Manic managing
Terri Cheney talks about coming to terms with manic depression and how it’s affected her life
By Lisa Murphy
Published: March 26th, 2008 | 2:00pm
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), manic depression (or bipolar disorder, as it’s more commonly known today) affects more than 5.7 million adult Americans each year. Terri Cheney’s memoir, Manic, gives readers a first-person account of what it is like to be inside the mind of someone grappling with this heartbreaking disease.
Cheney tells us her story in vivid detail as it is remembered in her mind, through specific episodes and recollections. She describes the noticeable mood swings during her childhood, and her first serious bout of depression at age 16, her mania and hypomania that allowed her to graduate valedictorian of her high school class, attend Vassar, and go on to law school at UCLA. She became a successful Hollywood lawyer, all the while hiding her life of tumultuous ups and downs and confusion until another major depression led her to a series of electroshock therapy and finally, a diagnosis. She talks about needing to fill an inner void, which she attempts to do through eating, reckless behavior, and coping with a painful, debilitating depression, all recounted via eye-opening details; stories and episodes that took place as she remembers them — eating a box of baking soda, flying kites cliff-side during a thunderstorm, swimming naked at night in a frozen riptide.
The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance as well as the NIMH report that as many as one in five persons suffering from bipolar disorder will commit suicide, and this book explains just how difficult and confusing it can be for those experiencing bipolar, their loved ones, and even the people in their lives who have no idea. Unfortunately, there is still quite a stigma attached to this disease and many people suffer in silence or shame.
Cheney is just a regular woman trying to get through her life the best way she can and at the book’s conclusion she offers this poignant yet hopeful insight: “All you can really count on when you’re manic-depressive; this day, and no more [...] Life is not easy but it’s simpler now.” No matter what your situation, troubles or fears, I agree that taking on the world one day at a time is a great plan.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Manic: A Memoir (William Morrow)
by Terri Cheney
$24.95
245 pages
Issue #35
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