Madness: A Bipolar Life

Could not put down!

I do not read a whole lot. I randomly grabbed this book off the shelf while waiting for my friends to get done at the store. I read a page or two in the middle, sat down, kept reading, then ran off and had to buy it and spent the rest of my weekend visiting my friends in Arizona, reading this book.
This woman's journey is encredible. It will give you insight to what those "crazy" people are going through that you run into in life. Sometimes, perhaps those people that we think are angry, rude, scary, neurotic...perhaps they really are still normal people inside and we could be more understanding to what some people are going through.
Excellent book!!

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

The best look into Bipolar life I've read yet

As a bipolar patient myself, the author expresses the horror of what it is sometimes like in our minds. It was great for me to read that I am not the only person who feels like this, and I would encourage others to read this book who want a true picture of how graphic a bipolar life can be. However, I don't think I would want my mother to read this book. I wouldn't want her to see how much I suffer.

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Dramatic yes...

I read Marya Hornbacher's first book Wasted and was blown away by her honesty and willness to share her self-inflecting suffering with readers. But her second book has made me look differently at this writer. I too struggle to cope with Bi-polar disorder. Her 'suffering' might appear to be illness to the 'well' but to those who share in her fight to remain amoungest the sane i find her selfish in her self destructive behavior!!! Her book might be a true relflection of the innervoice of the disease, but those of us who are truly fighting are not struggling to stay out of a mental hospital 6 times a year!!! This is a completely exagerated depiction of what the average person struggling with a mood dissorder deals with. My only fear is that people will take her book as the truth of the many mentally ill and not the exagerated story of one sick woman.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Madness

An excellent view into the workings of the thoughts and emotions
of someone suffering from BiPolar Disorder.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

A Great Author and Non-Fiction Research Writer

After reading WASTED by Marya Hornbacher a touching memoir of her early struggles with anorexia and bulimia, Marya became one of my most favorite non-fiction authors. As someone who has struggled with a rare form of bulimia for four years (purging through over-exercising rather than throwing up), anorexia for three years and poor body image for an entire lifetime, I found her memoir to be enlightening and profound. Immediately I purchased MADNESS, read most of it before unfortunately leaving it on a plane, then bought it once again beacuse I absoutely HAD to know what became of Mayra. Through her detailed account of her life with a rare and most dangerous form of Bi-polar disorder, the reader really feels for Marya and comes to know her as a friend and worries about her as do her own friends and family members. What I love most about Marya Hornbacher's writing is that she writes about her own real life experiences and combines this insight with tons of reasearch from articles, books and professionals. Her stories, struggles and words can speak for themeselves as far as interest and literary merit, but if you are a person living with any of the conditions she is writing about, her books are more than just memoirs, they have based on facts, studies and thorough investigation.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Don't know=Afraid

MaDneSs. mAdNesS. mADnESs. MAdnEss. mAdNEsS. ASURA.

WOW

This is a great book !

This gives humor to cruddy bipolar!

Having bipolar can really stink at times. After denying my diagnosis for years and flying into mania for 2 years, I finally took hold of my illness and started learning more about it.

At first this book was making me kind of manic. I slowed down my reading to keep the mania at bay. Marya's experiences made mine look tame! I really had fun laughing at her candidness. Reading about her psych ward visits made me look back and laugh at my own. Only someone who has been where she's been can see the utter hilarity of the situation...the hospital gowns....the really weird patients who make you feel normal....the looking-forward-to-lukewarm-decaf-coffee attitude that gets you through the day. It's not too funny at the time, but it sure is funny once you are home!!

This is a good read for those with bipolar. I am letting my family know that they should all read this book, too. They will see that they are not the only family that needs to deal with a loved one's mental illness.

Madness-An autobiography of someone dealing with bipoloar disease

I got this book to do an APA paper on for my psychology class. It gives alot of information on the disease and the treatment plans that helped her to overcome this.

A Bipolar Woman Reveals Herself

Maya Hornbacher sheds light on the nature of bipolar and its many negative characteristics, which accompany her through her turbulent trials and errors. She explains her eating disorder, alcoholism, cutting, and many hospitalizations with such detail that you start wonder if bipolar disorder is just an added issue or propelling force of these struggles. Nonetheless, the writing is impeccable, if not a little self-indulgent. A very interesting read and great inight into the craziness of bipolar.

Bi-Polar Illness Revealed

This is a book that really tells it like it is, when dealing with Bi-Polar illness. 25 years in the mental health field, and I can tell this was truly written from first hand experience. It is not a fun read, but gives a first person account of how hard it is to diagnose, treat and live with this disease. God bless this lady, for coming forward, and illuminating our lives as to the hell, she had to live through to get to this point.

opened my eyes and heart

My son suffers from bipolar disorder and has since a very early age. We didn't know it for many years, however. The early chapters of this book gave me constant ah-ha's as I saw behaviors and experiences recounted that mimicked times in his life. Childhood bipolar is not well recognized by professionals, and had I read this five years ago I'm certain we could have gotten the correct diagnosis sooner because many of the same signs were there - but signs the medical community doesn't seem to recognize.

Marya tells her story with such intensity that I could feel the struggle my son has suffered. I understand many things I couldn't before.

It also raised my awareness of what to look for to help him manage his illness in a way the clinical literature has never approached. This book could literally be a lifesaver.

This book helps you to understand what mental illness is like.

This book explores a world that many people shun. I hope that by reading this book, people will come to understand the mentally ill and not write them off as lost souls. A good read.

must read

This book is amazing its a must read to understand about bipolar!! I love this book one of my fav!!

outstanding example of BD + alcoholism

5 stars if you can relate to both BD and alcoholism. 4 stars if only BD. Amazing descriptions - you can almost taste her experiences.

If you need to understand someone.

If you have someone in your life who is Bi-polar and you would like to understand what they go through on a daily basis then by all means pick this up to read. It may seem slightly scattered but that is exactly how the bi-polar mind works, take it from one who knows.

Textbook Case Study of Bipolar

Madness, by Marya Hornbacher, is one of the few personal accounts of bipolar disorder I¿ve read that covers the escalating unfolding of the disorder from such an early age '4 years old' to the present. The book covers just about every aspect of the struggle with bipolar disorder ¿ early failures to diagnose it, misdiagnosis, clueless and competent psychiatrists and therapists, stressors, triggers, the tendency to self-medicate, hospitalizations, hyper-sexuality, the terrible side effects of many of the medications used to treat depression and mania, bipolar and career, alcoholism, self-mutilation, relationship dynamics, lack of insight 'not realizing when a manic episode is settling in', and the highly productive and invigorating hypomanias that often convince those with bipolar disorder that nothing¿s wrong. Her narrative functions almost like a textbook case study of bipolar disorder. Madness has a solid chronological structure that leads the reader through the escalating and exhausting mood cycles Hornbacher experienced. She is a highly skilled writer who keeps the narrative progressing at a quick pace while revealing dazzling insights about the disorder, about people, and about life in general along the way. What I found particularly helpful about the book is Hornbacher¿s descriptions of how her mood episodes began so seemingly innocent enough. One day, life seems to be just fine and then over the course of several days, weeks, or months becomes wonderful ¿ everything is clicking and Hornbacher¿s energy and joy seduces all those around her ¿ and then, just as suddenly, her world crashes in on her. People who haven¿t experienced this, don¿t know what it¿s like. They wonder why people with bipolar disorder can¿t tell when their moods are cycling or why a loved one didn¿t step in sooner. I think Horbacher¿s accounts can help people gain a better understanding. As co-author of Bipolar Disorder For Dummies and as someone who¿s ¿married to bipolar,¿ I could relate to just about everything in Madness. Hornbacher does an incredible job of taking the reader on the roller coaster ride that is bipolar disorder, revealing the wreckage that bipolar leaves in its wake, and filling those who battle it in their own lives with an appreciation of the positive aspects of the disorder and hope for a better future.

fabulous and long awaited! so happy to finally have it!

Marya Hornbacher has been my number one favorite ever since I read Wasted years ago. She is worth all the praise she receives and more. I hope she is going to write many more books and may she get another one out soon. Marya is fabulous!

Amazing!

This book takes over where 'Wasted' left off. Marya is one of the best writers of all time. Her use of words and honesty make this book what it is.

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