Content Warning: This episode discusses bipolar disorder, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm.
Actor and writer Joel Kim Booster (K-Pop Demon Hunters, Loot, Fire Island) had a difficult time with the parents that raised him. They were very religious, deeply conservative, didn’t believe in psychiatric medication or a secular approach to therapy, and they home-schooled Joel until he was 16. Joel, adopted from Korea, came to find out that he was gay, a fact his parents discovered by reading his journal during his senior year of high school, and he had been dealing with mental health problems that would later be diagnosed as bipolar disorder, type II. The result was Joel leaving home at 17, moving in with a friend’s family who welcomed and accepted him as he was, and charting a course of self-reliance. Over time, Joel established a reconciliation with his parents in a way where everyone respected boundaries and differences. And he accepted all that came with his bipolar disorder, in terms of medication management, personality tendencies, and taking care of himself. Joel, who was recently married, shares honest, wise, and often funny insight on his life and journey.
