Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder: A 4-Step Plan for You and Your Loved Ones to Manage the Illness and Create Lasting Stability

This is an insightful reference book. It will give a better understanding to the person who has it and to someone who shares space with that person. Winston Churchill was BiPolar!

I’ve really enjoyed this book. I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder 20 years ago, but I was never given enough resources to help really deal with it. I “researched” the illness on line and thought I knew a lot about it. This book proved me wrong by showing me how much I didn’t know. This is easy to read and I read it in 2 days (I do love to read, so if it’s a good book this is normal for me). I liked how it broke things down into easy to understand categories. Like the fact there’s more to the illness than just mania and depression. There’s anxiety, irritability, over stimulation, etc. For someone looking to not only understand the illness, but to find ways of coping that weren’t just meds, this book was an eye opener. Yes, this book does cover information on medications. Having been on several that have been ineffective, I actually found this section eye opening as well. I always thought meds just didn’t work, but this book talks about the different types of medication and explains how each type works differently and why it can be difficult to find the right ones. This book also covers other options and therapies for bipolar disorder (like acupuncture, which is part of my treatment regimen). I like how this book incorporates all different types of treatment. I fully agree with the entire body/mind/lifestyle needing to be treated and not just one part of it. It wasn’t long before I started underlining passages in the book and making notes in the margins. There was a lot of useful information in every chapter, not just for me, but for my family and friends. Several of my notes were to my family and friends who are now reading the book. A way for me to point out to them “this is me. ..This is how I feel.” In fact, as my mother was reading it we were discussing work and she said “That’s a bipolar conversation!” I originally got this book as a eBook for me and then bought the paper copy for my family and friends to share (and to use for printing the work pages). The eBook was perfectly readable and I like having this book on hand at all times, but there are uses for the paper copy (such as sharing with your support team). And highlighting and making notes in an eBook are possible, but slightly more cumbersome for me personally. I would highly recommend this book to people as a resource for finding a way to manage Bipolar Disorder in their lives.

Must read for the understanding of bipolar. Prepares you to deal with the disorder very well.

I would recommend this book for anyone with bipolar. This is a great book to educate your family about bipolar disorder.

I am really am learning a lot from Julie Fast and John Preston's book. "Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder". I was diagnosed about 5 years ago. It certainly didn't come as a surprise. In fact, it made sense to me. I have always had a very intense personality. I loved deeply and cried intensely. I was always at one extreme or another. My grandmother, mother and many cousins had mental illness challenges. This book allows me to understand myself better. It puts my distorted thinking into a more clear way of looking at my world. I am feeling so much better about myself as I read each chapter. I finally have a plan to follow to help myself heal. Almost everything that is typical of a person with bipolar, I have lived through--financial problems, drug addiction and at 58 I have never had a job more than five years. Thank you for this very helpful and easy to understand and implement the positive ideas in this book. My award-winning "Confessions of a Southern Baby Boomer" details some of my wild experiences!!! Thanks again and Bless Your Heart, Meg Henderson Wade