I turn 21 years of lived experience with bipolar disorder into honest words, color and meaningful objects.
I'm ALBANDARI ALOTAIBI, a Saudi author and artist. I write in Arabic and English, I paint in watercolor and colored pencil, and I make things from what I've lived, so you can understand your own highs and lows and bloom anyway.
For more than twenty years I've lived between two weathers of the mind: the crushing gravity of depression and the blinding speed of mania.
Living with bipolar disorder felt like a permanent emergency. For a long time I wondered if my mind was a machine destined to break.
There was a psychiatric hospital. I could have called it failure. I chose to call it a beginning, and I started changing the words I used for myself, from "I am" to "I feel".
In 2023 I named my Creativity Corner: a place to return to after any high or any low. Then a friend from Germany put a brush back in my hand after 26 years away from drawing, and my world went from monochrome to color.
Today I write, paint and make things from what I've lived: a book, weekly letters, watercolors and meaningful objects.
It isn't a diagnosis turned into a product. It's a perspective turned into art, so that no one who carries highs and lows feels they are weathering the storm alone.
"I don't create because I have bipolar disorder. I create because I've lived through it, and I want what I make to keep someone company on their way through."
Create what you feel. Connect through what you share. Bloom into who you're becoming.
Join the founding circleEvery piece begins with a feeling I survived. Watercolor, colored pencil and black & white, made after 26 years away from drawing.
Essays, letters and tools written from lived experience. Start with the featured pieces, or browse by format.
“She helps people facing challenges in their lives by sharing her own journey, her positive attitude, and her belief in always keeping moving forward, no matter how bad the weather gets or how high the waves become.”
ALBANDARI is a great author and artist I came across on X. She is building her business with a real passion for her art and writing, while also approaching it with a strong business mindset and a relentless attitude. I really enjoy her writing across different platforms, where she helps people facing challenges in their lives by sharing her own journey, her positive attitude, and her belief in always keeping moving forward, no matter how bad the weather gets or how high the waves become.
I highly recommend reading her publications, exploring her artwork, and getting on board her ship for the journey. I am genuinely glad to have met and gotten to know such an honest and hardworking person, and I wish her all the best as she continues her journey toward becoming an international book author and artist.
Akram AbouzeidFounder of Ak Development“What is the point of life's rock bottoms if they do not make us stronger? This is their purpose, and that is why they were created. And if we do not write about our experience with these depths, how else can we immortalize our strength in facing them and inspire others with it?”
I am grateful to destiny that led me to read this book by the brilliant and courageous author: ALBANDARI ALOTAIBI. Her writing style was smooth and deeply relatable, as she narrates her autobiographical journey with bipolar disorder, or as modern medicine calls it (bipolar disorder), with a swelling emotion that touches the heart.
The author shares her experience with the illness to raise awareness of what it is and how she pulled herself out of this pain and suffering, with the presence of loving and supportive family and friends, along with the difficulties she faced during her studies and upon entering university.
The brilliance of her description and her meticulous attention to emotional details clearly shone through the pages of the book, especially in the part where the author says ("The Day I Died").
The author conveyed to us the impact of writing on her healing journey, resulting in a book that manifests in the most beautiful form of creativity and simplicity of style, after she had ("thought it impossible").
ALBANDARI offered advice to anyone suffering from perfectionism, which often hinders our productivity, and shared how she overcame it. She also mentioned another exercise for instantly turning negative thoughts into positive ones, and I expect that you, dear reader, will not regret applying it.
In the final chapter of the book, my emotions heightened while reading, and I wished the book would never end. In fact, I might just ask the author to write more volumes about her autobiography and successes.
Lastly, I wanted to say: When you experience weakness, then neutrality (feeling nothing toward life), and then move forward through life grateful for this neutrality, holding its hand toward strength—is this not the greatest thing a human being can go through? Al-Bandari translated this journey with her wonderful words as she described the path from weakness to strength.
ALBANDARI says: ("If depression is the price I must pay, then welcome to that price which makes me feel alive.")
The brilliant ALBANDARI, who chose to share her experience with bipolar disorder and inspire others by offering support through her words, teaches us in the end the importance of gratitude for what is in your hands, not looking at what is missing, and defining your choices in life to experience, through these two things, the quality and goodness of life.
Thank you, dear ALBANDARI, for giving me this opportunity to write my impression of the book, which touched me in every word and especially in its final part when you mentioned that in our moments of weakness, we always need the presence of others around us, and that every human being has the right to ask for help and will find someone to offer it from the necklaces of love surrounding them.
Saada AlzahraniBook Reader“Your success is our success. Speaking for myself, and I believe for my colleagues here as well, you have honestly been an inspiration to me, to us, and to everyone.
Despite the challenges you faced, we are proud of your achievements and the entire design system you built in such a short period of time! In just two and a half months, you transitioned to Figma and convinced the team of your choice, a very special decision.
Her resume was well organized, and it convinced us; it was extremely impressive. We bet on her success, and she truly succeeded, mashallah.”
Abdullah AsiriCEO & founder The publisher's launch announcement of the book.
Web redesign, UI, design systems, brand work, and handling a lot of content in a short period of time.
The project addressed the photographer’s lack of a centralized, professional web presence and limited client outreach options.
To solve this, a responsive, bilingual (English/Arabic) landing page featuring a hero header, portfolio, services, and contact sections was created using a full UX design process.
Wherever you are in your own weather, there's a way in.
Choose the one that fits you today.
A gathering place for honest people who live with emotional highs and lows, and the people who love them. Stories become art, art becomes connection, and connection becomes a community.
Dates are shared with newsletter readers first.
