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Thanks to sharper diagnosis and better medicine, the future is brighter for people with bipolar disorder than in past generations. But if you or someone you love is struggling with the frantic highs and crushing lows of this illness, there are still many hurdles to surmount at home, at work, and in daily life.

*How can you learn to distinguish between the early warning signs of mood swings and the normal ups and downs of life?
*What medications are available, and what are their side effects?
*What should you do when you find yourself escalating into mania or descending into depression?
*How can you get the help and support you need from family members and friends?
*How can you tell your coworkers about your illness without endangering your career?

In this comprehensive guide, Dr. David J. Miklowitz offers straight talk that can help you tackle these and related questions, take charge of your illness, and reclaim your life. A leading researcher and clinical specialist who knows what works, Dr. Miklowitz supplies proven tools to help you achieve balance--and free yourself from the emotional and financial havoc that result when symptoms rule your life--without sacrificing your right to rich and varied emotional experiences.

This essential resource will help you and your family members come to terms with the diagnosis, recognize early warning signs of manic or depressive episodes, cope with triggers of mood swings, resolve medication problems, and learn to collaborate effectively with doctors and therapists. You'll learn specific ways to ask for support and help from your family and friends--and what to do when their "caring" feels like "controlling." For times when the going gets tough, a wealth of examples of how others have dealt with similar challenges offer new perspectives and new solutions.

Whether you have recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, are considering seeking help for the first time, or have been in treatment for years, this empowering book is designed to help put you--not your illness--back in charge of your life.

"Dr. Miklowitz's book is both impressive and very humane. His lucid, multidimensional exploration of the patient's experience and his practical and empowering self-management techniques go far toward promoting stability. This book should be required reading for people with the disorder, their family members, and the physicians and therapists who treat them."--Demitri F. Papolos, MD, and Janice Papolos, authors of Overcoming Depression and The Bipolar Child

"When Miklowitz started his work, it seemed paradoxical to many that psychosocial approaches, including illness education, could affect the course of an illness which is incontrovertibly genetic and biological in its origins. It was Miklowitz's pioneering research that proved this assumption wrong. Now he has provided patients and families with just the right psychoeducational tool--an authoritative and eminently readable book about bipolar illness and its treatment."--Frederick K. Goodwin, MD, coauthor of Manic-Depressive Illness, Research Professor of Psychiatry; Director, Center on Neuroscience, Medical Progress and Society, George Washington University Medical Center

"The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide is a practical, straightforward book that will be a great help to those who have bipolar illness, as well as their families."--Kay Redfield Jamison, PhD, author of An Unquiet Mind and Night Falls Fast