Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1998. It took her years to get stable, but she managed it. After she published Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me (which I haven't read), comments from readers inspired her to write this book.

I requested this in order to read up on mental health-related graphic novels for work. This was much more text-heavy than I expected - not so much fun to read cover-to-cover, which I needed to do fairly quickly in order to finish it in time to write up some impressions for coworkers. But I'll admit that I got through it more quickly and easily than I probably would have if it had been a more traditional self-help book. The large comic-style text and illustrations were appealing and usually easy to follow.

Forney covered lots of topics: different therapy options, coping tools, dealing with insomnia (or the opposite, hypersomnia), dealing with meds (tips for remembering to take them, traveling with meds, side effects), identifying your warning signs, and the importance of setting up a support system and ways to do it. Although her advice was geared towards folks with bipolar disorder, those with other mood disorders or anxiety could probably also find useful information. As someone who, only this afternoon, had to deal with an anxiety-induced panic attack, I can confidently say that Forney's "put your face in a tub of ice water" trick actually does help.

Some of the advice Forney covered was the same stuff I've seen in other self-help books for depression, anxiety, etc., but she occasionally put a twist on some of it that I hadn't seen before and liked. For example, there are a lot of people who say "be kind to yourself, you wouldn't say that to someone you loved, right?" Which is all well and good but doesn't really make it easier to not beat yourself up over stuff. Forney had similar advice, but instead of just saying "you wouldn't say that to someone you loved," she presented a visualization exercise in which you imagine saying that to a child version of yourself, then imagine what you'd do if someone you loved did the same thing you were berating yourself about, then imagine treating your child self like you would someone you loved, and then finally treat yourself like that. Not a thing I've tried yet, but I really liked that page.

Like so many other self-help books, Forney also brought up meditation. One twist that she added that I liked was making walking meditation less boring by turning it into a story she actually wanted to participate in. She'd imagine that aliens had contacted her and told her that the area she was in was going to be destroyed. They had turned her whole body into a recording device, and they needed her to record as much as she could, with as many of her senses as she could. She had to be as much in the moment as possible, because any thoughts would disrupt the recording.

All in all, this was a good self-help book that was more text-heavy than I expected it to be, but still a quick read. I apparently read it at just the right time, too - I'm very grateful for that ice water trick.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Great Story about a bipolar golfer and his daily struggles.
Reading this book, you can have a better understanding of why bipolar disease is so difficult to handle.

Thanks to Net Galley and to Legend Press for providing me with a free copy of this book.

When I first read the description of the book, I thought this was the book for me. I do read in a variety of genres, I am a psychiatrist and I worked in forensic psychiatry (although in the UK, not in Australia like the protagonist) for a number of years. I also write and have a psychiatrist as one of my characters, so I was interested in this novel, not only as a reader but also as a writer.

As I read the novel I realised that perhaps I wasn’t the best person to give feedback on it, as although I enjoyed the descriptions and discussions of mental health matters that are one of the pillars of the book, I was not in a position to comment on how somebody who wasn’t familiar with the material, would find it (although from the comments I’ve read, it seems people enjoy it and don’t find it difficult or too detailed).

The novel is told in the third person from the point of view of Nicole, a young female psychiatrist who works in a forensic setting, both in a hospital and also sees outpatients in her own practice. She only works with female patients, and has her own mental health problems (she is bipolar, and regularly sees a therapist, currently only for supervision, Declan, who functions as the voice of reason, although unfortunately he isn’t always given the full information). Nicole identifies herself closely with some of her patients and finds it difficult not to get over-involved (after all, she was also an impatient, and had a difficult childhood, like many of the women she works with). That causes quite a few of the complex situations she sees herself in, although perhaps also makes her get ‘results’, albeit at a high personal cost.

Nicole is not a model of professionality or a model patient either. Sometimes she doesn’t take her medication, she mixes it with alcohol, and she struggles with issues of confidentiality. She does not get on well with the Professor who is the star psychiatrist in the department where she works, and she has her own morality that might clash with accepted standards(she does not want long-term romantic relationships, but sex with a married man, even one she knows due to work, is OK). She is also not the wisest and tries to convince herself that she is not scared and does not need anybody when she gets evidence that she’s being stalked. And if you think of psychiatrist as bookish and boring, Nicole is none of that. She plays in a band, rides a big motorbike and favours leather gear.

A couple of warnings: there is sex in the novel, although not explicit and too descriptive, but if you don’t like sexual language, there is some. From the point of view of the plot, it helps demonstrate that Nicole’s impulsivity spreads to many areas of her life, illustrates her high mood at one point, and at the end, it helps us get a better picture of what her true priorities are. The second warning is about the main subject of the book. The author works in postnatal mental health, and the patients Nicole works with and the cases being investigated pertain to infanticides or child murders, and also to paedophilia and sexual abuse, and although not gory, the psychological descriptions ring true and might be difficult to read if you are especially sensitive to those themes. It is not a light or feel-good book, that’s a fact.

The different women Nicole works with and their different families, mirror one another and at times it might be difficult to extricate the smaller characters and differentiate between them even if you’re playing close attention, but the main characters’ psychological makeup rings true, and there are masterful descriptions of symptoms of mental illness, like those Nicole experiences when she’s going high. I could also identify professionally with the issues Nicole has with the difficult interface between being a psychiatrist to her patients, and also having to take into account that they are (or might be) criminals and might represent a risk to others. She struggles with issues of confidentiality and risk, and that is one of the true complexities of forensic psychiatry.

The plot is complex and twists and turns, making the reader share with the protagonist in her doubts about diagnosis, guilty parties, about her stalker, and even about her personal relationships.

I recommend it to readers with a particular interest in mental health and psychological thrillers, who are not unduly concerned about sex or child abuse and murder in their books, and who enjoy complex characterisations and plots.

Liar by Rob Roberge is eye-opening and inspiring. This memoir has perhaps allowed me to better understand my own father who, being a drug addict/alcoholic and probably partaking in half of the stories Roberge details in the memoir on his own, has their own list of issues and disturbances.

Roberge describes every detail, one year to the next and then back again, making the reader feel as if it is their mind is turning into scrambled eggs. The way the memoir is written is probably my favorite. You are the one in each scene; feeling Roberge's excitement- it is your excitement. Feeling his sadness, suicidal thoughts, or even his mania- it is your sadness, suicidal thoughts, YOUR mania.

Liar is so put together that you wonder if this author is really the man that he portrays in the book; but then again, even the most manic person just needs to concentrate on their thoughts and would be able to write it all down and print it for the world. That's exactly what Rob Roberge did.

This book will make you look at your own life and ask yourself who you are, and what the world would sound like without you in it...

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

My husband has bipolar disorder. I finally got tired of not understanding him and got this book to better understand what is going on inside his head. I loved that this book offered a great set of steps to treat him, but there were a few elements that left me a bit shaky.

I found the plan that he did to be good. As a spouse of a man with bipolar disorder, I can safely say it's not easy to deal with all the emotional problems people with bipolar disorder encounter. It is quite easy to become a helicopter spouse where your life becomes a secondary concern. The authors discourage such behavior, especially when the bipolar person is balanced enough to take care of himself. 

Part of the treatment plan was to treat the disorder holistically. Some of this is quite logical, such as looking at dietary triggers such as caffeine when coupled with stress. Unfortunately, the authors also advocate usage of alternative treatments such as homeopathy and acupuncture, neither of which has been proven to help in any capacity. I find this to be disturbing and dangerous in the hands of someone who distrusts doctors and medicine.