In episode 171 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with freelance writer Freddie deBoer.
Freddie started his career from his public library when he started his own blog whilst in a period of unemployment. After fellow writer and gay rights trailblazer Andrew Sullivan shared his third blog post on his own hugely popular blog, it exploded and he has been writing ever since.
In recent years, he is now on SubStack where he writes about mental health, politics, media and lots of other issues.
In this episode we discuss his writing journey, how he became disillusioned from the mental health ‘community’ and why and his Bipolar Disorder, which he was diagnosed with in 2002 when he was 20 years old.
Freddie has had several breakdowns because of his Bipolar. He ended up in a state psychiatric hospital on one occasion and had another well-publicised breakdown where he ended up attacking a fellow journalist and writer Malcolm Harris with baseless accusations of sexual criminality and it cost a lot of his reputation as a result.
We discuss those breakdowns, that incident and how he’s tried to repair his career since that moment, where we draw the line between mental health and personal responsibility and the uncomfortable reality that good people, when experiencing serious mental illness can do or say very bad things.
As always, #itsokaytovent
You can subscribe to Freddie’s SubStack here.
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