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Madness: A Bipolar Life | 
 enlarge | Author: Marya Hornbacher
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 8838
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 299
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0618754458
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.8950092
EAN: 9780618754458
ASIN: 0618754458
Publication Date: April 9, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
An astonishing dispatch from inside the belly of bipolar disorder, reflecting major new insights
When Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, she did not yet have the piece of shattering knowledge that would finally make sense of the chaos of her life. At age twenty-four, Hornbacher was diagnosed with Type I rapid-cycle bipolar, the most severe form of bipolar disorder.
In Madness, in her trademark wry and utterly self-revealing voice, Hornbacher tells her new story. Through scenes of astonishing visceral and emotional power, she takes us inside her own desperate attempts to counteract violently careening mood swings by self-starvation, substance abuse, numbing sex, and self-mutilation. How Hornbacher fights her way up from a madness that all but destroys her, and what it is like to live in a difficult and sometimes beautiful life and marriage -- where bipolar always beckons -- is at the center of this brave and heart-stopping memoir.
Madness delivers the revelation that Hornbacher is not alone: millions of people in America today are struggling with a variety of disorders that may disguise their bipolar disease. And Hornbacher's fiercely self-aware portrait of her own bipolar as early as age four will powerfully change, too, the current debate on whether bipolar in children actually exists.
Ten years after Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind, this storm of a memoir will revolutionize our understanding of bipolar disorder.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 A Poor Book for Voyeurs September 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Intense to say the least September 3, 2008
I wanted to read this book because I am a fan of Marya's and have read both "Wasted" and "The Center of Winter". Mostly I was anxious for this one because I've always suspected I myself was Bipolar, and was needless to say more than curious to read about a first hand account of living with this disease from someone I so admire. The book is certainly really intense. There is virtually no detail left uncovered, she spares no expense when describing her worst hells and best highs. She does seem to at times have a flair for the dramatic, taking seemingly innocuous events and making them into grandiouse experiences. But then again, I guess in a way thats exactly what part of being Bipolar means, right?
It was extremely informative and harrowing to read, and although she doesnt seek people's pity or sympathy, you can't help but feel for this woman because of all the stuff she's been through. Whether some of it was brought on herself or if it was from things she couldn't control. I experienced mild bouts of anxiety just reading this because it seemed that she had so many burdens at once at times. Just, wow. Its a lot for once person to balance and deal with on a daily basis. Needless to say I admire her even more because of this. She is an extremely gifted and eloquent writer, that much cannot be ignored. While I suspect I have a much more mild version of Bipolar, Bipolar II, I could definitely identify with a lot of what Marya depicted. The feelings of being invincible, untouchable at times....even though it was completely unwarranted and random. Wreckless and indulgent behavior, impulsive decision making with little to no care in the reprecussions. Depressions so low that I don't even want to think about the next day and the one after that. The way the two feelings can fluctuate and intertwine themselves so quickly and effortlessly, it's scary. You truly feel like you're no longer at the helm and something, someone bigger than you is steering and taking over.
This book was very helpful for me because it made me realize I need help to get this under control, if I want to ever live a healthy and functioning life, I can't just self medicate, self-diagnose, and turn a blind eye to whats become so obvious. There is a lot of information following the end of the book, as far as useful links and facts about Bipolar Disorder. She dispells a lot of myths and sheds light on many facets of the disease. There's long, long, lists of websites and the like to go to for info and help. Some of which I have already visited myself.
But the book- overall it was really good, maybe a bit lengthy and somewhat redundant at times, but the good far outweighs whatever bad there might be.
 Wasted with a new title August 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have read both of Marya's books and while I do believe she has suffered from both a mental illness and eating disorder, I find parts of it to be either exaggerated or written for creative flow. Also, in a way it is like the same book twice as she covers the very same years she covered in her previous novel Wasted. Only here we hear nothing of her problems being realated to being bulimic or anorexic but rather she was bipolar from the age of 5 and no one knew.
What I find to be unbelievable is her recall verbatim from the age of 5. Who really can remember their childhood or even last year that vividly? Also, being in a state of disorientation begs the question again of how believable the incidents are in the novel.
I find that as in Wasted Marya tends to blame society, the health care system anyone but herself for the problems she has faced last time she wrote it was her against the diet industry, against the culture of being thin equates with beauty now it's the healthcare industry not recognizing mental illness for what it truly is a life debilitating illness with no real cure.
The most disturbing concept she brought forth that compelled me to review this is her theory of being bi-polar by age 5 and that by age 10 or 11 the psychiatrists she had seen couldn't see that, I am sorry there are reasons why a child is not given a psychological diagnosis a child's mind is still growing and developing and to suggest giving psychoactive drugs to a 10 year old is not only irresponsible but dangerous. I have a feeling this is not the last we will hear of Marya as mental diagnosis can and do change, I would not be surprised if she were to develop other personality disorders along the way.
uncalled for August 18, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I did not like the way this book was written at all. I also thought she was just rambling on and on. She allowed herself to live in so much madness for so long because she would not listen to her Dr.s advise and when she knew one of the Doctors were not giving her the right treatment by knowing she was indeed drinking to much or even drinking while taking meds at all then dismissing it altogether she did not seek someone else to treat her even though she knew her drinking was way out of control and it helped her mania become worse. She went through a lot as well as putting her family through a lot. Mostly it was because she would not do what she needed to do to get well and live a close to normal life that she could for so many years.
 couldn't put it down August 18, 2008
I found this book to be extremely captivting. I could not put it down. I have a family member who is bipolar, and I really think this was a wonderful account of the disease. I would recommend this to anyone who wants an inside look at this disease.
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