157 of 169 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I'd have given it no stars, but Amazon won't let me., April 25, 2006
This review is from: The Bipolar Advantage (Paperback)
Having enjoyed the "bipolar advantage" for more than 25 years now, I'm always looking for a positive slant on this nasty, destructive, incurable condition. Unfortunately, it is not to be found in this worthless book.
I've read a lot of self-help over the years, and this is the worst yet. Tom Wootton seems to have a very idiosyncratic form of manic-depression, to use the older, less euphemistic term. Apart from anything else, he seems to think you can use the "advantages" of mania - accelerated thoughts, boundless energy, wild imagination - by switching it on and off like electricity. Anyone who is really living with it will know it doesn't work like that.
For instance, he says mania will make you a great brainstormer. Possibly, but only if you happen to be brainstorming in the brief moment between the sudden onset of all that energy and the arrival of a man in a white coat with a syringe full of something to knock you out.
I suspect that what Wootton really suffers from is rampant egomania. At one point, he tells us he is so good at sex - and he's very interested in sex - that he can render his lovers (victims?) unconscious. Then there is his fascinating resum?: "prostitute, drug dealer, factory worker, traveling waiter, health club manager, corporate vice president, male stripper, truck driver, monk, teacher, public speaker, trade show hawker, car salesman, body builder, computer programmer, realtor, creative director, tech guru, porn star, this list goes on and on".
And so does he...
Those of us whose aspirations run more towards a normal career and a happy family life would do better to look elsewhere for guidance. The only thing I agreed with in 195 pages of drivel is the value of meditation, and his account of it is so sketchy and bizarre as to be seriously misleading.
At the end, he tells us that he wrote most of the book in six days. I'm surprised it took him so long.
On a more positive note, the best book I have read on the subject is Overcoming Mood Swings by Jan Scott. It's a self-help book based on cognitive behavioural therapy, and it will help you manage your condition rather than engaging in fruitless and extravagant fantasising about it.
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41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gutsy but Too Brief, March 27, 2006
This review is from: The Bipolar Advantage (Paperback)
While this book does offer some unique insight into the galaxy of activities and emotions of bipolar people such as myself, it seemed more of a rough outline than a fully fleshed approach to coping with this spasmodic condition of the mind. The author does offer his own life as a revelation to both those diagnosed with, living with, and wondering about this condition. He begins to offer real glimmers of information about how creativity, sex, drugs, verbal abuse, and work are entertwined with bipolar behaviors and lifestyles; the importance of learning coping skills, adapting a healthy weight and exercise program, and getting and listening to a psychiatrist, doing your own research and asking questions about medications, and finding a counselor you can trust and be honest with. Wootton talks about the importance of finding a spiritual path, meditation, setting goals and prioritizing, and gives very helpful, specific activities and descriptions of what all of these suggestions feel like when they're working for you. I've read a lot of books on bipolar "disorder" written by doctors, researchers, other bipolars, and laypeople, and this is one of the most directly useful articulations of how this feels, what it looks like, and what can be accomplished with self awareness, education, introspection, and a non-judgemental attitude towards oneself and others. I would give a higher rating, but just felt the book was too superficial in too many places - I wanted Mr. Wootton to stop skimming over information because it really verges on being spectacular. There is a lot more that could have been said, for example, to explain creativity, passion vs. skill, and how to see to it that our infinite ideas materialize. This is one of the crucial dilemmas of my life. I felt really excited when I read many portions of this book as it was the first time I knew that someone was onto the same threads of thought I have been on and had actually been able to coalesce these thoughts into action. He could have written a book on almost every chapter heading! The point, I suppose, is that he was able to write this book at all, write well, and offer so much of himself to scrutiny.
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40 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Bipolar Advantaqge, May 15, 2006
This review is from: The Bipolar Advantage (Paperback)
I wanted to like this book, ordering it because it had many good reviews. It seemed Tom was manic most of the time in the book and was blessed with taking only lithium. Unfortunately, there are many bipolars who have depression as their dominant mood and have to take 3 psychotropic drugs.If this were Tom's experience, he would have more realistic view of the disease and his advise would be more useful to me.
He is not expert about the disorder and along with spotty research, the book is mainly his ego trip.
I read some and skimmed some but became bored with the book- mostly because I was weary of his bragging and ranting . Save your money and read the intelligent books by Kate Jamison- a bipolar who knows how to write well.
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