms until late adolescence (I was twenty-one). I've also dealt with psychosis which can be a symptom of bipolar disorder. And yes, it’s just as scary as it sounds.)
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Previous Books:
Catherine Moscatt is just your average girl with mental illness. The essays in this book are poignant as she tries to navigate friendships, relationships and loss. For anyone whose ever lost a friend or mourned a grandparent, for anyone who truly knows what it's like to be bipolar, this book is for you.
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Through five colors Catherine Moscatt takes us on a walk through the field of poetry. Emerald tears, purple dreams and answered questions. It's all inside Catherine's newest work which will you laugh, cry and think.
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I have written three other books under the name Leigh Winters.
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FC3RXC2?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860: Leigh Winters navigates the burdens of adolescence and young adulthood and the joys of learning how to be herself. From grief to lust to finding her place, Leigh learns many things in this entertaining and enjoyable book of personal essays.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Fantasia-Leigh-Winters/dp/B0BJ4WKS9V: From diets to best friends to questions of faith, Leigh stumbles through her early twenties. She learns about herself and her relationships all the while being tormented by her OCD and plagued with problems about her weight. It's not easy but it's nothing Leigh Winters can't handle.
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In this new kaleidoscope of poems, Winters captures her feelings for her lover, her former best friend, and her medicine cabinet. While she battles bipolar disorder and OCD as well as traumatic events she endured in her teens, she paints a tragically beautiful picture using the world of poetry.
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