Sunday, April 20, 2008

#13 MADNESS by Marya Hornbacher


Number of Book #13
Date Began and Finished 2/29- 3/6 2008
Genre - Memoir
Year It Was Published - April 9 2008
Publisher - Houghton Mifflin
Number of Pages 320
Hardcover
Reason for reading: Review for Curled Up
Rating 4/5 stars

Blurb or Synopsis: MADNESS was the memoir of a woman suffering from bipolar disorder, and the journey she took to get to where she is today. A very candid and blunt view of a typical life of person afflicted with bipolar I, the more severe of the two forms of bipolar disorder. Symptoms include weight issues, runaway money issues and spending sprees, memory losses, manic highs and depressive lows, and mixed episodes which can lead to suicide. Other symptoms include various forms of self-mutilation, excesses with alcohol, drugs, and sex. Marya Hornbacher had all these symptoms, and more, but was not diagnosed until much later in life.

Marya Hornbacher is a gifted writer, as evidenced by this book. What is remarkable about her is her courage, and the strength she had to write down her experiences and make her condition known to all. She tried to hide her disorder through most of her life, "pretending" to be normal and to now acknowledge her problems, so that she never really dealt with her problems for a very long time. But her candid observations on her life and how she went from one phase of her disorder to another is what i think helped her in the long run. Despite long periods of memory loss, where she doesn't' even remember what happened during those periods, she was able to write down the many different episodes and events that marked her disorder, and finally acknowledge the fact that she is indeed "not normal", and that she needed help. I truly appreciated Hornbacher's candid writing, and applaud her bravery in divulging what she has gone through for most of her life.

MADNESS is a book that I think is an eyeopener to those who know nothing about bipolar disorder, and at the same time can be used as a "guide" to those who live with or have family that are afflicted with bipolar disorder. It certainly has helped me understand some of my friends who are afflicted with it. MADNESS should be a "must read" for all who are dealing with bipolar disorder and those who have loved ones who are living with it.

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