Bipolar Girl: My Psychotic Self

Bipolar Girl: My Psychotic Self

Author: Maricela Estrada

Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency

Published: 2017-08-24

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1946539260

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Maricela Estrada was raised in East Los Angeles by her widowed traditional Mexican mother. The author felt depressed most of her life and missed having a father. Her first suicide attempt happened at age 14 and she survived multiple suicide attempts. After high school, Maricela had a psychotic episode and was admitted into a psychiatric hospital, where she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic features. She felt stigmatized and was in denial about her mental illness. Accepting it was the hardest thing she has ever done. But once she accepted it, her life changed in a beautiful way, allowing her to accomplish all her goals and embrace a beautiful life. Maricela’s mental health recovery came through medication, therapy, attending support groups, prayer, emotional support from family and friends, and her emotional support dog, Gypsy Blue. Bipolar Girl is an inspiring story of one woman’s journey through mental health recovery. This memoir demonstrates the true meaning of hope, resiliency, and faith, and it will touch many people’s lives.


My Lovely Wife

My Lovely Wife

Author: Mark Lukach

Publisher: Bluebird

Published: 2018-06-26

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9781509805969

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Mark and Giulia's life together began as a storybook romance. They fell in love at eighteen, married at twenty-four, and were living their dream life in San Francisco. When Giulia was twenty-seven, she suffered a terrifying and unexpected psychotic break that landed her in the psych ward for nearly a month. One day she was vibrant and well-adjusted; the next she was delusional and suicidal, convinced that she was the devil and that her loved ones were not safe. All she wanted was to die. Eventually, Giulia fully recovered, and the couple had a son. But, soon after Jonas was born, Giulia had another breakdown, and then a third a few years after that. pushed to the edge of the abyss, everything the couple had once taken for granted was upended. A story of the fragility of the mind, and the tenacity of the human spirit, My Lovely Wife is, above all, a love story that raises profound questions: How do we care for the people we love? What and who do we live for? Breathtaking in its candor, radiant with compassion, and written with dazzling lyricism, Lukach's is an intensely personal odyssey through the harrowing years of his wife's mental illness, anchored by an abiding devotion to family that will affirm readers' faith in the power of love.


Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder

Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder

Author: Julie A. Fast

Publisher: New Harbinger Publications

Published: 2012-01-02

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1608822214

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Maintaining a relationship is hard enough without the added challenges of your partner’s bipolar disorder symptoms. Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder offers information and step-by-step advice for helping your partner manage mood swings and impulsive actions, allowing you to finally focus on enjoying your relationship while also taking time for yourself. This book explains the symptoms of your partner’s disorder and offers strategies for preventing them and responding to these symptoms when they do occur. This updated edition includes a new section about the medications your partner may be taking so that you can understand the side effects and help monitor his or her bipolar treatment. As a supportive partner, you deserve support yourself. This book will help you create a more balanced, fulfilling relationship. Improve your relationship by learning how to: • Identify your partner’s symptom triggers so you can prevent episodes • Improve communication by stopping irrational “bipolar conversations” • Handle your partner’s emotional ups and downs • Foster closeness and connection with your partner


An Unquiet Mind

An Unquiet Mind

Author: Kay Redfield Jamison

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2009-01-21

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 0307498484

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A deeply powerful memoir about bipolar illness that has both transformed and saved lives—with a new preface by the author. Dr. Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness; she has also experienced it firsthand. For even while she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, Jamison found herself succumbing to the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients, as her disorder launched her into ruinous spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempted suicide. Here Jamison examines bipolar illness from the dual perspectives of the healer and the healed, revealing both its terrors and the cruel allure that at times prompted her to resist taking medication.


Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder

Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder

Author: Julie A. Fast

Publisher: Balance

Published: 2023-05-09

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1538725037

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Revised and updated, Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder is a groundbreaking, comprehensive program to help those with bipolar disorder—and those who care about them—gain permanent control over their lives. Most people diagnosed with bipolar disorder are sent home with the name of a doctor and multiple prescriptions. However, few people with bipolar disorder are able to find long-term stability with medications alone. Bipolar disorder researcher and expert Julie A. Fast, who was diagnosed with the illness at age thirty-one, and specialist John Preston, PsyD, offer the pioneering Take Charge program used around the world to help readers promote stability, reduce mood swings, increase work ability, decrease health care costs, and improve relationships. The book guides those with bipolar disorder and their loved ones toward a comprehensive personal treatment plan by incorporating: Medications and bipolar-safe supplements Lifestyle changes that help manage bipolar symptoms naturally Behavior modifications that reduce and prevent symptoms Guidelines on assembling an effective support team By helping readers gather powerful strategies, Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder delivers a dynamic program to treat this difficult but ultimately manageable illness.


Haldol and Hyacinths

Haldol and Hyacinths

Author: Melody Moezzi

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2014-07-01

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1583335501

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With candor and humor, a manic-depressive Iranian-American Muslim woman chronicles her experiences with both clinical and cultural bipolarity. Born to Persian parents at the height of the Islamic Revolution and raised amid a vibrant, loving, and gossipy Iranian diaspora in the American heartland, Melody Moezzi was bound for a bipolar life. At 18, she began battling a severe physical illness, and her community stepped up, filling her hospital rooms with roses, lilies and hyacinths. But when she attempted suicide and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, there were no flowers. Despite several stays in psychiatric hospitals, bombarded with tranquilizers, mood-stabilizers, and anti-psychotics, she was encouraged to keep her illness a secret—by both her family and an increasingly callous and indifferent medical establishment. Refusing to be ashamed or silenced, Moezzi became an outspoken advocate, determined to fight the stigma surrounding mental illness and reclaim her life along the way. Both an irreverent memoir and a rousing call to action, Haldol and Hyacinths is the moving story of a woman who refused to become a victim. Moezzi reports from the frontlines of an invisible world, as seen through a unique and fascinating cultural lens. A powerful, funny, and moving narrative, Haldol and Hyacinths is a tribute to the healing power of hope and humor.


David Likes to Play with Dolls

David Likes to Play with Dolls

Author: Maricela Estrada

Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency

Published: 2021-12-16

Total Pages: 18

ISBN-13: 1682355624

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David Likes to Play with Dolls is a children’s book about acceptance, kindness, and unconditional love. Its important message is that children’s toys should be for everyone, and that a child’s gender shouldn’t determine what toys they must play with. The story was inspired by the author’s nephew David, and his childhood joy of playing with his sister Caroline’s dolls. As a bright-eyed, joyful little boy, in his heart all he wanted was to be accepted by others. Playing with dolls made him happy, because he simply didn’t like the “boy toys,” consisting of cars and trucks. One day David’s sister can’t find her Gypsy Fairy Queen doll. Caroline looks in every room in the house, only to find that David has been playing with her dolls and toys. She becomes very upset with him, until she realizes that her brother should be able to play with any toys he enjoys.


I Am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help!

I Am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help!

Author: Xavier Francisco Amador

Publisher:

Published: 2011-10-19

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 9780967718934

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'This book fills a tremendous void...' wrote E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., about the first edition of I AM NOT SICK, I Don't Need Help! Ten years later, it still does. Dr. Amador's research on poor insight was inspired by his attempts to help his brother Henry, who developed schizophrenia, accept treatment. Like tens of millions of others diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Henry did not believe he was ill. In this latest edition, 6 new chapters have been added, new research on anosognosia (lack of insight) is presented and new advice, relying on lessons learned from thousands of LEAP seminar participants, is given to help readers quickly and effectively use Dr. Amador s method for helping someone accept treatment. I AM NOT SICK, I Don't Need Help! is not just a reference for mental health practitioners or law enforcement professionals. It is a must-read guide for family members whose loved ones are battling mental illness. Read and learn as have hundreds of thousands of others...to LEAP-Listen, Empathize, Agree, and Partner-and help your patients and loved ones accept the treatment they need.


Detour

Detour

Author: Lizzie Simon

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2003-06-18

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780743446600

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In the fall of 1999, 23-year-old Simon hit the road on a journey that took her across the United States. Her inspired interviews with other young men and women suffering from manic depression comprise the heart and soul of this remarkable memoir.


My Kind of Crazy

My Kind of Crazy

Author: Janine Crowley Haynes

Publisher: Booksurge Publishing

Published: 2009-02-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781439216439

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My Kind of Crazy was chosen as Honorable Mention in the Writer's Digest 17th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards in the Inspirational category.I am an expert on being crazy. My kind of crazy is known as bipolar disorder. Although my case is more severe than most, I am not alone. I am one in four (approximately 61.5 million) adult Americans who suffer from a mental illness in a given year. This is a staggering statistic, and yet the stigma attached to mental illness persists. Those diagnosed with a mental illness suffer in silence due to the shame associated with it. There are many books that approach the subject from a clinical and/or psychoanalytical perspective. My book, however, focuses on the human experience of living with a mental illness. Being bipolar brings with it the very highs and lows of emotion, and my story is written in the same way. The journey on which I take the reader is not a depressing one. There is much humor to be found and many lessons to be learned after one is diagnosed as crazy. I bring the reader with me on the emotional rollercoaster that is my life. With my story, I hope to dismantle the shame and isolation that one with a similar illness might experience. In fact, I believe one must embrace his or her inner-craziness in order to heal, evolve, and move forward to help change the societal perception of mental illness. Not unlike diabetes, mental illness should be understood on a biochemical level, not be viewed as a character flaw. When the brain gets sick, it exhibits symptoms that need to be addressed and managed just like any other illness.