Book Description
In 1987, Judy Eron married a brilliant man. Her husband, Jim, was bipolar but remained stable until a vacation the couple took in June 1996, when he forgot to bring his prescribed lithium and quickly launched into a year-long manic phase. His mania culminated, inevitably, in severe depression that led to his suicide in October 1997. During those confusing and frightening months, Jim became a stranger to Judy. Even she, a mental health counselor, and he, a psychologist, could not prevent Jim's downward spiral, although as she now knows, there were many "wrong" choices that Judy could have avoided making. During Jim's prolonged manic phase, Judy was unable to find any literature focused on the manic element of bipolar disorder. After his death, she set out to write the kind of book she had sought. What Goes Up... is more than just Judy's story of loving and living with someone in the manic phase. Drawing on her experience as a mental health counselor, Eron offers advice and coping strategies for readers with loved ones or friends who also suffer from this illness. She provides advice on what they should expect from someone in the midst of a manic episode, how to engage with that person, how to get help for that person, and how to maintain their own sanity and strength in the face of such unpredictable and intense behavior. Book jacket.
