Bipolar Disorder

An essential resource for anyone who has a close relationship with a person who is bipolar This book provides a much-needed resource for family and friends of the more than 5 million American adults suffering from bipolar disorder. From psychotic behavior that requires medication to milder mood swings with disturbing ups and down, this book offers a warm and often humorous user-friend guide for coping with bipolar loved ones, colleagues, and friends. The book includes Guidance for identifying bipolar disorder symptoms and how to get the diagnosis confirmed Strategies for dealing with rants, attacks, blame, depression, mania and other behaviors Crucial information on medication and its effectiveness and potential side-effects Techniques for dealing with attempts to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol How many people with bipolar disorders can care for themselves, get help, feel supported and go on with their own lives This important book contains real-life illustrative examples and a wealth of helpful strategies and coping mechanisms that can be put into action immediately.

This wonderful new book is designed specifically for the families and friends of people suffering from Bipolar Disorder (manic-depressive disorder). It looks directly -- and lovingly -- at the many ways in which the non-bipolar can be a pivotal factor in helping to guide the bipolar toward stability rather than to be a trigger for emotional breakdown. It reveals how traditional medical and psychological treatment for the bipolar, when coupled with a wholistic treatment plan and proven programs of relationship-based action, can dramatically improve the life of the bipolar as well as those of family members and friends. Most importantly, it is about creating strong, fulfilling and loving relationships that can lead from merely surviving to joyously thriving.

'Is it weird in here or is it just me?' is a book will give you more of an insight into depression than any other you’ll ever read on the illness. If you are caring for someone with depression or you’re a parent and would like to arm yourself with accurate knowledge of its symptoms, then this book lets you experience the illness from a remarkably honest perspective. For some reason (perhaps known only to God), the author was given an opportunity to write extensively about his depression while he was hospitalised and while he was actually experiencing the blitzkrieg of symptoms that depression presents. This book is unique because most of it is written in real time, which means that in every way, it’s a realistic and practical guide for any person or parent who is caring for someone with depression, explaining what’s actually happening within the sufferer’s mind at the time of experiencing the symptoms of the illness. Further, it provides you, the carer, with a great slab of sensible and realistic on-the-spot advice on how to best offer support for the person you’re caring for – whatever the symptom. Finally and most importantly, this book is written for the person you’re caring for, because through you, it will help validate their own experiences and reassure them that what they’re experiencing isn’t abnormal or crazy (at least in the sense of what depression is) – it’s actually the depression that’s made their life so unpredictable and almost all of the time, so desolate and so very desperate.The author's knowledge of psychology and treatment options for mental illness is extensive, however his own hospitalisation with depression has been the ultimate experience that has enabled him to provide such an intensely personal and highly informative guide.As you’ll read, Rod’s life is an open book – in fact, it IS this book – and through it you’ll find all of the answers to the questions you seek on depression. Thanks to his efforts, depression is no longer the secret it once was.