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Jan 113 min read

Faith And Slipper Socks: Memoir of A Memoir

An ongoing update on my memoir-writing journey


A hand holding a slipper sock

My memoir Faith and Slipper Socks will be released in 2024 thanks to a grant from the Colorado Department of Vocational Rehabilitation and What If? Publishing. It's tale of authoritarian parenting, verbal abuse, marriage, divorce, family, homelessness, bipolar disorder, and my time as a federally sanctioned zombie hunter.


Mostly, it's about mental illness. Specifically, my late-age diagnosis, time in a mental treatment center, and ongoing recovery. I'm not the first person to deal with this, and certainly won't be the last. Still, my story must be written.


Some have gone through what happened to me at 51 years old. For decades, they gathered mental kindling to create the biggest bonfire of all time. Then, the smallest flame ignited their creation, turning it into an out-of-control wildfire. Now, there’s an utmost urgency to learn how to deal with the disorder and reconstruct their lives.


I thought I'd present a behind-the-scenes look at my memoir’s creation. After all, we're crazy for the nuts and bolts. We see a movie and want to watch a documentary on it. Afterward, people want to view how the documentary was made, followed by a documentary about the documentary about the documentary. Soon enough, there's an entire streaming service based on one movie and its 100 documentaries.


The Ws

What is a memoir? Instead of diving into the dictionary for an official definition, I declare it's a story filled with Ws: Who, What, When, Where, Why. True, there are elements of How in a memoir, such as how a decision impacted a person's life. Yet, the cause of their issues isn't always clear.


For instance, I believe I have bipolar because my authoritarian, verbally abusive father also had the condition. I think it was undiagnosed because treatment for mental disorders wasn’t done in my father’s generation. As he’s been dead for over a decade, I can’t tell if that's the "how” for my disorder.


This is why I'm sticking to the Ws for the time being. The first one I want to discuss is why I'm writing the memoir.


The Rest of the Story

I guess you need a little more information. Bipolar disorder is a condition many people are unfamiliar with. They think of examples in television shows and movies that show an afflicted individual spending all their savings in Las Vegas one moment and crying into their bedsheets the next.


A relatable example is a “special” two-part episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation. Craig Manning, a student in Canada’s most dysfunctional high school, exhibited bipolar tendencies in previous episodes. However, his actions were never discussed. People chalked them up to PTSD due to his abusive father. 


In “Voices Carry,” Craig’s condition comes to a head in a pair of 30-minute episodes. He trashes a hotel room, proposes to his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, and beats up his guardian. In the end, Craig is diagnosed with bipolar disorder.


Compacting the causes and symptoms like this is a bad idea. It shows the worst examples of bipolar disorder. In reality, the disability manifests itself in different forms while diagnosis can take decades.


For instance, I know someone with the disorder who continually purchased airline tickets to relocate to California without a job or a place to live. When reality splashed them with ice water, they plummeted down an enormous rabbit hole, becoming depressed and irritable. They didn't realize they had bipolar disorder until years later.


Bipolar II, which is what I’m diagnosed with, isn't filled with constant bouts of mania and depression. There were moments during the Bad Times, though brief, where I felt almost normal, whatever the hell that means in today's society. Yet, when my manic ideas didn't come to fruition, I crashed as badly as someone with bipolar I.


Then there was the brain chatter. The. Constant. Chatter. It never stopped, resulting in bouts of extreme fatigue, low self-esteem, and irritability. While I'm tired now, it's because I'm an aged bag of stinking wind.


In writing Faith and Slipper Socks, I want you to see the truth behind the disorder. It's not the same for the one in forty U.S. citizens diagnosed with bipolar or the one percent of teenagers (that’s three million kids) with the disease. I want you to know that it occurs when young or middle-aged. If not caught early enough, both the consequences and recovery are enormous.


So, that's the first W for my memoir. I’ll regularly update you on its progress as I dive deeper into the good, bad, and embarrassing parts of my life. I look forward to you following me. I think.


Yours always,

Rich Scott Keller






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