Product Description

Written in an easy-to-navigate question-and-answer format, this useful and compassionate guide explores and explains absolutely everything that someone with bipolar disorder (and those who live with and love them) needs to know about the condition: from how to recognise the symptoms to how to deal with stigma in the workplace. Drawing on a broad range of expert opinion, the very latest research, numerous real-life voices, and their own personal experience of bipolar in their family, Sarah Owen and Amanda Saunders offer practical advice and emotional support to inform and empower anyone whose life has ever been touched by bipolar disorder.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10332 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"This excellent new guide to bipolar is structured around the kind of key questions that anyone encountering the condition for the first time would want to ask." --Pendulum - The Journal of MDF The Bipolar Organisation

Review
"With its useful glossary and many in-line notes of explanation, this book could provide a good initial orientation to bipolar disorder for the newly-diagnosed, their families and carers."

About the Author
Sarah Owen has been a health journalist on UK newspapers and glossy magazines such as Cosmopolitan, for 12 years.
Amanda Saunders has worked as an editor and writer for The National Childbirth Trust in the UK for the last nine years.
Between them, 3 members of their close family have been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder.

Customer Reviews

A good read and an invaluable resource
I bought this book because a close friend had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and I was very worried when I first saw her in the middle of a psychotic episode and knew I had to find out more. Most other books I'd browsed through on the subject looked fairly inaccessible but the Q and A format of this book means you can read as little or as much as you want, on the topics you're particularly interested in. I also think the fact that both of the authors have personal experience of this condition (three close family members have been diagnosed with it) makes it different from other books - they've both obviously gone through so much and really understand and care about the condition from an insider's point of view. This book is far more than a dry textbook, it shares the personal experiences of both the authors and dozens of people with the condition, often in a wonderfully humorous way. I cried when I read some of the accounts, but also felt lots of hope when I read how many people (such as Stephen Fry) go on to lead very successful, happy lives. I now feel so much better placed to help, support and encourage my friend. Buy this book - it's a good read and an invaluable resource.

Invaluable for anyone with bipolar disorder - and their carers
I am posting this review from a friend in South Africa at her request as I gave her this book as a gift and so she wasn't able to post a review on Amazon herself.

My daughter is 22 years old and has bipolar disorder. I live in South Africa and having read this book, it is as if a light has come on for me. For years I have been trying to manage my daughter's illness in the dark but I can now see how she has had bipolar disorder all along. She had seen psychologists since the age of nine and was eventually, at the age of 15, diagnosed with severe depression. She kept taking herself off the medication and then a different psychologist would put her on it again. But she was often so happy and outgoing that no one believed that she was depressed. Then at the age of 19 she was tested for bipolar disorder and it was immediately confirmed. The medication made a big difference and she was once again able to cope with life. However, I did not have any tools to help her in other ways. I assumed that the medication on its own would sort her out. Only since reading the book do I understand what the implications are for the carer. I have made BIG mistakes and can see, in hindsight, how they contributed to her mania and depression. I can also see how many of her childhood idiosyncrasies were actually symptoms of bipolar disorder. I am so glad that children can now be diagnosed earlier - even if they are not put onto medication - so that their environment can become "bipolar friendly". I would have done so many things differently, had I known earlier. The other issue the book highlighted very strongly was that the illness is hereditary. I will make sure that my son and my brother read the book, as their children or grandchildren may have this illness. What I have also changed, is not saying that my daughter is bipolar, but that she has bipolar disorder.
The last chapter of the book, mentioning all the famous people who have been diagnosed with the illness, or are thought to have had the illness, makes it so much more "ok" to have the illness oneself. The in-depth information about sectioning is also most illuminating as it reveals how severe this illness really is. Here in South Africa there are still so very many people that think that one can just "pull oneself together". I have finally found a sense of peace and can share that with my daughter and the rest of my family. I have recommended this book to everyone who has bipolar disorder or who knows someone with the illness. Thank you, Sarah and Amanda, for your excellent research and for taking the trouble to write this book.

A brillient read
This book is a great read. The layout enables you to dip in and find exactly what you want very quickly. It's clever writing style makes in easy to understand without getting bogged down with medical jargon. This is definately to one to buy.