# Book List

Welcome to the r/bipolar Book List! We created this list using the responses from the community on "What is a good book for me to read about Bipolar Disorder." The list below describes the book (mostly what is on the book jacket) and a link to read or purchase. If there are any books you would like added to this list, please let the mods know.

## Self-Help

[Bipolar Basics - Dr. Tracy Marks](https://www.amazon.com/Bipolar-Basics-Unpacking-Understanding-Solutions/dp/1736650904)

Do you have bipolar disorder? Or has a friend or family member just been diagnosed? If you want to understand bipolar disorder better, want to help someone with BP, or just want to find out more, then this book is for you! Bipolar disorder is complex, and can easily be mistaken for other mental health conditions. This book will help you understand the signs and symptoms of bipolar disorder, how it affects you, and how it differs from other illnesses. It also contains information on the latest treatments—medication and non-medication. It also discusses aspects of living with bipolar disorder that are seldom openly discussed.

If you have bipolar disorder, this book will help you talk about your experiences, communicate better with your friends and family—and ask for help when you need it. Take control of bipolar disorder by gaining a deeper understanding of it and knowing what warning signs to look out for.

[Bipolar For Dummies - Candida Fink, Joe Kraynak](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/639231.Bipolar_Disorder_for_Dummies) Understand the realities of bipolar disorder When one receives the diagnosis that they or a loved one has bipolar disorder, it can be a time of fear and worry. Bipolar Disorder For Dummies, 3rd Edition explains the brain chemistry behind the disease and covers the latest medications and therapies. You'll get reassuring, sound advice and self-help techniques that you and your loved ones, including kids and teens, can use to ease and eliminate symptoms, function in times of crisis, plan ahead for manic or depressive episodes, and feel a whole lot better. This new edition will include new and updated content on genetics, biochemistry, and imaging studies relevant to bipolar, expanded coverage on how to handle the high costs of treatment, and supporting a loved one (who may not want help, medications and treatment options, including DSM-5, ECT, and TMS along with new coverage on special populations (how bipolar affects different groups, like women and various ethnic groups and special populations, like seniors and expectant moms.

Bipolar disorder, which has also been called manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual mood swings and shifting energy levels. The symptoms of bipolar disorder can, if not understood and handled properly, wreak havoc on personal and professional relationships. Though bipolar disorder is a serious condition, it's one that can be treated! With a firm understanding of what you're dealing with, you can navigate your way through the challenges of bipolar disorder, whether you or a loved one suffers from this illness.

Recognize the warning signs of mania and depression, which may point to bipolar disorder Understand where to find the latest treatment options Stay on track with personal and professional aspects of life Effectively and compassionately respond to rants, depression, mania, and other behaviors associated with bipolar disorder Bipolar Disorder For Dummies, 3rd Edition offers straightforward, reassuring information about bipolar disorder to help you or your loved one conquer the disease.

[Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy - Dr David Burns](https://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-David-D-Burns-audiobook/dp/B01N9TCVLD)

The good news is that anxiety, guilt, pessimism, procrastination, low self-esteem, and other 'black holes' of depression can be cured without drugs. In Feeling Good, eminent psychiatrist David D. Burns, M.D. outlines the remarkable, scientifically proven techniques that will immediately lift your spirits and help you develop a positive outlook on life.

Now, in this updated edition, Dr. Burns adds an all-new Consumer's Guide To Antidepressant Drugs, as well as a new introduction to help answer your questions about the many options available for treating depression.

* Recognise what causes your mood swings.
* Nip negative feelings in the bud.
* Deal with guilt.
* Handle hostility and criticism.
* Overcome addiction to love and approval.
* Build self-esteem.
* Feel good everyday.

[Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner - Julie A. Fast, John D. Preston](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/308956.Loving_Someone_with_Bipolar_Disorder)

Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder is a first of its kind book—written specifically for the partner of a person with bipolar disorder. If you have a loved one with bipolar, you know how disruptive and straining this disorder can be to your relationship. You may experience feelings of fear, loss, and anxiety as well as a constant uncertainly about your loved one's ever-changing moods.

This book is designed to help you overcome the unique challenges of loving someone with bipolar disorder. With the supportive and helpful information, strategies, and real-life examples contained here, you'll have all the tools you need to create a loving, healthy, and close relationship.

[Mastering Bipolar Disorder - Kerrie Eyers](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4511957-mastering-bipolar-disorder)

Gathered from sufferers young and old, these first-hand accounts of individuals with bipolar disorder are equally inspirational, informative, and amusing. They cover all aspects of the disorder, from first symptoms and diagnosis, to times when the disorder is more or less under control. They also emphasize the importance of personal strategies for handling the disorder, such as exercise and support networks alongside medication and professional assistance. Featuring tips from clinicians and the latest research, this is filled with tested and proven solutions for living a happy and healthy life.

[The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bipolar Disorder: Using DBT to Regain Control of Your Emotions and Your Life - Sheri Van Dijk, Zindel V. Segal(Foreword)](https://www.amazon.com/Dialectical-Behavior-Therapy-Workbook-Disorder/dp/1572246286)

Even if you've just been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, it's likely that you've been living with it for a long time. You've probably already developed your own ways of coping with recurring depression, the consequences of manic episodes, and the constant, uncomfortable feeling that you're at the mercy of your emotions. Some of these methods may work; others might do more harm than good. The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bipolar Disorder will help you integrate your coping skills with a new and effective dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) plan for living well with bipolar disorder.

The four DBT skills you'll learn in this workbook-mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness-will help you manage your emotional ups and downs and minimize the frequency and intensity of depressive and manic episodes. By using this book in conjunction with medication and professional care, you'll soon experience relief from your bipolar symptoms and come to enjoy the calm and confident feeling of being in control.

* Learn mindfulness and acceptance skills
* Cope with depressive and manic episodes in healthy ways
* Manage difficult emotions and impulsive urges
* Maintain relationships with friends and family members

[The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide - David J. Miklowitz](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62795536-the-bipolar-disorder-survival-guide-third-edition)

Bipolar disorder is a lifelong challenge—but it doesn't have to rule your life. Find the science-based information you need in the revised third edition of this indispensable guide. Trusted authority Dr. David J. Miklowitz shares proven strategies for managing your illness or supporting a loved one with the disorder. Learn specific steps to cope with mood episodes, reduce recurrences, avoid misdiagnosis, get the most out of treatment, resolve family conflicts, and make lifestyle changes to stay well. Updated throughout, the third edition has a new chapter on kids and teens; the latest facts on medications and therapy, including important advances in personalized care; and expanded coverage of the bipolar II subtype. It features boxes on complementary and alternative treatments and provides downloadable practical tools.

[Two Bipolar Chicks Guide To Survival: Tips for Living with Bipolar Disorder - Wendy K. Williamson, Honora Rose](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21562653-two-bipolar-chicks-guide-to-survival)

From the "Two Bipolar Chicks", Wendy K. Williamson and Honora Rose, comes this survival guide disguised as a low-key, how to manual. From their wellness vaults, they compiled three decades worth of tips for you. Filled with insightful anecdotes and personal viewpoints – which can differ – Wendy and Honora steer you through the swamps of bipolar disorder and teach you how to dodge the alligators.

[Welcome to the Jungle: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bipolar but Were Too Freaked Out to Ask - Hilary T. Smith](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7543670-welcome-to-the-jungle)

Bipolar is one of the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric conditions among teens and twentysomethingsyet there are very few books out there written specifically for young people experiencing mental illness for the first time.

Welcome to the Jungle (Conari Press, May 2010) fills that gap with its upfront, empowering approach to the challenges of being diagnosed with bipolar. Both humorous and immensely honest, it offers a true "in the trenches" perspective young readers will trust.

[Why Am I Still Depressed? Recognizing and Managing the Ups and Downs of Bipolar II and Soft Bipolar Disorder - James Phelps](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/295732.Why_Am_I_Still_Depressed_Recognizing_and_Managing_the_Ups_and_Downs_of_Bipolar_II_and_Soft_Bipolar_Disorder)

If your depression keeps coming back or is even getting worse, then you may be suffering from bipolar II or 'soft' bipolar disorder. This text shows you how to identify if you have a nonmanic form of bipolar disorder and how to work with your doctor to safely and effectively treat it.

## Non-Fiction

[An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness - Kay Redfield Jameson](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/361459.An_Unquiet_Mind)

The personal memoir of a manic depressive and an authority on the subject describes the onset of the illness during her teenage years and her determined journey through the realm of available treatments.

[A Beginner's Guide To Losing Your Mind - Emily Reynolds](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32470601-a-beginner-s-guide-to-losing-your-mind)

Your twenties can be isolating, infuriating and painful―but how do you stay healthy and realistic when you're also dealing with depression, mania, or anxiety? Emily Reynolds's A Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind explores the unique challenges, including:

* How to deal with pressure at school and college
* Tips for dating when you are mentally ill (and what to expect when you're on the other side)
* Handling self-harm and suicidal thoughts
* Advice for your family and friends
* Learning how to navigate the internet and the online community
* Advice on diagnosis, treatment, and maintaining your mental health

A blackly funny, deeply compassionate, and extremely practical book, A Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind is all at once the author's personal account of what it's like to live with mental illness, a guide to dealing with and understanding it, and a companion to make the journey feel a little less lonely.

[Befriending Bipolar: A patient's perspective - Oliver Seligman](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58640225-befriending-bipolar)

What is it like to be overtaken by mental illness and completely lose yourself in madness? With staggering insight and brutal honesty, Oliver Seligman describes what insanity is like from the inside.

Diagnosed with type one bipolar at seventeen. Oliver has battled with euphoric manias, suicidal depressions, bewildering psychoses and the side effects of psychiatric medication.

In this enlightening book, he writes about how he found peace with an illness that destroys lives and sometimes ends them. Sharing what worked and what didn't work for him, as well as the mistakes he made and the traps he fell into. If you want to learn more about bipolar or depression from someone who has experienced it, this book is for you.

Oliver Seligman is a monk, author and inspirational speaker. He has spent twenty years travelling the world, helping people to find peace through meditation. In doing so, he has developed insight into the workings of the mind and what makes us happy or unhappy.

[Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running from Madness - Suzy Favor Hamilton](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23315840-fast-girl)

The former middle distance Olympic runner and high-end escort speaks out for the first time about her battle with mental illness, and how mania controlled and compelled her in competition, but also in life. This is a heartbreakingly honest yet hopeful memoir reminiscent of Manic, Electroboy, and An Unquiet Mind.

[Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68783.Girl_Interrupted)

In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous clientele--Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles--as for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary.

Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching documnet that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.

[I'm Not Crazy Just Bipolar: A Memoir - Wendy K. Williamson](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10785008-i-m-not-crazy-just-bipolar)

Just as a photographer might shoot a photo through a colored lens, Wendy Williamson skillfully holds up the filter of mania and depression for her reader to peer through. With heart-wrenching honesty and humor, she shows the effects of bipolar disorder on the mind, body and soul of those who suffer from it. Despite Wendy's struggles, this is a not a book that brings the reader down, rather a road map for wellness and a vastly informative, yet entertaining, guided tour of bipolar disorder for those who don't understand it. With her perceptive self-awareness, the author is equal parts comedienne and educator, and she tells the unbelievable highs and lows of her story with a clear, grounded candor.

[Madness: A Bipolar Life - Marya Hornbacker](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2177563.Madness)

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.

[Manic: A Memoir - Terry Cheney](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2359423.Manic)

In the tradition of Darkness Visible and An Unquiet Mind, Manic is Girl, Interrupted with the girl all grown up. This harrowing yet hopeful book is more than just a searing insider's account of what it's really like to live with bipolar disorder. It is a testament to the sharp beauty of a life lived in extremes.

[Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me - Ellen Forney](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13542990-marbles)

Cartoonist Ellen Forney explores the relationship between "crazy" and "creative" in this graphic memoir of her bipolar disorder, woven with stories of famous bipolar artists and writers.

Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic and terrified that medications would cause her to lose creativity, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability while retaining her passions and creativity.

Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the crazy artist, she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. She also researches the clinical aspects of bipolar disorder, including the strengths and limitations of various treatments and medications, and what studies tell us about the conundrum of attempting to "cure" an otherwise brilliant mind.

Darkly funny and intensely personal, Forney's memoir provides a visceral glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on an artist's work, as she shares her own story through bold black-and-white images and evocative prose.

[The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness - Elyn R. Saks](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1098486.The_Center_Cannot_Hold)

Elyn R. Saks is an esteemed professor, lawyer, and psychiatrist and is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Law School, yet she has suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life, and still has ongoing major episodes of the illness. The Center Cannot Hold is the eloquent, moving story of Elyn's life, from the first time that she heard voices speaking to her as a young teenager, to attempted suicides in college, through learning to live on her own as an adult in an often terrifying world. Saks discusses frankly the paranoia, the inability to tell imaginary fears from real ones, the voices in her head telling her to kill herself (and to harm others); as well the incredibly difficult obstacles she overcame to become a highly respected professional. This beautifully written memoir is destined to become a classic in its genre.

The title is a line from "The Second Coming," a poem by William Butler Yeats, which is alluded to in the book.

[Tristimania: A Diary of Manic Depression - Jay Griffiths](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27037159-tristimania)

Tristimania is a stark and lyrical account of the psyche in crisis. It tells the story of a devastating year-long episode of manic depression, culminating in a long solo pilgrimage across Spain. The book is rare in recording the experience of mania and shows how the condition is at once terrifying and also profoundly creative, both tricking and treating the psyche. In exploring its literary influence, Griffiths looks at Shakespeare's work, and examines the Trickster role, tracing its mercuriality through the character of Mercury. An intimate, raw journey, the book illuminates something of the universal human spirit.

[Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4961048-wishful-drinking)

In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher tells the true and intoxicating story of her life with inimitable wit. Born to celebrity parents, she was picked to play a princess in a little movie called Star Wars when only 19 years old. "But it isn't all sweetness and light sabres." Alas, aside from a demanding career and her role as a single mother (not to mention the hyperspace hairdo), Carrie also spends her free time battling addiction, weathering the wild ride of manic depression and lounging around various mental institutions. It's an incredible tale—from having Elizabeth Taylor as a stepmother, to marrying (and divorcing) Paul Simon, from having the father of her daughter leave her for a man, to ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.

## Fiction

[I Never Promised You A Rose Garden Hannah Green, Joanne Greenberg](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45220.I_Never_Promised_You_a_Rose_Garden)

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is the story of a sixteen-year-old who retreats from reality into the bondage of a lushly imagined but threatening kingdom, and her slow and painful journey back to sanity.

Chronicles the three-year battle of a mentally ill, but perceptive, teenage girl against a world of her own creation, emphasizing her relationship with the doctor who gave her the ammunition of self-understanding with which to help herself.

"I wrote this novel, which is a fictionalized autobiography, to give a picture of what being schizophrenic feels like and what can be accomplished with a trusting relationship between a gifted therapist and a willing patient. It is not a case history or study. I like to think it is a hymn to reality." —Joanne Greenberg

[Hurry Down Sunshine - Michael Greenberg](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3150936-hurry-down-sunshine)

Hurry Down Sunshine tells the story of the extraordinary summer when, at the age of fifteen, Michael Greenberg's daughter was struck mad. It begins with Sally's visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places, in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city's most sweltering months. "I feel like I'm traveling and traveling with nowhere to go back to," Sally says in a burst of lucidity while hurtling away toward some place her father could not dream of or imagine. Hurry Down Sunshine is the chronicle of that journey, and its effect on Sally and those closest to her–her brother and grandmother, her mother and stepmother, and, not least of all, the author himself. Among Greenberg's unforgettable gallery of characters are an unconventional psychiatrist, an Orthodox Jewish patient, a manic Classics professor, a movie producer, and a landlord with literary dreams. Unsentimental, nuanced, and deeply humane, Hurry Down Sunshine holds the reader in a mesmerizing state of suspension between the mundane and the transcendent.

[The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13539044-the-silver-linings-playbook)

Meet Pat. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending for him — the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. (It might not come as a surprise to learn that Pat has spent time in a mental health facility.) The problem is, Pat's now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; he's being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. Plus, he's being hunted by Kenny G!

In this enchanting novel, Matthew Quick takes us inside Pat's mind, showing us the world from his distorted yet endearing perspective.

[Too Bright to Hear, Too Loud to See - Juliann Garey](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13573378-too-bright-to-hear-too-loud-to-see)

In her tour-de-force first novel, Juliann Garey takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd—a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter for a decade to travel the world, giving free rein to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost 20 years. The novel intricately weaves together three timelines: the story of Greyson's travels (Rome, Israel, Santiago, Thailand, Uganda); the progressive unraveling of his own father seen through Greyson's childhood eyes; and the intricacies and estrangements of his marriage. The entire narrative unfolds in the time it takes him undergo twelve 30-second electroshock treatments in a New York psychiatric ward.

## For children

[My Mommy has Bipolar Disorder - Amber DeBono Ph.D.](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59442962-my-mommy-has-bipolar-disorder)

Reading "My Mommy has Bipolar Disorder" to your children will help them better understand a Bipolar diagnosis. Written and illustrated by Dr. Amber DeBono, an associate professor of psychology, "My Mommy has Bipolar Disorder" explains some of the common symptoms of Bipolar Disorder without stigma and in a way that will be easy for children to understand. In this book, you will meet Sally and her mom, Mrs. Thompson, who has Bipolar Disorder. Sally and her mother explain some of Mrs. Thompson's symptoms for Show and Tell. Sally's class learns that some of Mrs. Thompson's unusual behaviors were merely symptoms of her Bipolar Disorder. Sally's teacher, Mrs. Wheeler, is grateful that Sally brought her mom in for Show and Tell because it is Mental Health Awareness Month.

[Up and Down Mom - Summer Macon](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51805352-up-and-down-mom)

Living with Mom is a bit like a roller coaster ride. At times, she is excited and full of energy, but at others, she is tired and withdrawn. But she's always my mom, and we're sharing the ride. For children who grow up in the care of a parent who has bipolar disorder, life can be filled with anxiety and uncertainty. With the aid of a clear and simple information spread, this story helps us to understand the causes of bipolar disorder and how we can learn to live with someone who has it. Developed in close consultation with families who have a parent with bipolar disorder, and created in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust.