If there were such a thing as a Black superwoman, she would manage an assisted living facility, hold down a full-time government job, and oversee the hospitality ministry of her church.
Sonja Prince-Ward accomplishes all that — and lives her life out loud with a bipolar diagnosis.
She began experiencing symptoms of bipolor disorder when she was a small child, but she didn’t receive a diagnosis until she was 13. Once she settled into the reality of it as an adult, she decided to allow God to use her life to bless others living in the same lane.
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Prince-Ward even contributed a chapter, “Supernatural Favor,” to the 2024 anthology “Empowered to Win,” a compilation of stories about how faith has helped women achieve their goals despite life’s challenges. She speaks freely to all who will listen about how her faith has helped her and sustained her throughout her marriage with her husband Elliott, better known as Chico, and the rearing of their four children, Brooklyn, Jacole, Malcolm, and Victoria.
In fact, anyone who knows Prince-Ward has heard her joyfully and confidently proclaim, “God don’t play about me.” And she wears T-shirts to prove it. We talked to her about her experiences being bipolar, her writing, and how her faith sustains her.
Word In Black: Can you define bipolar for people who might not understand it?
Sonja Prince-Ward: My brain doesn’t produce lithium; I have to take it every day of my life. And even then, internal and external circumstances can throw the levels off, which makes my mind and body react to the imbalance. Then I have to spend time in the hospital until I regain my balance.
WIB: Tell me how receiving the diagnosis was a relief.
SPW: I went to the Psychiatric Institute, and I was in there with a bunch of white, rich kids and they were telling me, ‘Oh, you’re definitely manic.’ And so I remember thinking, they’re calling me a maniac, but they were just saying it wrong, you know? But when the doctor said that you have manic depression, it was a relief because now I can explain why I was going through so much in middle school.
I was depressed, and I thought the teachers were against me, and I was paranoid. Every day I would go to school, and I would be so depressed. I had two friends, a white girl and a Korean girl. And every day Bonnie and Read would be in the bathroom, you know, just counseling — talking and telling me, ‘No, that’s not true. They weren’t talking about you.’ And then something like a freak snowstorm would happen, and it would just be that little break that I need for my mind to reset.
So when I got to the hospital and they gave me a label, I was a little bit relieved. I could finally understand what I had been going through all this time.
WIB: You’re a full-time government employee, a business owner with your husband, a minister in training, and full-time wife and mother. How do you accomplish so much with what is considered by many to be a handicap of sorts?
SPW: Most people with bipolar are geniuses. Look at Ye, we use art, we write books, we write music. It’s how we cope. To tell our story over and over. My husband is often upset when he hears me telling my story so many times, but it’s how we thrive and survive.
WIB: You had me laughing about having written a chapter in 45 minutes. What?
SPW: I wrote it in like 45 minutes. I just woke up one day, and I said, oh, I forgot to give her the book. Because that’s what bipolar is like when you’re in a manic episode. I actually love it. I just don’t love it for my family, you know, but that’s probably how I had four group homes at one point, you know, I just was doing what I needed to do.
WIB: Were you off your meds?
SPW: No. I’m never off my medicine, never. I never do things that mess with the levels.
WIB: How has your faith sustained you in coping with being bipolar?
SPW: My faith journey began when I was cared for by the local pastor’s wife, who, along with having become my babysitter when I was 3 months old, eventually became my godmother. Their home was filled with the presence of God, and I sensed it and became aware and familiar even as a child. I always knew I was different. I couldn’t explain the difference, but it complicated my life. I would take medicine until my levels were great, and when I felt really good, I’d start skipping doses. When I heard a term that defined what I was going through, it was a great relief.
I talk to God on the regular, and I read the Bible because I need to know what it has to say to me. And if I’m entitled to everything in this book, then I need to know what it says. When it’s time to ask God for something, I get to say, ‘Remember what you said in your word?’
WIB: Since God doesn’t play about you, have you ever asked him to heal you?
SPW: I haven’t asked him to heal me. I figure he gave it to me for a reason. And honestly, I couldn’t imagine myself without it.