While studying in China, Maxime Perez Zitvogel hardly sleeps anymore. He leaves his business school to create four companies in three months, goes to parties, walks the streets painted entirely in blue, meets a model whom he proposes to marry a few days later. In short, Maxime lives a hundred miles an hour. Nothing serious for him. But gradually, his friends begin to worry. And they do well. The young man will be diagnosed with bipolar disorder shortly thereafter.
Bipolar disorder is a chronic psychiatric illness characterized by mood swings disproportionate in duration and intensity. The patients follow periods of mania, with an exaltation of mood, agitation, and depression. Between them: periods of remission, also called “euthymies”. Contrary to urban legend, sufferers do not change their mood in minutes, but rather in weeks or even months. The mania phase that Maxime experienced in China lasted almost a year.
A space outside the hospital
To announce that he had bipolar disorder to his loved ones, Maxime posted a video on Facebook. It was in 2017 and he had just been hospitalized for the second time. “I directly said that I was going to create an association on the subject. As soon as he left the hospital, Maxime founded Bipolaires et fiers et fieres. His goal: to destigmatize this mental illness. “People congratulated me, offered me their help and some confided in me, telling me that they had a bipolar loved one. So Maxime doesn’t stop there.
“When you leave the hospital, they tell you, ‘Here are your medications and your next appointment with a psychiatrist. We hope not to see you again too soon. But there is no space between the two. So when he meets Lucille Zolla and Victoria Leroy, also in their twenties and suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, they decide to found this space with Caroline Matte. Therefore The Perched House see the day.
A place of exchange for young people
“At the hospital, we are taught to survive. We want to teach people to live. La Maison perchée aims to be a place of exchange and sharing between patients, outside the hospital, appointments with psychiatrists and medication. “We want psychiatrists to say “go to La Maison perchée. This allows you to keep a good rhythm and not to sink back down, all alone at home. The association is forging partnerships with hospitals.
Bipolar disorders begin mainly between 15 and 25 years old, according to the High Authority for Health, Maxime wants above all to address this public. “Young people who have just been diagnosed experience their first love story, have their first job, their studies. They ask lots of questions. »
Discussion groups, workshops and chat
They can ask these questions on the association’s online platform, discuss it with peer helpers, but also participate in workshops and discussion groups from the four corners of France, and even the world. “We also created a discord, called the “perched chat” and Compass, a support group for relatives to talk to each other or with other patients. Maxime will soon lead a recovery workshop with his mother. The goal: to compare each other’s stories and learn from the experiences of others.
Two years after its creation, 50 people have joined the team and more and more young people are taking part in the activities. All that’s missing is a place to house La Maison perchée: “We’ve been visiting since our last crowdfunding to find a place in the center of Paris. We want to have signed before the summer. If Maxime continues to live fast, it is today with a very specific objective in mind: to develop La Maison Perchée. And it works well for him. Since its creation, the young man has not been rehospitalized.
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