Customer Reviews

Bipolar II: Enhance Your Highs, Boost Your Creativity, and Escape the Cycles of Recurrent Depression--The Essential Guide to Recognize and Treat the Mood Swings of This Increasingly Common Disorder

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book with great expectations based on the review. His observations are based on his practice with Bipolar II patients, but I don't know how applicable they are to current thoughts of Bipolar II based on my other readings.

He spends the first 30 pages or so telling you all about how he was the first person to coin this phrase, discover this condition, use this medicine, etc. He spends the next 100 pages or so talking about all the high-rollers in New York City that are his patients and how their periods of hypomania are beneficial to them. I guess he counts the mass accumulation of material goods as "beneficial." He finishes the book describing approaches to medical therapy that are really nothing new.

I finished the book with this image of a typical patient with Bipolar II being benefited by the illness, with little short pesky interludes of depression, which if I didn't know any better would lead me to think that it doesn't need to be treated.

I felt more mislead than educated.

I found the book to be not very useful. Mainly I saw very little in the discussion of hypomania that sounded familiar - instead of anxiety, irritability, and anger, I found the typical bipolar I symptoms, including euphoria. This may reflect that the field still groups many different illnesses under the term "bipolar II". There's a little bit of ancillary information I may be able to use, but overall I'm disappointed.

If one is trying to educate, one should use the proper terminology. Bipolar II. (TWO) It's like the author just kept taking examples from cases of patients with Bipolar I or other mood disorders and throwing them into the same basket. BiPolar II is VERY different than other mood disorders and this book did nothing but confuse this recently diagnosed BP II patient. I threw my copy away in the trash.

Too many books on bipolar disorder focus heavily on bipolar I and mention bipolar II symptoms almost as an afterthought. Dr. Fieve has finally written a book that focuses on bipolar II. I was initially skeptical of the book because the subtitle implied that Dr. Fieve would focus on how to make the most of hypomania. However, this is misleading. Fieve emphasizes that, for most patients, the illness must be treated with medication often simultaneously with some form of therapy.

I read several of the other reviewers who felt Fieve recommended otherwise, but that is not how I interpreted the book. There are entire chapters on the importance of being properly diagnosed and finding the right medication and therapy. Only one chapter focuses on what Fieve calls bipolar IIB in which some patients opted not to receive treatment and managed successfully without it.

My only concern with the book is that Fieve emphasizes that many of his bipolar II patients are highly successful businesspeople or artists -- the movers and shakers of Manhattan. I am afraid that many with bipolar II will not see themselves falling into that category. I certainly don't.

What I did like about the book was Fieve's writing style. He addresses some complicated topics such as brain functioning and medication in a way that's easy to read and understand, and never did I feel that he was talking down to the reader.

Not a substitute for seeing your local shrink but a huge help to get someone with Bipolar illness focused til the meds kick in.

I agree with a few other reviewers who stated that one, the author makes hypomnania sound benefical, which is a very small percentage of Bipolar II people, and two does not clearly express the real differences between bipolar I and II. Hypomania is very different from mania and there are different types of hypomania and the bizarre behaviors he describes as hypomania are manic behaviors not hypomanic behaviors. This Doctor is an egocentrical jerk and is clueless about how real Bipolar II people experience the illness. A real diservice to those of us with this illness because I would hate to be judged by the inaccuries of his book.

This book is rare: you won't find many so in depth concerning Bipolar II. Many people don't even have any idea that this different form exists outside Bipolar I! It has been an amazing eye-opener and has helped me become more comfortable, as well as a teaching tool for the rest of my family. There is a great "stay well" section which I think could benefit anyone with this "increasingly common disorder". My psychiatrist is even going to recommend it to other patients, after I brought it into his office. In my opinion, a very reputable source of information!

I felt as if I was reading science fiction. The doctor seems incapable of understanding or addressing in any real or practical way the confusion and anguish that this disorder can unleash on a family. He states often that an accurate diagnosis is crucial (I'll say), but also seems to be under the impression that any psychiatrist is capable of making that crucial diagnosis (they're not). On the whole, I would say that while there are some useful tidbits about medications and biochemistry scattered throughout, this book should not be taken too seriously by either a bipolar ll patient or the parents of one.

gee, why is it that this book has 4 & 5 star reviews, and 1 and 2 star reviews, but no 3 star reviews? Could it be that everyone writing a review is either MANIC or DEPRESSED?!?

I really liked this book. One reason is that it's one of the few books that's honestly given me cause for optimism - I can be my old, confident, hyperactive self again, at least sometimes. I don't have to mope around and play video games for the rest of my life or sit on a park bench with a bottle in a paper bag going, 'I coulda been a contenda!'.

It also gave me an understanding of what it was all about - it's actually a mixture of monopolar and bipolar, and, like homosexuality, you can be anywhere from 0% to 100% bipolar. And it also woke me up to the mildly bipolar people in my family and all around me. It's really fairly common, like in silicon valley where I am.

I was impressed with the knowledge and basic facts about this little known disorder. It was extremely helpful for someone recently diagnosed with BiPolar II to help understand what to expect and how to handle the ups and downs of this disease. It also assists in learning how to reach out to get help when and even before you need it. Highly recommend!