I don’t technically have “bipolar disorder”, but I have a related condition that involves mood episodes. I’m generally stable but I read the new edition of this book as a sort of paying rent on my body and being responsible. I feel like I understand my meds better now for having read it again. (You get that sort of thing with books a lot, more famously with the classics than science-y books, but here the change in my experience still had more to do with my evolution as a reader, I think, than the minimal changes in the text.)

Anyway I don’t read much medical-doctor-on-meds popular psychiatry books, but I think that this was a good example of a writer doing physical science in a measured way that did not make me feel sad. Sometimes (I won’t give you the name, and it wasn’t on bipolar disorder) the guys who do this books remind me of the scene from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, where Child Becca Bunch is like, But we’re both nerds with no friends! Can’t we like, join forces instead? And Child Audra Levine is like, No; I want to get to the top, and you’re in my way…. ~Gotta trash the other theorist, and, incidentally, the public. The mind loves factionalism, you know. That’s why Paulie said, (paraphrase), Become a fool to know true wisdom…. Although you still have to pay upkeep on your body, and physical/mental things matter. It all matters.

Anyway, yeah, I wasn’t alienated or anything, which is partially that I’m no longer easily alienated, but he’s fine, too, you know. I don’t know if I agreed with every single word and inflection, (to speak of the parts I have an opinion about, obviously), but he was reasonably open, if a little cautious at times. (And a lot of people with mood disorders, well, haha…) And it’s nice to have a doctor’s point of view, the classic MD POV, right. Everybody’s got an opinion, a point of view, and some people even went to school to have it…. I guess if I had a suggestion that might actually eventually happen in fifty years—hopefully, for me!—is that since there are two demographic chapters, that maybe one day they’ll be another one for aging/older adults with mood disorders, so I can have some more input about how to become an older adult with mood episodes, more or less stable, right until the end! 😸

I skimmed through this book but it seems extremely helpful; full of practical information and suggestions. ( )

So-so. The charts are too cluttered for me to find them helpful, but it does outline the basics in an admirably simple, thorough form. ( )

Very helpful guide, recommended by therpaist aquaintance.

I read this book because I started working closely with someone who has it. I learned a lot about bipolar, but I think I was hoping to "help" the person in my life who has it. And... I can't. He showed me the papers from the doctor that show he has been diagnosed, but he only admits to having this condition some of the time. For the most part he is unwilling to deal with it. And me reading this book really doesn't help me if he doesn't want to help himself. I became more aware, but that's about it. I still pull my hair out trying to work with this guy. ( )