I am a big reader and this was the book where I first considered I might be bipolar. There isn’t an explicit ‘bipolar’ diagnosis, but the chapters are divided into ‘Good Days’ and ‘Bad Days’ and without giving away too much of the plot, the character spends a lot of time doing things associated with hypomania. I love the book so much and I wish it was talked about more.

If you haven’t read it (please do!), then was there a book/film/tv moment that made you think ‘oh that’s like me!’? I would say there were loads when I was first experiencing depression but Eleanor is the only one I’ve really seen that comes close to my state of mind in both mania and depression.

I should say I don’t read a book then self-diagnose against the character’s illnesses! I just mean it was the first time I had considered my ‘good days’ as something that could be seen as mania, which lead me back to my doctor. Turns out my intuition was right and I was called a ‘classic case of Bipolar 2’- but I think if I hadn’t seen a pattern of behaviour in this book I wouldn’t have mentioned my symptoms to the doctor.