The Crazy Golf Pro: My Journey with Bipolar Disorder

The Crazy Golf Pro: My Journey with Bipolar Disorder

My book is a memoir about my battle with bipolar disorder as a golf professional. I wrote this book to help and give hope and inspiration to as many people as possible that live with, or know others such as family or friends, that live with a mental illness. It’s about my life playing golf and being a member of the Canadian Professional Golfer’s Association (CPGA). I worked at golf courses in Alberta and British Columbia and in 1993 by the age of 28, I was employed as a Class “A” head golf professional. By 1996 the CPGA put me into the “retired” category. I could no longer work because of my illness. While working as a golf pro, I ended up in a psychiatric ward a few times because of full blown manic episodes. I tell a lot of “crazy” stories throughout my book. My life has been an emotional roller coaster ride. I share my story of the major ups and downs this mental illness has put me through. I am very open and honest with my life experiences, including many manic episodes and very lengthy periods of severe depression. I’ve had many amazing experiences with the spirit world and I’m not even religious! And, it’s the ultimate love story. In the end, it’s a success story. After being hospitalized in psych wards ten times from 1989-1999, I have now been well with my bipolar disorder, due to the right psychiatric medications and low stress lifestyle, for over 20 years.

SYNOPSIS:

Golf: My childhood dream came true when I became a member of the Canadian Professional Golfer’s Association (CPGA). In 1989, three years into what looked like a promising future as a CPGA golf professional, my world was turned upside down with a devastating diagnosis of manic depression (bipolar disorder), and I ended up as a patient in the psychiatric ward for six weeks. This was my first fullblown manic episode. I was able to resume my career and achieve my goal when I was employed as a head golf professional in 1993 at a golf course in Alberta.

Mental Health: Over the years, I made several trips to psych wards to treat manic episodes. After every episode, I would have a period of severe depression that would last for several months. My last time in a psych ward was at the infamous Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in Port Coquitlam, BC, in 1999. In 2000, I was finally put on the right combination of psychiatric medications, which I still take every day. Learning how to live a low-stress lifestyle and having Ellen as my wife for the last two decades have been extremely important in maintaining my wellness. I have now been well for twenty years with my bipolar disorder. To make things more difficult, I was diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in 1996 and diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in 2007. I write about these two additional mental illnesses in my book.

Spirituality: I’m not religious, but I have had countless spiritual experiences over the last thirty years. Most of my amazing experiences happened when I was in a state of mania. Over the last twenty years, I have read many books about the spiritual realm and some about the brain, soul, consciousness and bipolar disorder itself. As a result of this, I have come up with my own “mania spirit theory” and describe this in my book.


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