J.A. Asbill

• Asbill has publicly identified herself as having bipolar disorder. She has described living with the diagnosis while working as an attorney and later wrote openly about it in her 2025 memoir, Life Raft: Surviving the Tidal Waves of Bipolar. [2][1]

• Asbill has described struggling privately with bipolar disorder while maintaining a successful legal career. She has written about feeling isolated, fearing judgment, and trying to hide the diagnosis at work. [2][3]
• Her memoir also describes a period when her mental health deteriorated enough that she voluntarily admitted herself to a mental health crisis center. [3]

• Asbill has described gradually coming to terms with her bipolar disorder and finding a way to live a more balanced life without allowing the diagnosis to define her identity. [3]
• She has said that while she cannot control having bipolar disorder, she can control how she responds to it and how she chooses to live with it. [4]

• Asbill has spoken publicly about mental health stigma in the legal profession. Through Life Raft and her other public writing, she has said that she shares her experience in the hope of helping people facing similar struggles and helping others better understand those experiences. [2][4]

“I cannot control my diagnosis, but I can control how I try to live and cope with it.”

— J.A. Asbill [4]