Synopsis An unquiet mind is a book about bipolar disorder. This book is about the girl who is suffering from the depression then followed by manic episodes which leads the diagnoses of bipolar disorder. When the girl in the book finds out that her long term depression along with the manic episodes turning into the bipolar disorder and consequently this illness progression impacted her life from all aspects then she decided to do research and understand the disease closely. This book is unique because the girl in the book is none other than an author, Dr. Kay Jamison, is herself. Jamison is clinical psychologist and a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins; in the book she wrote her experiences with the bipolar disorder. The book begins
…show more content…
Throughout the book, she finds these connections tested as her actions and mode of conducting herself during mild mania, psychotic mania, and the mixed states of bipolar disorder put her apart from the social groups within which she was raised. She decides to attend college at UCLA. Her academic record reflects her fluctuating mental state; she rarely maintains a state of being for an entire semester, so she fails some classes and leaves others incomplete. Her mentors support her throughout the process of graduating. Several of them are aware of her work patterns, so they accommodate her increases and decreases in energy and ability to commit but her illness continued to progressively getting worse. She remembered needing less sleep and suffering from confusion and memory loss. She recognized the progressivity of the illness that making her vulnerable day by day, then her psychiatrist prescribed her lithium to treat diagnosed manic-depressive disorder. But she could not keep up with the lithium therapy. Jamison began to struggle with the lithium a year after she started taking it. She justified and reasoned away why she didn’t need it. Through her struggles, her psychiatrist kept insisting that she continue to take the lithium. Despite his insistence, she still failed to take her it regularly. She …show more content…
To someone without the disorder, the basic idea of massive high followed by ultimate low is easily understood, but it is hard to understand the depth of actually experiencing this devastating rollercoaster on a frequent basis. Jamison paints a picture of the high of a manic episode using images of stars and blood and lovers. She feels invincible and correct. Somewhere a switch is flipped. All the intense feelings of pleasure and certainly become overwhelming, and she's hit a depressive episode. On this end, absolutely everything she's feeling is unbearable. The most terrifying part about this cycle is that, even if she can recognize that it's happening, she believes that it will never cease. This is supported by the author Halter (2014), as it mentioned in the book that euphoric mood associated with mania is unstable. During euphoria, the patient may state that he or she is experiencing an intense fling of well being, is “cheerful in a beautiful world”, or is becoming “one with God.” This mood may change quickly to irritation and anger when the person is thwarted. Irritability may become the prominent feature of the manic phase of bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder frequently goes unrecognized, and people suffer from years before receiving a proper diagnoses and treatment. Bipolar disorders are part of larger umbrella of disorders, mood disorders, which refer to disturbances in how people feel.
Throughout the book, she finds these connections tested as her actions and mode of conducting herself during mild mania, psychotic mania, and the mixed states of bipolar disorder put her apart from the social groups within which she was raised. She decides to attend college at UCLA. Her academic record reflects her fluctuating mental state; she rarely maintains a state of being for an entire semester, so she fails some classes and leaves others incomplete. Her mentors support her throughout the process of graduating. Several of them are aware of her work patterns, so they accommodate her increases and decreases in energy and ability to commit but her illness continued to progressively getting worse. She remembered needing less sleep and suffering from confusion and memory loss. She recognized the progressivity of the illness that making her vulnerable day by day, then her psychiatrist prescribed her lithium to treat diagnosed manic-depressive disorder. But she could not keep up with the lithium therapy. Jamison began to struggle with the lithium a year after she started taking it. She justified and reasoned away why she didn’t need it. Through her struggles, her psychiatrist kept insisting that she continue to take the lithium. Despite his insistence, she still failed to take her it regularly. She …show more content…
To someone without the disorder, the basic idea of massive high followed by ultimate low is easily understood, but it is hard to understand the depth of actually experiencing this devastating rollercoaster on a frequent basis. Jamison paints a picture of the high of a manic episode using images of stars and blood and lovers. She feels invincible and correct. Somewhere a switch is flipped. All the intense feelings of pleasure and certainly become overwhelming, and she's hit a depressive episode. On this end, absolutely everything she's feeling is unbearable. The most terrifying part about this cycle is that, even if she can recognize that it's happening, she believes that it will never cease. This is supported by the author Halter (2014), as it mentioned in the book that euphoric mood associated with mania is unstable. During euphoria, the patient may state that he or she is experiencing an intense fling of well being, is “cheerful in a beautiful world”, or is becoming “one with God.” This mood may change quickly to irritation and anger when the person is thwarted. Irritability may become the prominent feature of the manic phase of bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder frequently goes unrecognized, and people suffer from years before receiving a proper diagnoses and treatment. Bipolar disorders are part of larger umbrella of disorders, mood disorders, which refer to disturbances in how people feel.