Bipolar Disorder, My Biggest Competitor

Bipolar Disorder, My Biggest Competitor PDF Author: Amy Gamble
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781542541107
Category : Manic-depressive illness
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
A small-town childhood, a close-knit family, a successful career, and an Olympic athlete--this was Amy's life...until it wasn't.That's the thing about mental illness, it doesn't care where you grew up, how smart you are, how many awards you've won, or how much money you make. It's an equal opportunity destroyer.From the earliest signs, to the denial, the manic highs, and despondent lows, bipolar disorder has the power to affect every aspect of a person's life. It derailed Amy's athletic and corporate careers, ruined relationships, and caused a whirlwind of chaos within her family.But now she's ready to tell her story. Ready to share the darkest parts of her life in hope of showing those diagnosed with mental illness that there is a way to overcome this world of uncertainty--a way to live and thrive in the midst of this life-altering disease. This is Amy's story..."Bipolar Disorder, My Biggest Competitor is the heart-wrenching story of an Olympian's struggle with and eventual triumph over the terrifying highs and lows of the bipolar disorder. Through scenes of astonishing visceral and emotional power, Amy takes us from the successful team handball Olympian to the darker side of bipolar disorder. With remarkable honesty and humor, Amy shows the effects of this illness on the mind, body and soul of those who suffer with it. However, despite the struggles, this is not a book that brings the reader down, rather a road map for wellness and a vastly informative yet entertaining guided tour of bipolar disorder for those who don't understand it. This memoir is an excellent guide to a painful and difficult yet treatable illness. Amy's courage in sharing her experience is impressive and commendable. It will help others struggling with this illness feel less isolated and more hopeful."~Maura Andronic, MDPsychiatrist

Bipolar Disorder, My Biggest Competitor

Bipolar Disorder, My Biggest Competitor PDF Author: Amy Gamble
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781542541107
Category : Manic-depressive illness
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book

Book Description
A small-town childhood, a close-knit family, a successful career, and an Olympic athlete--this was Amy's life...until it wasn't.That's the thing about mental illness, it doesn't care where you grew up, how smart you are, how many awards you've won, or how much money you make. It's an equal opportunity destroyer.From the earliest signs, to the denial, the manic highs, and despondent lows, bipolar disorder has the power to affect every aspect of a person's life. It derailed Amy's athletic and corporate careers, ruined relationships, and caused a whirlwind of chaos within her family.But now she's ready to tell her story. Ready to share the darkest parts of her life in hope of showing those diagnosed with mental illness that there is a way to overcome this world of uncertainty--a way to live and thrive in the midst of this life-altering disease. This is Amy's story..."Bipolar Disorder, My Biggest Competitor is the heart-wrenching story of an Olympian's struggle with and eventual triumph over the terrifying highs and lows of the bipolar disorder. Through scenes of astonishing visceral and emotional power, Amy takes us from the successful team handball Olympian to the darker side of bipolar disorder. With remarkable honesty and humor, Amy shows the effects of this illness on the mind, body and soul of those who suffer with it. However, despite the struggles, this is not a book that brings the reader down, rather a road map for wellness and a vastly informative yet entertaining guided tour of bipolar disorder for those who don't understand it. This memoir is an excellent guide to a painful and difficult yet treatable illness. Amy's courage in sharing her experience is impressive and commendable. It will help others struggling with this illness feel less isolated and more hopeful."~Maura Andronic, MDPsychiatrist

A First-Rate Madness

A First-Rate Madness PDF Author: Nassir Ghaemi
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143121332
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
The New York Times bestseller “A glistening psychological history, faceted largely by the biographies of eight famous leaders . . .” —The Boston Globe “A provocative thesis . . . Ghaemi’s book deserves high marks for original thinking.” —The Washington Post “Provocative, fascinating.” —Salon.com Historians have long puzzled over the apparent mental instability of great and terrible leaders alike: Napoleon, Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, and others. In A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi, director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center, offers a myth-shattering exploration of the powerful connections between mental illness and leadership and sets forth a controversial, compelling thesis: The very qualities that mark those with mood disorders also make for the best leaders in times of crisis. From the importance of Lincoln's "depressive realism" to the lackluster leadership of exceedingly sane men as Neville Chamberlain, A First-Rate Madness overturns many of our most cherished perceptions about greatness and the mind.

What Goes Up--surviving the Manic Episode of a Loved One

What Goes Up--surviving the Manic Episode of a Loved One PDF Author: Judy Eron
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781569802854
Category : Bipolar disorder
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In 1987, Judy Eron married a brilliant man. Her husband, Jim, was bipolar but remained stable until a vacation the couple took in June 1996, when he forgot to bring his prescribed lithium and quickly launched into a year-long manic phase. His mania culminated, inevitably, in severe depression that led to his suicide in October 1997. During those confusing and frightening months, Jim became a stranger to Judy. Even she, a mental health counselor, and he, a psychologist, could not prevent Jim's downward spiral, although as she now knows, there were many "wrong" choices that Judy could have avoided making. During Jim's prolonged manic phase, Judy was unable to find any literature focused on the manic element of bipolar disorder. After his death, she set out to write the kind of book she had sought. What Goes Up... is more than just Judy's story of loving and living with someone in the manic phase. Drawing on her experience as a mental health counselor, Eron offers advice and coping strategies for readers with loved ones or friends who also suffer from this illness. She provides advice on what they should expect from someone in the midst of a manic episode, how to engage with that person, how to get help for that person, and how to maintain their own sanity and strength in the face of such unpredictable and intense behavior. Book jacket.

The Kevin Show

The Kevin Show PDF Author: Mary Pilon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 163286682X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
From the NYT bestselling author of The Monopolists, the "fascinating" (People) story of Olympian Kevin Hall and the syndrome that makes him believe he stars in a television show of his life. Meet Kevin Hall: brother, son, husband, father, and Olympic sailor. Kevin has an Ivy League degree, a winning smile, and throughout his adult life, he has been engaged in an ongoing battle with a person that doesn't exist to anyone but him: the Director. In the tradition of Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind, journalist and NYT bestselling author Mary Pilon's The Kevin Show reveals the many-sided struggle--of Kevin, his family, and the medical profession--to understand and treat a psychiatric disorder whose euphoric highs and creative ties to pop culture have become inextricable from Kevin's experience of himself. Kevin suffers from what doctors are beginning to call the "Truman Show" delusion, a form of bipolar disorder named for the 1998 movie in which the main character realizes he is the star of a reality TV show. When the Director commands Kevin to do things, the results often lead to handcuffs, hospitalization, or both. Once he nearly drove a car into Boston Harbor. His girlfriend, now wife, was in the passenger seat. Interweaving Kevin's perspective--including excerpts from his journals and sketches--with police reports, medical records, and interviews with those who were present at key moments in his life, The Kevin Show is a bracing, suspenseful, and eye-opening view of the role that mental health plays in a seemingly ordinary life.

Fast Girl

Fast Girl PDF Author: Suzy Favor Hamilton
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062346210
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The former middle distance Olympic runner and high-end escort speaks out for the first time about her battle with mental illness, and how mania controlled and compelled her in competition, but also in life. This is a heartbreakingly honest yet hopeful memoir reminiscent of Manic, Electroboy, and An Unquiet Mind. During the 1990s, three-time Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton was the darling of American track and field. An outstanding runner, a major sports apparel spokesperson, and a happily married wife, she was the model for an active, healthy, and wholesome life. But her perfect facade masked a dark truth: manic depression and bipolar disorder that drove her obsession to perform and win. For years after leaving the track, Suzy wrestled with her condition, as well as the loss of a close friend, conflicted feelings about motherhood and her marriage, and lingering shame about her athletic career. After a misdiagnosis and a recommendation for medication that only exacerbated her mania and made her hypersexual, Suzy embarked on a new path, and assumed a new identity. Fueled by a newfound confidence, a feeling of strength and independence and a desire she couldn’t tamp down, she became a high-priced escort in Las Vegas, working as “Kelly.” But Suzy could not keep her double life a secret forever. When it was eventually exposed, it sent her into a reckless suicidal period where the only option seemed out. Finally, with the help of her devoted husband, Suzy finally got the proper medical help she needed. In this startling frank memoir, she recounts the journey to outrun her demons, revealing how a woman used to physically controlling her body learned to come to terms with her unstable mind. It is the story of a how a supreme competitor scored her most important victory of all—reclaiming her life from the ravages of an untreated mental illness. Today, thanks to diagnosis, therapy, Kelly has stepped into the shadows, but Suzy is building a better life, one day at a time. Sharing her story, Suzy is determined to raise awareness, provide understanding, and offer inspiration to others coping with their own challenges.

Bipolar Me

Bipolar Me PDF Author: Janet Coburn
Publisher: Sarah Fader
ISBN: 9781949351095
Category : Bloggers
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Janet Coburn draws on the posts from her award-winning blog, Bipolar Me, to illuminate the life of persons who live with bipolar disorder. As a woman living with bipolar 2 disorder, the author has direct experience of the subjects she covers and opens her life to readers. With chapters covering symptoms, treatments, the ups and downs of everyday life, and more, the author provides both valuable information and personal stories of struggles with mental illness. She wants people to know that help, healing, and a rich, rewarding life are possible.This book is recommended for anyone who is interested in or has bipolar disorder, and for people who are family, friends, or loved ones of someone who lives with the condition.

My Life's Journey with Bipolar Disorder

My Life's Journey with Bipolar Disorder PDF Author: Joann M Stuhr
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing
ISBN: 1622126041
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
My Life's Journey With Bipolar Disorder is the memoir of an extraordinary woman. Joann M. Stuhr writes about the path her life has taken from its farm roots in Iowa to New York, the Pacific Northwest, and on to Europe and Japan. Throughout it all, she had a secret. Joann was living with the condition we now recognize as bipolar disorder. How she coped and lived a successful life as a math teacher and a computer programmer is only part of her fascinating story. She wrote this book "to help others with bipolar disorder to erase the stigma."

This Fragile Life

This Fragile Life PDF Author: Charlotte Pierce-Baker
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1613741111
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Charlotte Pierce-Baker did everything right when raising her son, providing not only emotional support but the best education possible. At age twenty-five, he was pursuing a postgraduate degree and seemingly in control of his life. She never imagined her high-achieving son would wind up handcuffed, dirty, and in jail. The moving story of an African American family facing the challenge of bipolar disorder, This Fragile Life provides insight into mental disorders as well as family dynamics. Pierce-Baker traces the evolution of her son's illness and, in looking back, realizes she mistook warning signs for typical child and teen behavior. Hospitalizations, calls in the night, alcohol and drug relapses, pleas for money, and continuous disputes, her son's journey was long, arduous, and almost fatal. This Fragile Life weaves a fascinating story of mental illness, race, family, the drive of African Americans to succeed, and a mother's love for her son.

Magnesium in the Central Nervous System

Magnesium in the Central Nervous System PDF Author: Robert Vink
Publisher: University of Adelaide Press
ISBN: 0987073052
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
The brain is the most complex organ in our body. Indeed, it is perhaps the most complex structure we have ever encountered in nature. Both structurally and functionally, there are many peculiarities that differentiate the brain from all other organs. The brain is our connection to the world around us and by governing nervous system and higher function, any disturbance induces severe neurological and psychiatric disorders that can have a devastating effect on quality of life. Our understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of the brain has improved dramatically in the last two decades. In particular, the critical role of cations, including magnesium, has become evident, even if incompletely understood at a mechanistic level. The exact role and regulation of magnesium, in particular, remains elusive, largely because intracellular levels are so difficult to routinely quantify. Nonetheless, the importance of magnesium to normal central nervous system activity is self-evident given the complicated homeostatic mechanisms that maintain the concentration of this cation within strict limits essential for normal physiology and metabolism. There is also considerable accumulating evidence to suggest alterations to some brain functions in both normal and pathological conditions may be linked to alterations in local magnesium concentration. This book, containing chapters written by some of the foremost experts in the field of magnesium research, brings together the latest in experimental and clinical magnesium research as it relates to the central nervous system. It offers a complete and updated view of magnesiums involvement in central nervous system function and in so doing, brings together two main pillars of contemporary neuroscience research, namely providing an explanation for the molecular mechanisms involved in brain function, and emphasizing the connections between the molecular changes and behavior. It is the untiring efforts of those magnesium researchers who have dedicated their lives to unraveling the mysteries of magnesiums role in biological systems that has inspired the collation of this volume of work.

Birdies, Bogeys, and Bipolar Disorder

Birdies, Bogeys, and Bipolar Disorder PDF Author: Michael Wellington
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
ISBN: 1632990652
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The gripping true story of one man's struggles through the terrifying highs and crushing lows of bipolar disorder. In Birdies, Bogeys, and Bipolar Disorder, author and professional golfer Michael Wellington recounts a heartbreaking story of not just hitting, but skidding along rock bottom as he struggles to control a condition that for a long time controlled him: bipolar disorder. With the help of his family, a few amazing friends, and the game of golf, he has regained balance and can now share his story. The millions of people in the United States who suffer some form of mood disorder will not only find the author's story relatable, educational, and hopeful but can also benefit from Michael's experience to help control their own disorder. Michael offers the Fourteen Clubs, a bag of tools to keep the bipolar mind in balance. Using these clubs daily can help you avoid both mania and depression.