Remembering Rika

[imomus]

Two years ago today, Rika Hirata, my best friend when I lived in New York, committed suicide.



I don't really want to talk in detail about the circumstances of Rika's death here. I'll just say that it happened because she had a severe bipolar condition, and went through a series of misfortunes, and wasn't supported as she should have been by the people around her. Rika should still be here, and for me she is still here. Shortly before she died she told me 'I will always be with you'. She was right. But that doesn't stop me missing her.

The photo shows Rika eating dumplings with me at our favourite cafe, the Dumpling Inn on Eldridge Street, New York, February 3rd, 2001.

Comments

[hyman.livejournal.com]

"Bipolar people are looking for 'objective correlatives' for their own sense of despair, or guilt, or pointlessness. They can choose people pretty much at random for this."

Can you explain the term 'objective correlatives'? My psychiatrist suspects that I am bipolar, but the only source of information I have about the condition is from a book my mom that deals with the childhood form of the disorder and is geared mostly towards parents. I don't think that I fit the book's description (I suspect that I am either not objective or that it might manifest differently in very young children, hence a book about the disorder in childhood), but what you described here sounds very familiar. Could you point me somewhere that would explain in more detail what you meant?