Her memories are many and varied, and she has nothing but good wishes for Allie and David, who will be filling her shoes (one each lol) effective August 1.

She reports as follows:

A serious suicide attempt and my own healing was what drove me to make a web site. My desire to help others not go through what I had was the influencing factor, and I truly felt that if I were able to help just one person, my efforts would be all worth while.

Thinking back to the beginning of the site is a long reach. When I began, I had no idea of how to make a web page, or what html was. I accessed many tutorials on line, and stumbled often, but finally had about 30 pages - a semblance of a web site. Back then the thought of Bipolar World hadn't even been born. My first sorte into the World Wide Web was called "Bipolar Disorder and Weight Gain." It was a topic that many people were interested in,  but without the addition of varied topics it didn't take off. I was lucky to get 30 visitors a day - and I was happy with that, but still wanted more.

I participated in bulletin boards, both alone and with others, and felt they were a good avenue of support. I wasn't as familiar with chat rooms but knew that there were a few of them available. At the same time I worked for an online information site similar to About.com as an editing manager of mental health, and enjoyed it, but it really wasn't what I wanted to do.

On April 12, 1998 Bipolar World in its present state was born. There was nothing truly momentous about the name ... I can think now what an apt name it has been, but in retrospect it was about all that was available that I would consider at all!

I worked hard to build the site, and learned more about Bipolar Disorder than I have ever thought possible. But it soon grew to the point where I couldn't handle it alone ... more people were coming, the chat room and bulletin boards were busy, and I was adding page after page of information. My friend Ben (Kodiak) handled the bulletin board for me in the early days, and early in 2000 Allie and John became my partners. We spread the work out between us and it wasn't long before we all were busy. Dr Phelps joined us and Dr Bradt. Chris York, Storm and Terri wrote great columns - and Syl (ez) joined us as a partner in 2004, and David,  who refers to himself as the new kid on the block, April 2006. 

This wouldn't be complete without a word of thanks to my husband Ed for all the times he took over the housework and cooking to let me attend to one crisis or another.  As the SO of person with bipolar disorder he has been wonderful.

Well, I'm going to stop there. There are far too many people who have helped to list them all - I know who they are and they know who they are. Each of them is a very special person who owns a small piece of my heart.  Big hugs go  to every one of them.

I leave Bipolar World with varied thoughts ... I know I am going to miss the bustle of keeping a busy web site operating, but at the same time I'll have the time to experience other avenues ... like graphics, which have interested me for a long time. I'm not going to miss the people, simply because I won't be gone ... hopefully I will have even more time to spend at BPW than I have in recent years.

I need to rest, and I will, but you haven't seen the last of me!

Collie

August 1, 2006