488 SelfWork: Bipolar Disorder: Terri Cheney Tells The Raw Truth

Bipolar disorder can be very difficult to diagnose. But that pales in comparison to what it can be like to live with and manage.

This week, Dr. Margaret Rutherford is republishing her interview with Terri Cheney who writes about her own battle with bipolar disorder. Sometimes she’s won that battle. But not every time.

Back in 2020, I had the great pleasure of talking to New York Times best-selling author, Terri Cheney. She’d come forward the last few years to reveal her struggle with severe bipolar disorder in books that are as candid as they are dramatic. I read her newest book, Modern Madness, and frankly couldn’t put it down. And even though I’ve been a clinician for over twenty-five years, I learned so much from her vivid explanations and revelations about just what goes on inside someone’s mind when they rapidly cycle between thoughts of suicide and high-flying mania.

In the past, Terri was a highly successful entertainment lawyer, with clients such as Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson. She now advocates for mental health awareness and leads a campaign to #TellMeWhereItHurts – urging people to ask questions and really listen to the answers from those who need compassion and to be seen for themselves, not their disease.

But Modern Madness wasn’t her first book. A few years before, she’d begun writing a memoir which turned out to be a shocking but riveting account of how her bipolar disorder took her from high-flying courtroom lawyer to someone whose life was falling down around her.

 

The unreal and very raw accounting of bipolar disorder… 

In a review of Cheney’s first book, Manic The Memoir, Dr. Candida Fink, who had a family member with bipolar disorder, says this (and I couldn’t have said it better myself!):

“Cheney does an excellent job of describing the allure of hypomania, for both herself and the people around her who are drawn to the passion and excitement. With hypomania, you become the life of the party, but as Cheney points out, the line between life of the party and scary is hair thin. Her descriptions of how she feels when hypomanic proves just how difficult it must be for someone who experiences the highs to feel normal, average, and ultimately boring—and how difficult it must be for them to be around “boring” people, like the rest of us.”

“Cheney also touches on mixed states, which can be the most painful and dangerous—when mania and depression merge. Mixed states are what I personally find most difficult to deal with as a loved one—when I can do nothing to please the person I love, and when everything I say or do comes under attack. These are the times when everyone in my family is at one another’s throats. It’s as if the bipolar beast has taken over the communal soul for its own entertainment. As Cheney reveals, however, these mixed states are no party for the person who’s experiencing them either. These are the episodes that make people suicidal, homicidal, or just plain infuriated.”

“Manic is a must read for anyone who has bipolar disorder or has a loved one with bipolar disorder. It’s as close as you can get to experiencing mania yourself.”

Both books are must-reads if you love someone, or are someone, with bipolar disorder. The whirlwind it takes you on is like riding an immense roller-coaster of thoughts and emotions that are very close to careening off the tracks.

By the way… 

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