Lessons From Bipolarland

Let this thin volume be your road map back to health. Lessons from Bipolarland contains all that I have learned from living with a bipolar misdiagnosis for a decade, and all I have learned from study since then. My goal is to stop the needless suffering that has traditionally come with bipolar disorder. If you attend to it early, you will not have to live through the trauma of forced hospitalization, as I did. Medicines and therapies exist. Lifestyle and cognitive changes help enormously. Your meaningful life is not over. Bipolar disorder can have a happy ending. I wish someone had told me this in 1993. An antidepressant brought on my first and only experiences with mania, ten years before the FDA recognized SSRIs as causing it. No matter-I lived to tell the tale. More important, this guidebook of blog essays can help you to navigate the baffling symptoms that come with a bipolar diagnosis. As you skim through the Table of Contents, you will find scenes from your own life-even if you are not bipolar. In life, brain function is sometimes altered by trauma or medication. For me, it was sleep-deprivation psychosis, which looks a lot like mania. So, whether you are feeling high or low, I pray you will find inspiration in my words. With best wishes for healing! Ms. Reni Seidman September, 2012