Reviews for Madness: A Bipolar Life

The average rating for Madness: A Bipolar Life based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-05-29 00:00:00 James Sarkis Hornbacher's _Wasted_ is probably the most perceptive book ever written on eating disorders, so I went ahead and bought the hardback of this "sequel" in which she describes her diagnosis and subsequent grappling with bi-polar depression. Unfortunately, while the book might be a photo-finish accurate portrayal of what it's like to be bi-polar, the problem with the book is that it's a photo-finish accurate portrayal of what it's like to be bi-polar. The first 50 pages are a series of vignettes of Hornbacher swinging from manic grandiosity to despair, with plenty of binging and purging, drug use, compulsive sexual behavior, and alcoholism thrown in for good measure. The remaining pages chronicle a series of hospitalizations -- and it sounds like her adult life has been pretty much one round of hospitalization after another -- and the series of poor choices Hornbacher unfailingly made to keep from ever stabilizing. Drinking copious amounts, refusing sleep and food for days at a time, drug use, switching doctors, deciding to go off medicines -- if there was anything she could do to interfere with her recovery, she did it. The result is that while she writes the book KNOWING that she made poor choices, she doesn't appear to have any long view on why she kept doing these things. The last four pages are a deeply unconvincing "well, now I stay sober and I do a lot of yoga, so I'm doing better now." But it's also clear that the damage of years of treatment non-compliance has already been done. Unlike _Wasted_, this book has no insights into how mental illness might fit into the larger culture, nor any insights into how common narratives of the disease get it wrong. Instead, it just provides a grim view of one mother-fucker of a mental illness.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-04-10 00:00:00 Benny Ouzys i have to say, she totally won me over. it was amazing because i wasn't sure if Marya Hornbacher could do it, but she redeemed herself by being more honest and upfront and REAL about her illness and willingness to get better than she was in Wasted, and more than Elizabeth Wurtzel ever, ever did. this is best example of mania i have ever read. it is so true to life, and so true to form. it's really impressive how much insight she has into her illness when she lacked so much before - but it's like the eating disorder was just a cover for the bipolarity, and once she got the "true" diagnosis, she was able to kind of figure things out. but she doesn't take the easy way out. she admits the mistakes she makes, she says that she does things she doesn't understand herself. it's so true - when you are manic/depressed, there often isn't any rationality to your behavior - or at least any that you can see at the time. it's amazing how honest she is with herself. she admits her mistakes, she knows when she is screwed up - she doesn't blame the fact that she doesn't listen to her doctors on anyone other than herself. i'll probably write a more glowing review later, but this really is one of the most incredible books that actually grasps mental illness and what it's like without blaming anyone at all. and unlike the end of Wasted, i really believe that she wants to get better, and that she knows what she is facing. i love her for this book, i really do.