Help! I'm Bipolar

This is not a memoir or a book by a psychiatrist. This is not about specific medications and which does what. This is a real, gritty, sometimes ugly guide to bipolar disorder from what to do when you're diagnosed to how to manage the condition long term. The author has had bipolar I from her early teens but was only diagnosed at age 32. She has now been in therapy and on medication for over a decade and shares what she has learned from how to find the right psychiatrist to why she believes you need a separate therapist to how she manages her medications so she (mostly) doesn't miss any doses. She provides options for handling this not inexpensive condition. She shares the best strategies for avoiding hospitalization, something she has done for thirty years. She talks about her limited yet extensive personal experience with suicide not only from considering taking her own life but also from picking up the pieces after someone else's attempt. She addresses questions she has received from readers. Most importantly, she teaches you how to run your life so the illness doesn't control you. Where appropriate, results from actual psychiatric studies are cited, and references are provided. Kristi is currently, though not always, "high-functioning". "What Bipolar Feels Like" is included in this book. A Note From the Author: I took four or five years to finish this book. At one point, I had to set it aside for almost a year because every time I would get about half of a page written, I would have a breakdown or a breakthrough, ending in a hot mess. I could not have finished the book without the inspiration of Augusten Burroughs, who taught me honesty and to write the book that needs to be written without regard for what anyone else thinks. I hold the evidence in emails and posts from other bipolar patients who had asked for it.