Leigh Richardson of the Brain Performance Center and host of In Your Head with Leigh Richardson speaks with Robert P. Graves to talk about speaking up about one's struggles to stop the taboo and fight the stigma of mental health. He talked about living with bipolar depression and addiction and as a gay man during the peak of the AIDS epidemic, and his new book, I, Rob Graves.

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Robert Graves is a successful white-collar professional by day working as a project manager for a large multi-national health care equipment company. Robert is an openly gay man living in Buffalo, NY. Robert’s first diagnosis, chronic clinical depression, came when he was 16, even though he had been battling depression since the age of nine when he had his first episode of self-harm ideology. As he was coming out, his depression morphed into bipolar depression disorder, which went untreated and undiagnosed until he was 44. The untreated mania manifested as an anonymous sex addiction that lasted over 20 years, enduring through the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Only after finally addressing his sex addiction with his therapist did his bipolar disorder come to light, and his treatment with pharmacology help him end his addiction.

With the help of ongoing therapy and careful medication management, Robert has evolved to lead a relatively quiet life in his forties, where he enjoys boating, gardening, and volunteering in the community with various organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Association. He also has a cat named Bacchus and a French bulldog named Lily.

Through his many years of therapy, he learned to forgive others and accept his family and friends for who they are.  Now he has turned the focus inward, forgiving himself for the reckless decisions through all those years and finally accepting himself as he is: a successful, healthy, gay man living with bipolar depression. Robert’s latest book, I, Rob Graves is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. For more information, check out Robert’s website and follow him on Facebook, or Instagram.

Connect with Robert Graves:

Robert's Website | Book Website | Instagram

Robert’s memoir I, Rob Graves was just released in May, 2022. It tells the story of his life growing up in Buffalo, NY as a gay man during the peak of the AIDS Epidemic and discusses his life long fight with mental health struggles, addiction, and sexuality. Amazon Purchasing Link

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Leigh Richardson is also the author of Brain on Game On, available at Amazon and on  www.thebrainperformancecenter.com and www.leigherichardson.com. The Brain Performance Center is located in Dallas, Texas and can be reached at 214-329-9017.

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