Interviewed by: Katie Cadigan

Niki grew up with a love of learning and a love of art.  When she was still a teenager, she received a diagnosis of manic depression (today, bipolar disorder), and she benefitted from the care of a therapist and psychiatrist.  Shortly after graduating from college, she was hospitalized for the first time, and over the next 20 years, Niki struggled with depression and the side effects of medications.  Through her mother’s advocacy and the support of a small organization in Los Angeles, Niki began to rediscover her passions, and she received help for the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with which she was also diagnosed.  Today, with ongoing support based in the recovery model, Niki continues to work as an artist, and she volunteers with the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance in Glendale and with NAMI.  Describing her recovery, she observes, “…there is this other self in me that has nothing to do with storms, or traumas or how my things happen, that to me…have much more flavor and a bigger key to recovery than my treatment steps, and it was getting those things back…”