manic-depressive illness

Best friends Hannah and Zoe leave their down-and-out New Jersey town and drive west chasing storms, making new friends, and seeking the intangibles--audacity, insouciance, happiness--that their lives have lacked.

Introduces bipolar disorder, discussing the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment.

"Lily Jo McGrother, born Timothy McGrother, is a girl. But being a girl is not so easy when you look like a boy. Especially when you're in the eighth-grade. Norbert Dorfman, nicknamed Dunkin Dorfman, is bipolar and has just moved from the New Jersey town he's called home for the past thirteen years. This would be hard enough, but the fact that he is also hiding from a painful secret makes it even worse. One summer morning, Lily Jo McGrother meets Dunkin Dorfman, and their lives forever change"--.

Every year 2.9 percent of the US population is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This title examines this disorder.

Dr. Perry Baird was a rising medical star in the late 1920's and 1930's. Early in his career, ahead of its time, he grew fascinated with identifying the biochemical root of manic depression, just as he began to suffer from it himself. His illness caused him to loose his career and his family. His daughter, Mimi, always wondered what had happened to her father after her mother's divorce. Through painstaking research she has able to re-construct a brilliant life that ended disastrously.

"High school junior Sophie has always had the burden of taking care of her mother, who has bipolar disorder, but after her mother's hospitalization she must learn to cope with estranged family and figure out her own life"--Provided by publisher.

The Close sisters are descended from very prominent and wealthy ancestors. When they were very young, their parents joined a cult called the MRA, or Moral Rearmament. The family was suddenly uprooted to a cult school in Switzerland and, ultimately, to the Belgian Congo where their father became a surgeon in the war ravaged republic, and ultimately the personal physician to President Mobutu. Shortly after the girls returned to the US for boarding school, Jessie first started to exhibit symptoms of severe bipolar disorder (she would later learn that this ran in the family, a well-kept secret). Jessie's mental illness was passed on to her son, Calen. It wasn't until Calen entered McLean's psychiatric hospital that Jessie herself was diagnosed. Fifteen years and twelve years of sobriety later, Jessie is a stable and productive member of society. Glenn continues to be the major support in Jessie's life.

Presents a personal memoir of the author's determination to understand adolescent depression and bipolar disorder in order to effectively help his own children overcome their own struggles with mental illness.

An overview of bipolar disorder, or manic depression, that describes its symptoms, causes, diagnosis, treatments, and impact on a person's life, and provides a further-reading list and contact information for related organizations.

Explores the issues surrounding depression by placing opinions from a wide range of sources in a pro/con format. Features articles that express various perspectives on this topic.