3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A valuable contribution, October 1, 2009
This review is from: Mind Gone Awry - A Bipolar Recovery (Paperback)
Thanks to Donald Kern for this helpful book. As a full-time psychiatrist and the author of 3 books on bipolar disorder and one on depression, I can vouch for the accuracy of Donald's perceptions of his bipolar episodes and transitions to health. It is an important contribution to understanding the changes in thinking and perception that are created by the bipolar condition.
I would recommend this book to other individuals with bipolar disorder who want to find information and hope for a complete recovery. I would especially recommend it to relatives, friends, professionals, and interested parties who want to gain insight on the personal experience of bipolar psychosis.
Donald's experience will not be the same as all other bipolar readers-- for example, many sufferers do not have psychosis, or take much longer to find appropriate diagnosis and effective treatment. Nevertheless, his message is critical-- that bipolar disorder is a physical illness of the nervous system that has specific symptoms, is diagnosible, and is treatable by medications and the right kind of psychotherapy.
Hurray for this book!---Wes Burgess, MD, PhD
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
My Bipolar Journey, May 18, 2008
This review is from: Mind Gone Awry - A Bipolar Recovery (Paperback)
"Mind Gone Awry" is the autobiography of an ordinary person. It is my story. It is your story if you have bipolar disorder (Type I). Unfortunately, this does not make it a page-turner. You'll have to skip through a lot of humdrum details of ordinary life. The book will help you identify, and identify with, the symptoms of bipolar disorder. It will also give you hope. Here is someone who struggled with the beast and prevailed and that struggle is recorded in detail. The author is not a natural storyteller but he does tell the story of his life bravely and without glossing over the painful incidents of mania in particular, but also mental hospital, depression, loss of self-esteem and the long journey to coping successfully with bipolar disorder.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you or anyone you know is bipolar you must read Mind Gone Awry!, December 23, 2008
This review is from: Mind Gone Awry - A Bipolar Recovery (Paperback)
My mother is bipolar, or manic depressive as it is more popularly known, and I recently started blogging about what it was like to grow up with a bipolar parent. As a conscientious blogger I get daily Google alerts for the phrase "bipolar disorder" just to keep track of who is talking about the issue and meet fellow bloggers, and that is how I met Donald Kern, a California-based therapist who -- since he too has bipolar disorder -- specializes in treating bipolar patients.
"How interesting," I thought. "A therapist with bipolar disorder; who knew?" My mom has never been highly functional at the best of times, and unfortunately she pulled me along for many of her great manic adventures. When I saw that Kern had written a book about his own experiences that led up to his becoming a therapist, I knew I wanted to read it. Mind Gone Awry has given me insight into what my mother was experiencing in a way that I never quite understood before. In fact, while I still cannot forgive a lot of what I was put through as a child and teenager, I can review those experiences with a slightly softer heart after reading this book.
On his blog, Bipolar By Chance, Kern states,
"Bipolar since the age of 25, I have gained a lot of knowledge about the disorder, not only as an author, but as a licensed therapist bent on treating those who share this diagnosis. I also share my stories with my clients, tales of dark passages through madness, sprinkled with novel, lighthearted punctuation on occasion. Hearing my reflections about my delusional state from the past seems to help my clients relate to their own traumas and their own struggles with maladaptive thoughts, behaviors which stretch the meaning of normalcy. "I feel heard," they say. So at some point I started to write my stories down, which gave me a reason to write, Mind Gone Awry. If hearing my experiences helps others to come to their own epiphanies about their lives, it is a good thing."
Kern had his first manic experience at age 25 in 1973 when he started to feel that television movies were speaking to him and sending him messages, that winos were sending him secret messages, and that he had in fact been chosen by the President of the United States to be his spiritual adviser on all issues. Suddenly I was reminded of two personal experiences. In the first I came home from school and the TV was in the trash room of our apartment building and all of the electrical appliances in the house were unplugged. My mother told me that "they" were trying to contact her through the electric sockets, but most especially the TV and radio.
The second experience was on an ill-fated adventure my mother took me on when she pulled me out of ninth grade and took me to New York City (we lived in upstate New York at the time). There was an ad on the radio for concerts that were being put on by MLK Productions, and my mother (whose initials are ML) leaned over and whispered, "Do you hear that? Do you know that when they say MLK Productions it is a message to me? That's how I know taking you away from here is a good thing." At least she only went a few hundred miles. Kern moved to Israel!
Over his life Kern went on and off medications, in and out of therapy, and in and out of jobs. When he finally met the woman he loved and wanted to be with the time for that was over. Now on regular medications and stable for 30 years, married, and having built a successful private practice, Kern gives an honest account of living with bipolar disorder. If you or anyone you know is bipolar you must read Mind Gone Awry!
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