Vijay Nallawala was 40 when his family noticed that something was not quite right with him.
"I would suddenly be euphoric. And then I would abruptly plunge into depression, getting up in the wee hours of the night and writing extremely dismal poetry. The swings were very abrupt," he says.
This wasn't the first time though - Mr Nallawala says he first started to experience such symptoms when he was 14. "But nobody quite knew what was the problem, except that something was amiss."This time he sought medical help. In 2003, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder - a condition that makes people go through extreme mood swings. People can suffer episodes of depression - which make them feel very low or lethargic - or mania - where they feel high and overactive.
Mr Nallawala, now 60, has been stable for the "last five or six years", he says. But his struggles made him realise the need to create awareness about the condition.
In 2012, he began blogging about it. A friend then encouraged him to set up Bipolar India, a website which creates awareness about the disorder, collates mental health resources and gives others with the condition a platform to share their experiences. Today it has over 500 memAt least 0.3% of Indians live with bipolar disorder, data from India's National Mental Health Survey 2016 shows. But stigma and lack of awareness around it continue to have a devastating impact on the lives of patients who routinely face discrimination.
A dearth of qualified professionals - India has just 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 people - makes matters worse.
Nine years after he set up Bipolar India, Mr Nallawala spends a chunk of his day checking messages on the community's main Telegram group. It has members from all big cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Chennai and regularly organises in-person meets.
Mr Nallawala says he wanted to build a sense of community and offer emotional and sometimes financial support to those living with the condition.
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"Our community could actively avert four suicide situations though we aren't trained as suicide gatekeepers. In one instance, we managed to raise funds for someone who needed urgent hospitalisation," he says.
Patients often suffer because of the lack of access to healthcare. India's laws make it mandatory for insurance companies to provide coverage for mental illnesses. But firms rarely do that, Mr Nallawala says.
Bipolar India has tried to bridge the gap. The group has launched a programme which connects its members to organisations that are willing to offer them jobs.
"We firmly believe that recovery from mental illness is incomplete without rehabilitation," Mr We realised that apart from dealing with the emotional, spiritual and financial crisis of your child, we have to take care of ourselves. The caregiver also falls into depression but needs to have continued love and compassion for their child and also a zest for living," Mr Iyer saysNallawala says.bers The group has helped people such as Tripti Mishra, 57, who had to see 13 doctors before she found someone who could explain the disorder to her.
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