When eighteen-year-old Mark returned home from his first semester at college, his family thought he was on drugs. In fact, he was suffering from manic depression, a devastating mental illness that affects millions of Americans and their loved ones. Diane Berger is Mark's mother and Lisa Berger is Diane's sister. Together they share both the intimate and inspiring story of how their family coped with Mark's illness and the valuable information they gathered about manic depression over the course of his treatment: up-to-date facts on drugs, doctors, therapy, insurance, and other resources. They reveal how to identify the symptoms of manic depression and avoid a false diagnosis, which treatments work and which don't -- as well as the emotional experience of a mother battling for the sanity and well-being of her child. Here is the story of emotional and dramatic power; here also is an invaluable guidebook through the medical mazes and challenges of surviving mental illness.

Intertwining the details of Abbie Hoffman's intense personal life with the movement politics of the sixties, seventies, and eighties, Dan Simon writes Abbie's story from the point of view of his younger brother Jack, creating a full and poignant portrait of one of the geniuses of the 1960s counterculture. From the creation of the Yippies! in 1967 and the tumult of the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests, to the humor and agony of the Chicago conspiracy trial, the scandal of Abbie's 1973 cocaine bust, and his six and a half years as a fugitive, to his reemergence as environmentalist "Barrie Freed' and his final struggle with manic-depressive illness, this biography offers a compelling examination of the contradictions that make Abbie Hoffman such a compelling figure. With the information and affection only a brother could bring to the complexities of Abbie's life, Hoffman and Simon portray Abbie's public persona alongside his private aspirations and fears, romances, and enduring family relationships.

In this moving account of his struggles with manic-depressive disorder, distinguished philosopher Robert S. Corrington, creator of the school of ecstatic naturalism, presents a compelling argument for rethinking the nature of this malady. Having inherited the disorder from his mother, a gifted actress who struggled with her own form of it until her death, he developed crucial survival strategies that he recommends to other sufferers. In Riding the Windhorse, Corrington details the latest medical, psychological, and spiritual thinking about bipolar disease; a disorder characterized by extreme mood swings and responsible for many untimely deaths each year. Surprisingly, however, manic-depression is also found in almost all forms of genius and Corrington presents two detailed case studies showing this correlation. Riding the Windhorse represents one person's eventual triumph over a potentially crippling disease by demonstrating how creativity and the quest for wholeness can support the erratic flight of the windhorse of manic-depression.

For the first time, contributors to the essential reference for professional psychiatrists, "The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, " make vital information about mental disorders available to the general public in an affordable, accessible format.

After graduation from Harvard, Mahala Bishop spent years in Washington working as a political assistant to Robert Kennedy and George McGovern. Following this heady life, she became a potter, a mediator, and teacher of English as a foreign language. She lives on Cape Cod and Maine. Mahala became a victim of bipolar disorder in her fifties and uses her life experience, her writing ability and multitudes of notes from manic episodes to create this informational book. "My intent here is to present the inside view of both sides of bipolar disorder and then the outside view of how my mania intruded on the lives of so many others. My goal is to educate and inform readers about the nature of this mean, unfair illness. And I hope in the end readers will realize that every kindness, every caring and understanding gesture will alleviate our shame and help us deal with our reality."

A groundbreaking guide to manic depression, which affects more than two million people in the U.S. alone, is drawn from the most recent research, furnishing in-depth coverage on every aspect of the ailment, from symptoms, psychotherapy, and rehabilitation to special problems arising out of this disorder, such as violent behavior, suicide, sex, AIDS, and alcohol and drug abuse.

THE OMEGA-3 CONNECTION is a persuasive title on why our ancestors relied so much on omega 3 oils, found in oily fish, flaxseed, game, human breast milk and walnuts, for their brain development and general health. We eat far far less omega 3's than our ancestors did, and here, Andrew L. Stoll, M.D. argues that most of us have been deficient in these essential oils from babies onwards, especially if we weren't breastfed. Omega 3's are vital to overall health of the brain and heart. The results are the maladies of our age - depression, post natal depression, an increase in degenerative diseases of the mind like Altzheimers, and an increase in heart attacks and strokes. Backed up by new research from the Universities of Sheffield and Oxford, this is a fantastic pointer to restoring your body and mind's natural balance.