About T.M. Mulligan

T.M. Mulligan is my pen name during my Renaissance.

T.M. Mulligan’s name is a reference to a golf phrase, most-often used by amateurs with a predisposition to tree groves, water hazards, and shanking.

T.M. Mulligan means Taking My Mulligan.

Four years ago I shanked my life into a tree grove, where it ricocheted off a tall Poplar, bee-lined toward the lagoon, skipped twice off its surface, before it dove like a nuclear submarine out-of-sight.
The other 3/4’s of my foursome turned to me, waiting for the drop.

Overnight “Wrong Place Wrong Time,” my biography which chronicled aimlessness, adaptation, milestones and compromise had been lost; no, even worse, unplugged: stop working on it; their interest is gone I was told coldly.  But there’s good news!  Your Life’s a blank page!  The blank page had always been that one jump in my creative steeplechase which I frequently missed.

Taking that leap of faith, all extremities airborne, trust quickly turns to a desperate hope of landing without injury; the same with writing, a leap of faith, you’re suddenly airborne and words begin to trickle, then a stream empties into the pond of a paragraph; partially filled, the new indention, like that one jump, causes me to stumble, and I lean back in my chair, wondering if I’ll ever clear the obstacle of the blank page.  Melancholia was that blank page for almost four years.  But written words became the one avenue upon which I could travel: but not as before: that writer, that voice had vanished, along with the rest of his things.

And along came T.M. Mulligan: it’s just a name I gave my shadow.

18 thoughts on “About T.M. Mulligan”

  1. Mr Mulligan,

    I’ve seen these pictures recently, stunning indeed.

    Ann Sathers sounds good but alas I will wait for the golf ball, from the nuclear sub, land this Tuesday mourn.

    Love the blog.

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  3. I just read an article about you. Thanks for going public with your mood problems.

    It was also 1998 that I was diagnosed, I am 53. My father was also Bi-Polar and it scared me to death to get this diagnosis I too am searching for new ground.

    I’m wondering if anyone has mentioned this cooping skill to you? I self-evaluate constantly on a scale of 1 to 10 and that helps me to regulate my behavior. A One would mean I was so depressed that I could not get out of bed; a Ten being so wired that I want to jump off a bridge. Thankfully, my medication (Lithium) usually keeps me between a 4 and a 7, but at both ends, what I do and how I handle issues is completely different. So, as I live my new life, I TRY to recognize where I am on my scale of 1 – 10. They say it is a “MOOD” issue, but that “MOOD” issue is also a very physical issue. At a 6 or 7, I can write, work like the old me, have fun, be creative, play sports at my very best etc. I sometimes move to a 7.5 or an 8 and that’s when it’s time focus on breathing and relaxing, but I still screw up and do stupid things, I just do that less often and usually to a lesser degree. If possible choosing calmer/simpler activities at work and at play are helpful.

    At a 4, it is much harder to exist. I am very tired, need sleep, have trouble thinking, do not want to work out, etc. These phases can last one or two days to weeks. When I am at a 4 for more than a day or two, is when doing my job (sales) becomes a huge challenge. There are days when picking up the phone and calling people just will not happen. This has made it hard to hold down a job and is very frustrating, as I used to always be a top performer.

    Thanks for the inspiration. Unlike diseases like cancer and others, our society does not yet focus on supporting people with our mood disorder (how many bike races to raise money for Bi-Polar research have you attended?) Hopefully our “mental” health system and our fellow countrymen will learn that supporting people with this disorder and having a better understanding of the disorder will allow us to all come out to support a cure or at least a better understanding of this disorder.

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    1. Thank you so much for your recent comment. I’ve posted over 80 pieces on this blog, yet rarely do I enjoy the company of a comment. So, thanks. Bipolar disorder runs through my family tree like termites! My diagnosis came in the middle of mania, a category 5 twister a mile wide leaving an unimaginable swath of ruin. When told what had caused my personal melee, I was relieved: I’d thought I’d lost my mind; ah, irony! Yes, I’m familiar with the mood scale, however my medication masks moods; I take Adderall: it’s the buoy which keeps me afloat. I’m motivated, energized, entertain my curiosities (woodworking, cooking, and writing) but happy or hunger (both intimate and innocent) or time have been plucked like errant weeds. Without my Adderall I’d flounder about at your #5. Movement can be an indicator of living, but emotions are the essence of life and of which I’ve lost. The purpose for the article, in my opinion, was to alert the public to mood disorders and the challenges facing post-gastric bypass patients. I sincerely hope it’s achieved both.

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      1. I think you achieved both. I’m not sure how many papers published your story but mine is a distribution of about 50,000. That’s a good number!

        A friend of mine told me that BiPolar is a diagnosis for this world we live in, so effective medication can be given. He works with BiPolar people and says that we are able to go places in our minds that others can’t. I choose to believe that with experience and some training that maybe I can get my mind to do something that others haven’t — in a positive way to help someone or thing.

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        1. Well, there’s scientific studies linking bipolar to high degrees of creativity. I wrote an early post entitled “Is Creativity the Birthright of Madness?” I like to look at like this: Before my diagnosis whenever I had an “out-of-the-box” (e.g. crazy) solution or idea, my co-workers thought I was crazy; I’d spend hours explaining and convincing. Now whenever I have an “out-of-the-box” ideas co-workers immediately consider it (since they KNOW I’m CRAZY)!

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