This section includes the best books on bipolar in 2022 more from the brave pen of someone traversing life with bipolar disorder; they are also a source of encouragement for others facing similar challenges. Here are some of the top autobiographies to read in 2022 if you’re looking for inspiration and understanding:
Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More By Mark Vonnegut
Mark Vonnegut, the late Kurt Vonnegut’s son, talks about his stay at Harvard Medical School, ages of self-medication with prescription medicines and alcohol, and a 4th psychotic breakdown in 1985 that had him bound to a stretcher in the hospital where he worked. In the same year, Vonnegut was selected “No. 1 Pediatrician” by Boston Magazine. The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity, published in 2002, is yet another Vonnegut book that should be in everyone’s collection.
More Fool Me By Stephen Fry
More Fool Me is the third installment in Fry’s memoirs, which was just released. He is frank about the darker side of his highly successful life and coping with bipolar disease, as he was in the previous volumes, which touched on his juvenile expulsions from private schools, a brief trip in prison for credit card theft, and severe self-doubt. Fry’s first two books are worth reading: The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography, published in 2010, and Moab is My Washpot: An Autobiography, published in 1997.
All The Things We Never Knew, Chasing The Chaos Of Mental Illness Sheila Hamilton
Within 6 weeks of receiving a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, Sheila Hamilton ended up losing her “once brilliant and passionate” husband. All the Things We Never Knew is an autobiography, but it is also a reference guide for families in distress, with hundreds of tools to help them find out where to get aid and treatment.
Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip In 4-D By Lizzie Simon
Lizzie Simon appeared to have it all: a loving family, friends, an ivy-league education, and a valued position as a theatrical producer, yet she was misunderstood and lonely. “All along the path, she encounters madness and romance, victors and sufferers, and, somewhere in between the highways, herself.
Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running From Madness By Hamilton, Suzy Favor
Suzy Favor Hamilton, an Olympic marathon runner, faces her bipolar disorder with frankness. She mentions in her book that her bipolar disorder was pushing her towards sex in her instance. It could have just as easily pushed me toward drugs, alcohol, or gambling, as it does for many others. The message is that if detected appropriately, illness can be cured with the support of medical professionals, as well as family and friends. I’m live proof that there is hope.”
Manic: A Memoir By Terri Cheney (Harper, 2009)
Cheney, a famous showbiz attorney who represented Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson, has written a bestseller on her prolonged battle with bipolar disorder. She tells it like it is in Manic: A Memoir, recounting her anguish, attempts at suicide, wild flirting with men, and the extreme side effects of medication. Modern Madness: An Owner’s Manual, Cheney’s most recent book, is a set of unique personal essays that combines her own story with practical advice that breaks down bipolar disorder into reader-friendly ideas like “Instructions for Use,” “Maintenance” and “Troubleshooting.”
Wishful Drinking By Carrie Fisher
Wishful Drinking, an experiential collage that began as a critically acclaimed one-woman show by Carrie Fisher, was turned into an HBO show and published as a book in 2008. “I’m apparently very good at it.” Fisher turns each terrible tragedy into amusing content, according to People magazine in its four-star review of Wishful Drinking.
Brilliant Madness: Living With Manic Depressive Illness By Patty Duke
Patty Duke’s memoir Call Me Anna was published in 1987, but she was persuaded to write another book about bipolar disorder. A Brilliant Madness, which she co-wrote with professional medical writer Gloria Hochman, combines her personal experience with bipolar disorder with scientific facts on the illness and treatment options. “It’s fixable,” she says of bipolar disorder. People need to know that awful things may be forgiven and forgotten, and that sickness does not own you.
Madness: A Bipolar Life
Marya Hornbacher’s Madness is a powerful glimpse into the psyche of a woman living with a complicated mental health disorder, following in the footsteps of her successful first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia.
Read Also: Self-Help Books For Bipolar Disorder
The memoir tracks her from the age of four to the present, including her diagnosis of type I rapid-cycle bipolar disorder at the age of twenty-four. Horbacher’s writing is raw, passionate, and at times hard to read.
Readers should be aware that the book contains details of self-harm, that may be upsetting to a certain group of people, but its power comes from its characteristic bluntness. Most significantly, she explains that she is not alone in her battle and that millions of people in the United States suffer from a mental illness that masks or hides their bipolar disorder.
Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, And Me: A Graphic Memoir
Cartoonist Ellen Forney creates a graphic novel that examines the connection between mental health and creativity, notably bipolar disorder, in a break from the typical bipolar disorder book. She combines stories of great artists and authors with bipolar disorder, such as Sylvia Plath, Vincent van Gogh, and Georgia O’Keeffe, into her own personal recollections about her being afraid of ruining her artistic skills once she was put on medication.
Using her illustrations, Forney is able to spread both clinical knowledge and raw emotion, such as the benefits and drawbacks of various therapies and medications for bipolar disorder, reverberating in a manner that only art can. Anybody who has ever worried that obtaining mental stability will deprive or “cure” them of their creativity can relate to this darkly hilarious and artistically magnificent picture of bipolar.
Eat A Peach: A Memoir By David Chang
Famous chef David Chang chronicles his path from living like a failure and dealing with anxiety, depression, and extreme rage to earning a reputation for himself in the kitchen and across the globe in this New York Times bestseller, which has been chosen as one of the finest works of the year by Fortune, NPR, and others. Momofuku Noodle Bar opened in the East Village of New York City in the early 2000s, and the owner and his pioneering cuisine quickly gained acclaim, receiving 2 Michelin stars and many James Beard Awards.
Chang has never let his new diagnosis of bipolar disorder hold him back. He is also a podcasting show host (“The David Chang Show”), a TV presenter (“The Mind of a Chef”), and a creator of a series, executive producer, and star (Ugly Delicious and Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner). Chang, who is renowned for supporting the local, ecological farmers and companies, won Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for the first time in late 2020, just after the publication of his memoir, and gave the money to the Southern Smoke Foundation, a crisis-relief agency.
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir Of Moods And Madness
Kay Redfield Jamison is a medical expert on bipolar disease and somebody who has lived with it. She began to feel the consequences of her condition while seeking a profession in medicine, which led to violence, mania, severe spending sprees, and even tried to commit suicide over the course of years. She is now a renowned writer and a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and she utilizes her combined viewpoints — patient and caregiver— to expose the horrors of bipolar disorder, shining a light on the unknown.
Gorilla And The Bird: A Memoir Of Madness And A Mother’s Love
Zack McDermott, a public defender in New York City, descends into psychosis at the age of twenty – six and comes back to his childhood home in Gorilla and the Bird. He describes his narrative in the framework of his relationship with his mother, the Bird, who leads him through terrifying phases of depression and mania with her support and love. While it opens with a description of his downhill slide, this book on bipolar disorder ends up being a testimony to how mental health issues can be managed and those who suffer from them can live fulfilled, healthier, and happier lives.
Heart Berries: A Memoir By Terese Marie Mailhot
Terese Marie Mailhot started writing Heart Berries: A Memoir while admitted to the hospital and being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder. This became a huge commercial success and a New York best-selling book. Having spent the early years of her life on the Seabird Island First Nation reservation in British Columbia, premature parenthood, abuse, mental health, and recovery are all explored in this collection of essays. Mailhot, a Tecumseh Postdoctoral Fellow at Purdue University, believes she’s come to terms with her life’s imbalances since doing her best is all that matters.