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BOOKS FOR BIPOLARS

© Colleen Sullivan

The Internet is a wonderful resource for those diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. It provides information, education and support and there are many different web sites providing everything from questionnaires and quizzes to information about mental health law.

The one thing that the computer does not allow you is freedom. To use it you need to be sitting in front of it. That's where books come in! You can read while you do something else, like riding the bus to work, or relaxing in the sun. You can take a book with you and read while you wait at the doctor's office. Books are mobile, and wherever you go they can go with you. Before I got my computer I spent many hours reading, and although the amount is reduced there is nothing I enjoy more than a good book still.

The following are some of the books I have read about Bipolar Disorder. Each and every one of them I highly recommend. For a wealth of information and understanding buy or pick one up at the public library today!

Note: The terms Bipolar Affective Disorder (or Bipolar Disorder) and Manic Depressive Illness are synonymous.

MOODSWING by Dr. Ronald R. Fieve

First published fifteen years ago this paperback book provides a tremendous amount of information about Bipolar Disorder and especially the drug lithium, which is used in the treatment of the disorder. A new issue published in May 1997 expands on this, and offers new information on subjects such as seasonal affective disorder, PMS, dual diagnosis, creativity and bipolar disorder and many others.

Well worth the time to read.

AN UNQUIET MIND by Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay Redfield Jamison is a psychiatrist who has Bipolar Affective Disorder. An Unquiet Mind is her story of her life with the illness, the extreme highs she has suffered, and her ongoing struggle. Written with a poignant sense of honesty and insight, it draws the readers into the pages. She said "There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness and terror involved in this kind of madness... it will never end, for madness carves its own reality"

An Inspiring Book - Excellent

TOUCHED BY FIRE by Kay Redfield Jamison

In this book Kay Redfield Jamison delves into Creativity, something often associated with mental illness. She explores the hypotheses that most artistic geniuses were (are) manic depressives (bipolars). There is an enormous amount of material in this book supporting the hypotheses. Anyone reading this book will have to concede there is a relationship between creativity and psychological suffering.