Dr Kay Redfield Jamison is one of the world’s greatest authorities on mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder, which was previously called manic-depressive illness or manic depression, and she is a tenured professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, after holding a similar position at UCLA, and an Honorary Professor of English at the University of St Andrews. She is a highly gifted writer who has published several superb books; I can recommend "Exuberance: The Passion for Life", "Nothing Was the Same: A Memoir", and "Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament." As if this wasn’t enough, there are two other things that make Dr Jamison even more remarkable: she is a clinical psychologist, not a psychiatrist, which is unusual in a medical school department, especially one with the reputation of Johns Hopkins, and she has suffered with bipolar disorder since she was a teenager.

In "An Unquiet Mind," Dr Jamison describes her own difficulties as a sufferer of severe bipolar I (manic depressive) disorder and how she fought taking lithium for years before finally accepting that this highly effective medicine would provide her with the inner peace that she was long searching for, and how she somehow managed to be a highly effective clinician, and one who brought her own knowledge of the disorder to the table and allowed the trainees who worked under her to provide the best care for the patients who were treated at Hopkins, while conducting research and writing prolifically.

In addition to being a highly interesting story "An Unquiet Mind" is a page turner that I found nearly impossible to put down. I read it for the first time shortly after it was published in 1995, during my last year or two of medical school, and I knew that I would reread it again someday. I had no idea that I would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder this year, so it was an easy decision to borrow it from my local library system. It was just as good the second time around, and I’m certain that I’ll be reading more of Dr Jamison’s books in the coming months. ( )

"It is, after all, not just an illness, but something that affects every aspect of my life; my moods, my temperament, my work, and my reactions to almost everything that comes my way. not talking about manic-depressive illness, if only to discuss it once, generally consigns a friendship to a certain inevitable level of superficiality."

My therapists are inconsistent as to whether or not they diagnose me manic-depressive/bi-polar or simply clinically depressed, but I find most of Jamison’s story to be profoundly familiar. ( )

Intense and personal--the story of manic depression and how one person lived through it. Very sad, to see how people live with this illness. I kind of don't understand why she was not interested in taking her lithium like she was supposed to, especially with all that background she had dealing with mental illness. Amazing what our brain chemicals can do to us. ( )

it wasn't like, the most amazing memoir I've ever read, but it was really interesting. It got a little repetitive and I feel like I got the gist of it once I was halfway through. ( )

Years ago my mother took me to a series of talks at The U of Penn -- about depression and connected maladies. I heard Bill Styron talk about his terrifying bout with depression (about which he wrote in Darkness Visible) and also Kay Redfield Jamison whose book, An Unquiet Mind had just recently come out. Previous to this, Jamison, a clinical psychologist, had kept her own bipolar illness to herself and where necessary, friends and colleagues. (She prefers the term manic-depressive as more accurately descriptive.) The thumbnail takeaways are 1) If you are bipolar and lithium works for you, TAKE IT faithfully. 2) ALSO don't neglect to have a good therapist and psychiatrist who know your story 3) forgive yourself for the bad times and move on. 4) be open to loving and being loved. Jamison explores one of the key bipolar dilemmas--a terrifying number of those who have been diagnosed, who have had horrendous and repeated episodes of mania and depression, refuse to take lithium or quit, again and again once they feel better. The reasons are mainly cultural and she explores those. She also describes the allure and the terror of mania and the combined terror and utter tedium of depression, the former (the allure part) of which also made taking lithium regularly difficult to bear. We all know people who are bipolar, as it is surprisingly common, still kept hidden by individuals and families more afraid of the disruption of others knowing than of the private suffering, and so very very much the hidden cause behind many suicides and destroyed relationships. Jamison has devoted herself to bringing this topic into the open and to taking the cultural onus from being a sufferer down a few pegs. With time and experience too, she has been able to reduce her dose of lithium to one where her mind works more quickly, although she has had to work at staying on an even keel. (This took decades and dedication.)
Brava! ***** ( )