Madness: A Bipolar Life
by Marya Hornbacher
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Book Reviews of Madness: A Bipolar Life
Book Review: Addiction Feeding Bipolar
Summary: 5 Stars
Marya Hornbacher has poured her heart and soul onto every page of this horrifying account of bipolar disorder beginning in childhood.
However, the entire story demonstrates the loopholes in conventional psychiatry that almost exclusively focuses on treating the mind while leaving the body and spirit out of the equation.
This memoir demonstrates how intertwined addiction and bipolar are and how hard it is to treat one without treating the other. Although Hornbacher overcame anorexia, her eating addiction just became less extreme and she traded starving herself for drugs and sex. The addict within her wanted her to be mentally ill so it would have an excuse to perpetuate itself.
Within the medical journals, within metaphysics books, there is so much information on techniques for healing from mental illness, yet conventional psychiatry focuses almost exclusively on psychopharmacology. This is ironic, because if you have a chemical imbalance to begin with, you are going to be more sensitive to side effects than the average person. Although for those who have bipolar disorder, medication is often a necessary part of the mental health equation, it should not be the entire equation. There are so many ways to help balance brain chemistry. Meditation, nutrition, exercise, and deep breathing are just a few of them.
Hornbacher did end up with an exceptional psychiatrist who never gave up on finding a way to get through to his patient. What returned Hornbacher to functionality was a combination of such elements as medication, light treatment, and nutrition.
Book Review: My thoughts.
Summary: 2 Stars
Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder myself, I thought that reading another person's account would help to deepen my understanding of my own situation. That being said, I am glad this book wasn't around for me to read a year ago when I first found out. I would have been scared to death. If you have never encountered a bipolar person (there are many degrees of bipolar, some more serious than others) this is NOT the book for you. It may give you the wrong impression of the disorder.
Her chapters read like manic episodes, jumping from thought to thought which I found discomforting, despite my complete understanding of what that feels like(and didn't she mention throughout that she was working on this book while experiencing episodes?). Her multiple hospitalizations, wild road trips, and even more than one marriage can make one think that bipolar is too much to handle and is something to be scared of.
However, there were moments in there that floored me - that had me saying "Oh s**t. That is exactly how I felt before I was treating my disorder." She also details the inevitable process of denial that occurs when one is diagnosed with something as stigmatized as bipolar disorder. The continual self-abuse that makes treatment that much harder.
If you have already learned about bipolar and can handle a horrendous story of one woman's personal experience, then go ahead. There are many resources listed in the back which can be helpful if you havn't already found them on the web. However, I do not plan to re-read this book and plan to sell my copy.
Book Review: Dizzy & Hopeful
Summary: 4 Stars
At times I was dizzy reading Marya Hornbacher's account of living her Bipolar Life. Other times I was bored of the cycles thinking, "Didn't she tell this in the last chapter?" But both are what I think she intended me to feel in order to understand the advanced form of this mental illness. Her desire is for those living with Bipolar to seek treatment faithfully and to take their medication on time all the time; for the medical and drug world to research and develop medications specifically for this mental illness; and for those that love a person with Bipolar to see life from the other side and to thank them for loving in spite of the disorder.
The back pages of the book are packed with statistics, websites and contacts. As I stood at my home copier trying to capture these resources in the final pages I stopped and went to Amazon.com to order the book. The one I had in my hand was a library copy. The understanding I have of Bipolar is mine.
Q:Was this book helpful?
A: helpful, extremely
Q: What do you wish had been included?
A: faith, a relationship with Jesus, the impact/conflict faith can bring
Q: Do you recommend this book to others?
A: Yes; for those who love and those who have; all physicians so they will recognize symptoms and know the right questions to ask and treat for the correct diagnosis
Q:What did I take away from this book?
A: Acceptance, deeper understanding of trigger points
Book Review: From the Inside Looking Out
Summary: 5 Stars
Having recently entered into the confusing world of having a child diagnosed with bi-polar, trying to tease out a distinction between mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction, watching different psychiatrists prescribe different medications, along with the child being a hostile patient, i.e. doesn't want to talk about what's going on---this book is a brilliant insight into what's going on inside a rapid cycle bi-polar head. I recognized some actions of my son throughout this book and finally got a sense of what it must be like inside his brain. This book gave me a new appreciation for the pain he is trying to hide or run away from. And also gave me insight into how I can better be there for him in his mental illness while not enabling his addictive behavior. This illness is not fun and there seems to be a lot of differences in how to treat it, especially as the field of study on bi-polar appears to be expanding and new treatments are on the rise but not consistently throughout the psychiatric profession.
Marya Hornbacher has done a great service for me by writing in such vivid prose her ongoing dilemma. Admittedly, my reading on bi-polar is not exhaustive, but this is the first book I've read that truly captured the tyranny of this illness. Ms. Hornbacher is a truly gifted writer. I do not envy her the ongoing struggle she faces, but she sure dug deep to write this. Throughout the the painful descriptions of behavior and feelings shines a courage that lifts my hopes for my own son.
Book Review: A Poor Book for Voyeurs
Summary: 1 Stars
This is not literature, even though the author poses as a writer. This is a girl's diary, and a bad one as that.
Marya, more as good marketer than a good writer, gives us voyeurs what we want: a peep hole into the life of someone extreme, a lifestyle that most of us, in our boring 9 to 5 lives, maybe would like to taste once in a while. We live in a world of celebrities, of gossip, of tabloids paying millions of dollars for the pictures of a newborn. Marya was very lucky to carve a niche, as the troubled teen who cuts herself, has promiscuous sex and a wild life. Who wouldn't want to peek into that? Had she tried to make a herself a name with a non-fiction book, she wouldn't exist as an author today.
But literature this isn't. The book is totally monotonous in its maniac self-absorption. Bipolar? Where is the depression? Where is the self-analysis that comes with a reflexive mood? Not there. It is just a succession of very superficial daily happenings, one after the other, and their superficial effect on the author. In order to build the story, the impressions she brings from her childhood sound totally fake and constructed. Who the heck remembers vivid feelings when you were a 8 year-old?
This is a lost opportunity for a reflection on the existential and philosophical aspects of bipolar disorder, on the role of the bipolar person in the world. Again, this is just a diary.