The Trouble with Spikol | Make Major Moves | PW Style | Cup o'Joel

R.I.P. Rhonda Smith

Jan 25 2008 | Comments 0

A woman was found dead of a gunshot wound (possibly homicide) in Bucks County, Pa., and is being lauded by her family for her years-long struggle with bipolar disorder. From the Morning Call:

Rhonda Smith was very open about her illness and planned to write a book about her struggles with it, her father said.

”She was a fighter and never gave up,” he said, adding that his daughter was taking prescription medications. ”She kept thinking that she was going to beat it.”

I wish she had time to write that book.

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About

Liz Spikol was born in Philadelphia sometime in the 20th century. She started writing about her experience as a person with mental illness in 1999, while employed at Philadelphia Weekly as the paper’s managing editor. Aside from serving as that paper’s web editor, music editor, staff writer, senior editor, executive editor and a host of other random roles that she couldn’t make up her mind about, she has also worked as a Spanish teacher, as a Certified Peer Specialist during Philly’s system-wide transformation and as a communications specialist for a prison reform organization. Currently, she works at the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania and writes book reviews for PW. This blog — named one of the Top 10 Bipolar Blogs of 2007 and 2008 by PsychCentral — is about medications, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, PTSD, SAD (and many other acronyms), mad pride, Big Pharma, celebrities, hospitals, stigma and the recovery movement. And other stuff.