Strictly Bipolar


Book Description

A treatise on the psychological disorder of our times. If the post-war period was called the 'age of anxiety' and the 1980s and '90s the 'antidepressant era', we now live in bipolar times. Mood-stabilising medication is routinely prescribed to adults and children alike, with child prescriptions this decade increasing by 400% and overall diagnoses by 4000%. What could explain this explosion of bipolarity?




Gorilla and the Bird


Book Description

"Glorious...one of the best memoirs I've read in years...a tragicomic gem about family, class, race, justice, and the spectacular weirdness of Wichita. [McDermott] can move from barely controlled hilarity to the brink of rage to aching tenderness in a single breath." -- Marya Hornbacher, New York Times Book Review Zack McDermott, a 26-year-old Brooklyn public defender, woke up one morning convinced he was being filmed, Truman Show-style, as part of an audition for a TV pilot. Every passerby was an actor; every car would magically stop for him; everything he saw was a cue from "The Producer" to help inspire the performance of a lifetime. After a manic spree around Manhattan, Zack, who is bipolar, was arrested on a subway platform and admitted to Bellevue Hospital. So begins the story of Zack's freefall into psychosis and his desperate, poignant, often hilarious struggle to claw his way back to sanity. It's a journey that will take him from New York City back to his Kansas roots and to the one person who might be able to save him, his tough, big-hearted Midwestern mother, nicknamed the Bird, whose fierce and steadfast love is the light in Zack's dark world. Before his odyssey is over, Zack will be tackled by guards in mental wards, run naked through cornfields, receive secret messages from the TV, befriend a former Navy Seal and his talking stuffed monkey, and see the Virgin Mary in the whorls of his own back hair. But with the Bird's help, he just might have a shot at pulling through, starting over, and maybe even meeting a partner who can love him back, bipolar and all. Introducing an electrifying new voice, Gorilla and the Bird is a raw and unforgettable account of a young man's unraveling and the relationship that saves him.




Bipolar II Disorder


Book Description

"Unlike its cousin, bipolar I disorder, which has been extensively studied and depicted in popular literature and on screen, bipolar II disorder is poorly understood, underdiagnosed, and insufficiently treated. Bipolar II Disorder: Recognition, Understanding, and Treatment is the only text on the market that examines every aspect of the disorder in an up-to-date, rigorous, and clinically oriented manner. The editors, experts on the diagnosis and treatment of this neglected illness, have gathered a group of contributors who together advance the reader's knowledge of the disease in a systematic, accessible way, identifying and addressing the challenges of diagnosis and treatment and exploring current thinking on the biological determinants of the disorder. Acknowledging potential pitfalls of differential diagnosis, the book examines psychiatric comorbidities that most typically co-occur with bipolar II, such as anxiety disorders, impulse-control disorders, and borderline personality disorder. Next, the book focuses on the growing body of evidence that suggests that the underlying biology of bipolar II is distinct from that of other mood disorders and discusses the increasingly important role that neuroimaging plays in the diagnosis and understanding of bipolar II disorder as research progresses. Finally, the text explores how to manage bipolar II disorder, providing an up-to-date review of medication options and psychosocial treatments."--




Rock Steady


Book Description

Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life is the eagerly awaited sequel/ companion book to Forney’s 2012 best-selling graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me. Whereas Marbles was a memoir about her bipolar disorder, Rock Steady turns the focus outward, offering a self-help survival guide of tips, tricks and tools by someone who has been through it all and come through stronger for it.




Mindfulness for Bipolar Disorder


Book Description

In Mindfulness for Bipolar Disorder, psychiatrist and neuroscientist William R. Marchand provides an innovative,breakthrough program based in neuroscience and mindfulness practices to help you find relief from your bipolar symptoms. If you have bipolar disorder, you may experience feelings of mania or high energy, followed by periods of depression and sadness. These unusual shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels can make it extremely difficult to carry out day-to-day tasks—and ultimately reach your goals. Finding balance may be a daily struggle, even if you are on medication or in therapy. So, what else can you do to start feeling better? Mindfulness—the act of present moment awareness—may be the missing puzzle piece in effectively treating your bipolar disorder. In the book, you will learn how to actively work through feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress in order to improve the quality of your life. Written by a prominent psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and mindfulness teacher who draws upon his research experience and personal mindfulness practice as a monk in the Soto Zen tradition, this book will provide you with the tools needed to get your symptoms under control. If you’ve sought treatment for bipolar disorder but are still struggling with symptoms, mindfulness may be the missing piece to solving the bipolar puzzle and taking back your life. This book will help you get started right away.




Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder


Book Description

Maintaining a relationship is hard enough without the added challenges of your partner’s bipolar disorder symptoms. Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder offers information and step-by-step advice for helping your partner manage mood swings and impulsive actions, allowing you to finally focus on enjoying your relationship while also taking time for yourself. This book explains the symptoms of your partner’s disorder and offers strategies for preventing them and responding to these symptoms when they do occur. This updated edition includes a new section about the medications your partner may be taking so that you can understand the side effects and help monitor his or her bipolar treatment. As a supportive partner, you deserve support yourself. This book will help you create a more balanced, fulfilling relationship. Improve your relationship by learning how to: • Identify your partner’s symptom triggers so you can prevent episodes • Improve communication by stopping irrational “bipolar conversations” • Handle your partner’s emotional ups and downs • Foster closeness and connection with your partner




Fluorinated Ionomers


Book Description

Introduction -- History -- Manufacture -- Properties -- Applications -- Fuel cells and batteries -- Commercial membrane types -- Economic aspects -- Experimental methods -- Heat sealing and repair -- Handling, storage and installation -- Toxicology, safety, and disposal -- Appendices.




The Bipolar Spectrum


Book Description

In the 1970s, author Joel Paris was one of the first doctors in his hospital to prescribe lithium to a psychiatric patient. In the wake of the drug’s success, both in that case and countless others, why this book? As Dr. Paris’ historical examination of bipolar diagnosis and critique of the spectrum demonstrates, medicine has often been prone to fads that are assumed correct until proven wrong by science. This book opens discussion about the overdiagnosis of bipolar disorder and the negative impact of this development on clinical care. Dr. Paris explores why patients are being classified as bipolar on dubious grounds and are being prescribed drugs they do not need. He explains the differences between bipolar disorder and depression without mania, personality disorders characterized by unstable mood, and impulsive disorders. A separate chapter discusses the unique issues present in the field of child psychiatry. Fads remain popular as long as they answer elusive and complex questions. Unfortunately, the bipolar spectrum being used to explain a wide variety of psychopathological phenomena has caused classic bipolar disorder to become almost lost in the shuffle. Combining research findings and personal experiences, Dr. Paris documents the damage of overdiagnosis and explores alternative treatments patients could benefit from.




European Monetary Union


Book Description

Paul J. J. Welfens European monetary union has been discussed for more than three decades and is likely to be realized in 1999. One may anticipate generous interpretations of the fiscal convergence criteria. Such generosity consistent with the Maastricht Treaty might impair the credibility of the ECB and the stability of the Euro, respectively, despite the fact that inflation is a monetary phenomenon and has little to do with government deficits, unless they were financed via the printing press, which is excluded in the Maastricht Treaty. The European Commission's forecast of spring 1997 suggests that Italy will have problems in joining the EMU starter group as the is expected to be 3. 2% in 1997 and even 3. 9% in 1998. A Italian deficitlGDP ratio fully developed EMU group (with all 15 cowltries included) would represent 38% of the OECD GDP, slightly higher than the U. S. with 33% (Japan 21%). The exports/GDP ratio of EU countries is 30%, the ratio with respect to exports outside the EU would be 10% (Japan, U. S. 8%). The share of the U. S. dollar in international currency reserves fell from 67% to 40% in 1995, while the share of European currencies increased from 13% to 37%. Prior to the EMU, market participants have to anticipate whether a transition to 1999 will bring windfall losses or gains in various bond markets.




Jouissance


Book Description

Although the term 'jouissance' is common currency in psychoanalysis today, how much does it really tell us? While often taken to designate a fusion of sexuality, suffering and satisfaction, the term has fallen into a purely descriptive use that closes down more questions than it opens up. Although assumed to explain the coalescence of pleasure and pain, it tends to cover a range of quite different issues that should be distinguished rather than conflated. By returning to some of the sources of the concept in Freud, and their elaborations in Lacan, this book hopes to stimulate a debate around the relations of pleasure to pain, autoerotism, the links of satisfaction to arousal, the effects of repression, and the place of the body in psychoanalytic theory. Leader aims to provide context for Lacan's work and encourage dialogue with other analytic traditions.