PSY355 - Morin

One day a teenage boy gets on his bike and rides forty miles up California's Pacific Coast Highway to avoid causing an earthquake he fears will endanger his mother and sister. But the quake he is experiencing is not coming from beneath the earth; it's the onset of bipolar illness. Blinded by Hope describes what it's like to have an unusually bright, creative child--and then to have that child suddenly be hit with an illness that defies description and cure. Over the years, McGuire attributes her son's lost jobs, broken relationships, legal troubles, and periodic hospitalizations to the manic phase of his illness, denying the severity of his growing drug use--but ultimately, she has to face her own addiction to rescuing him, and to forge a path for herself toward acceptance, resilience, and love.

Eleanor Segall's life was just beginning. An aspiring actress and a family girl, she never thought her future would be derailed by mental illness. After a spate of depressive episodes, panic attacks, and social anxiety, Eleanor found herself in The Priory at age 16. The diagnosis? Bipolar Affective Disorder. But Eleanor didn't let it stop her for long. Now a successful blogger, journalist, and pillar of the mental health and Jewish communities, she writes about finding recovery and hope after being unwell. Her story is of picking herself back up again and surviving against the odds.

As a young girl, Terri Cheney's life looked perfect. Her family lived in a lovely house in a tranquil Los Angeles suburb where the geraniums never once failed to bloom. She was pretty and smart, an academic superstar and popular cheerleader whose father doted on her. But starting with her first suicide attempt at age seven, it was clear that her inner world was anything but perfect. "There's something wrong with her," her mother would whisper, her voice quivering on the edge of despair. And indeed there was, although no one had a name for it yet. Hostage to her roller-coaster moods, Terri veered from easy A-pluses to total paralysis, from bouts of obsessive hypersexuality to episodes of alcoholic abandon that nearly cost her her life. Nothing was certain from day to day except this: whatever was so deeply wrong with her must be kept a secret. Thirty years later, Terri wrote "Manic, "a harrowing memoir that revealed her adult struggle with bipolar disorder. But it didn't tell the whole story. The mystery of Terri's childhood remained untouched-- too troubling, too painful to fathom. "The Dark Side of Innocence "explores those tumultuous formative years, finally shattering Terri's well-guarded secret. With vivid intensity, it blends a pitch-perfect childlike voice with keen adult observation.

This international bestseller is an extraordinary family story and an exceptionally powerful memoir about coping with bipolar disorder. Michael Greenberg recounts in vivid detail the remarkable summer when, at the age of fifteen, his daughter was struck mad. It begins with Sally's sudden visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places, in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city's sweltering summer. It is a tale of a family broken open, then painstakingly, movingly stitched together again. Greenberg's unforgettable cast of characters includes an unconventional psychiatrist, an Orthodox Jewish patient, a manic Classics professor, a movie producer, and a landlord with literary aspirations.

Stacy Pershall grew up as an overly intelligent, depressed, deeply strange girl in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, population 1,000. From her days as a thirteen-year-old Jesus freak through her eventual diagnosis of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, this spirited memoir chronicles Pershall's journey through hell and her struggle with the mental health care system.

The Johnsons were a close and loving family living in the Seattle area - two parents, two incomes, two bright and accomplished daughters. They led busy lives filled with music lessons, college preparation, career demands, and laughter around the dinner table. Then the younger daughter, Linea, started experiencing crippling bouts of suicidal depression. Multiple trips to the psych ward resulted in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and it took many trial runs of drugs and ultimately electroshock therapy to bring Linea back. But her family never gave up on her. And Linea never stopped trying to find her way back to them. Perfect Chaos is the story of a mother and daughter's journey through mental illness towards hope.

Polarized, a bipolar memoir is the story of how Patricia Frisch went from terrified kid to frightened young lady to a woman in charge of her own life. Barely into grade school, she began suffering through jilting manias and crushing depressions. Severely introverted, with parents of Irish descent who believed in strong self-discipline, she kept the pain to herself. She struggled for two decades before hospitalization at age twenty-six, where she finally received the beginnings of a proper diagnosis and medication. Later in life she earned a Ph.D. in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University Maryland. She drew on her personal experiences to enhance a professional career as a pastoral counselor in medical, religious, and social service settings. Patricia addresses the fact that family relationships can be strained by bipolar 1 disorder and all bipolar diagnoses. Close family members can mistakenly blame themselves for their loved one's diagnosis, unaware that research shows that mental illness is first of all a physical illness. Still, environmental stressors can aggravate the disorder. Frisch describes her vital steps for managing and coping with bipolar 1 disorder. Psychiatric medication became the major factor. After stabilizing, she became more aware of her ability to develop newly discovered talents.

Andrew wrote this book in 8th grade to explain to his parents, his teachers, his friends, and anyone who would listen, what it felt like to be him. Since then, his book has been used by local counselors and mental health advocates to help children with Bipolar Disorder understand their own emotional turmoil, and also to help the parents and teachers of these children understand so they can give the children the support they need.