I did not like the way this book was written at all. I also thought she was just rambling on and on. She allowed herself to live in so much madness for so long because she would not listen to her Dr.s advise and when she knew one of the Doctors were not giving her the right treatment by knowing she was indeed drinking to much or even drinking while taking meds at all then dismissing it altogether she did not seek someone else to treat her even though she knew her drinking was way out of control and it helped her mania become worse. She went through a lot as well as putting her family through a lot. Mostly it was because she would not do what she needed to do to get well and live a close to normal life that she could for so many years.

I found this book to be extremely captivting. I could not put it down. I have a family member who is bipolar, and I really think this was a wonderful account of the disease. I would recommend this to anyone who wants an inside look at this disease.

Not to detract from the seriousness of the author's journey, Madness: A Bipolar Life also contains a very sweet love story. It is not easy to love someone with mental health complications, and during the book I kept expecting to read of an unbalanced relationship, where he was the protector, and she was the victim. Instead, Ms. Hornbacher distills a mix of humor, uncertainity and unyielding affection to show a real relationship with her husband, Jeff. In doing that, she gives hope to us all.

I have to say,

I have had bipolar/other mood disturbances and severe PTSD for many years and I doubt the author is telling the truth here.

that she has a mood disorder? OK. but that she was very severe severe severe bipolar from age 4 or 5? not diagnosed for 20 years? and that she lived a life of chaos while having accomplishments that sound 'impressive'?

I think she is a liar, playing up the mental illness stigma to deceive people and evade the consequences of her actions.

there are 2 truths about mental illness:

1) managed care has reduced illness to a matter of 'take your pills' when often, talk therapy is needed as well.

2) in this climate, there is a lot of shame and stigma. and the people who do speak out about their "illness" are often sociopaths, exhibitionists, and liars. most other people are too ashamed to say anything.

**by speak out, I mean, build a life or professional identity on "I am mentally ill." not writing reviews or even writing books per se, but telling people

How Very Important Troubled Different and Special You Are, for Hundreds of Pages, Because You Have A Diagnosis Of Bipolar Disorder,

and then building a professional and personal identity on that view of oneself.

Kay Redfield Jamison is an exception to this. I really like her work. but she stresses calmness and recovery. she also spends a lot of time pointing out that there is a lot more to her than a bipolar diagnosis. finally, she shows, not just gives lip service to, the importance of pursuing treatment.

but not everyone has integrity as Jamison does, clearly.

I do not support going back to complete silence about mental illness.

but I do think that people who seem fairly RABID to embrace the label of mentally ill and describe a ton of very dysfunctional behavior, including admitting that her book on mental illness was written while manic, they need to be looked at carefully.

I cannot prove she is a liar but I think she is b/c what she is saying does not add up. IF her bipolar was THAT serious, then she went off and drank like a fish and indulged mania for years. she'd be dead. period end of sentence.

especially given that she "documents" one of the purportedly most severe eating disorders on earth.


it is very very very common for people to have "comorbid" issues, that is, more than one problem. and for her I think she is a narcissist who is grabbing attention based on pathological behavior.

other people with the label "bipolar" are different people. individuals.

in this climate of stigma and FEAR of mental illness, there is a great deal of prejudice. one manifestation of it is to assume that people with a similar mental illness are alike. and we are not.

it is not any more valid to say that "bipolars" are alike than it is to say that Blacks or women or Jews or....fill in any group - are the same.

there may be things in common, but.

Hornbacher also very clearly documents coming from an artistic, screwed up family. where her parents were actors, she was hanging around backstage from a very young age, and she was not in school on a regular basis.

when she didn't feel like going to school, she didn't go.

she also says that her parents yelled at each other a lot.

and that's the thing. I think she had anything BUT a stable upbringing, but rather than face that *with a combination of talk therapy and medication* she exaggerates her mental illness.

which has the dubious benefit of keeping her probably messed-up family in her life, but it does NOT help the rest of us.


I think there is a lot of truth IN what she says about herself. but I also believe she is simultaneously engaging in dramatic license, sort of like Frey but not that far, and also failing to be honest about the effect of her parents' instability on her.

**her book Wasted is banned on eating disorder units b/c it hurts the vulnerable. young women and men with eating disorders get ideas on how to deceive treatment providers, lie, and harm themselves from it.

given that is the case,

I find it *exceptionally* difficult to believe that Hornbacher has been as close to death as she says she has. mentally and physically. b/c people that close to death USUALLY pull through b/c they have a strong love of life.

if they chose to indulge destructiveness as well, then they are just not going to make it. not while manic repeatedly, and drinking like a fish, and avoiding medication, and almost dead from starvation (or living with the effects of that), or.

people like that, I mean there are logistical things like, how was she safe driving? why didn't she crash the car during a manic episode, while she was drunk? how did she avoid committing suicide if she was *that* committed to self-harm? or being murdered? somehow, she claims a lot of sex with anonymous partners but no real sexual violence, despite her severe instability.

I am sorry but this TALE does not add up.

and to other people with bipolar, etc. my suggestion would be: find a compassionate therapist/psychiatrist and - my personal input is that I do far better when I avoid melodramatic, probably vastly exaggerated trauma drama like this book. which I read, every. last. page. of. it. and I found it exceptionally painful reading.

b/c to me this book documents corruption in the publishing industry. she makes extreme claims in here that should have been fact-checked, and I doubt they were.

It seems that every bipolar believes that they need to write a book about themselves. Look at me. I am writing a blog. I have read a bunch of them. That says more about me than about the books. Some are pretty good. Some are not so hot. But I like this one.

Marya is bipolar I. I'm sure every bipolar I would say, "What's so weird about her life." The rest of us would say, "I'm glad I'm not her." She takes us everywhere; professional life, love lives (of course she drove lovers away), family life, suicides, nuthouses, medications, all that.

She is actually a writer. She paints a visual and emotional picture of the real thing. I was invited to become part of her life and I accepted the invitation. I was in the doctor's office crawling on the file cabinets with her. I was riding in the car with her on a bipolar trip to California. She could have left that out of the book. I have already done that one.

It doesn't seem that she makes any part of her life out of bounds. It is a real book about a real person. I don't guess that anyone who is bipolar needs to know what it is like to be bipolar, but maybe family, friends, or someone else does. Or if you have allowed yourself to fall back into self-pity this might be good company. I thought the book was a good one.

When I began reading this book, I found it compelling and fascinating. About halfway through, however, I realized that the author either (a) enjoyed her mental illness so much she really didn't want to find a cure for it or (b) was an idiot. I stopped caring how it came out in the end and didn't finish it. Maybe if you're bipolar, you can better understand her refusal to take her doctors' advice - stop drinking and stay on her meds - but all I have is simple unipolar depression and I have been on meds for many years and will probably be for the rest of my life. I think my life is much more productive this way, and I cause those who love me a lot less stress.

Marya Hornbacher's Madness is one of the most compelling books I have ever read. I do not often read nonfiction, but found myself at times forgetting that this was all true. Hornbacher has a gift with words and phrases and her writing is beautiful. At times, the story itself is disturbing, but for anyone who has lived with bipolar or someone who has it will love the book. It must have taken great courage to write a book that takes her own struggle with mental illness and use it to help others understand that they are not alone. Truly, it is one of the best books I have ever read and the single book that has most helped me understand this disease. After reading this one, I suggest you read The Center of Winter, also by Hornbacher.

Having recently entered into the confusing world of having a child diagnosed with bi-polar, trying to tease out a distinction between mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction, watching different psychiatrists prescribe different medications, along with the child being a hostile patient, i.e. doesn't want to talk about what's going on---this book is a brilliant insight into what's going on inside a rapid cycle bi-polar head. I recognized some actions of my son throughout this book and finally got a sense of what it must be like inside his brain. This book gave me a new appreciation for the pain he is trying to hide or run away from. And also gave me insight into how I can better be there for him in his mental illness while not enabling his addictive behavior. This illness is not fun and there seems to be a lot of differences in how to treat it, especially as the field of study on bi-polar appears to be expanding and new treatments are on the rise but not consistently throughout the psychiatric profession.

Marya Hornbacher has done a great service for me by writing in such vivid prose her ongoing dilemma. Admittedly, my reading on bi-polar is not exhaustive, but this is the first book I've read that truly captured the tyranny of this illness. Ms. Hornbacher is a truly gifted writer. I do not envy her the ongoing struggle she faces, but she sure dug deep to write this. Throughout the the painful descriptions of behavior and feelings shines a courage that lifts my hopes for my own son.

I have a daughter who was diagnosed with early onset bipolar at age 11. She is now 22 with a 20 month old child and alcoholic (probably bipolar but won't seek help)husband. Marya's book was written with graphic discriptions of manic and depressive episodes. You can really feel her pain. This book should be great for someone who doesn't realize the trauma and pain that goes with this disorder. I was left with a sad, discouraged feeling. Although there are brief times of remission, I already felt that there is no way out of this nightmare. Maybe Marya meant the book to be that way as this is a serious illness with no cure just treatment sometimes effective and sometimes not.

Excellent book. Riveting and exciting look at the life of a very manic bipolar woman. Easy to read but hard to put down.

I have seen what Bipolar can do to people. This was really an eye opener.

Being the mother of a daughter who has bipolar disorder, I found this book to be very helpful in my quest for understanding of this very serious illness. It is written in first person narrative and is very intense. I wonder what will happen next each time I read a chapter.

Marya has a way with words to help put a sound and picture to bipolar, aka madness. If you are bipolar or even know someone who has bipolar this is a must read. I feel it will help give those who have this horrible disease hope. And for the loved ones of those suffering, it will help make sence of some confusing behaviors.

anyone with bipolar disorder must read this book!I could not put it down,I have the same Type 1 rapid-cycle bipolar,it was like reading about myself.Mary Hornnacher is amazing,bipolar disorder is still a shameful,stigma disease,no one can understand it unless you have it.

This book was OK. I had to read about 2/3 of the book before it got interesting. The first 1/2 was nothing but maniacal and wordy descriptions of her episodes. It got a little mundane and rambling. I felt very sorry for those around her - their journey sounded exhausting and would make for a more interesting read. Not terrible, but don't pay the hardcover price. Wait for paperback or even the library.

[...]
Madness: A Bipolar Life, written by Marya Hornbacher, is an extremely well written title that relates her struggle with Bipolar Disorder I - sometimes termed Manic Depression. She suffered from the disease since she was about four years old. In spite of her manic episodes, her manic elations, her depressions, her self mutilations, her hyper sexuality, her anxiety, her compulsive buying of unnecessary things, her myriad hospitalizations, and the several misdiagnosis reached by several of the doctors that treated her; she was able to achieve a tremendously outstanding work as a writer.

Every time she was hospitalized, or went into one of her manic episodes or depressions, she was treated with different medications or given distinct doses of the same medications. The truth is that, as she states in her epilogue, the first medication designed specifically to treat Bipolar Disorder is still waiting, and in her particular case, she has been treated with Lamictal, Tegretol, Geodon, among others. However, she is still struggling with her disease, and probably will fight it during her whole lifetime. That is: Forever. Of course, she has periods of remission from her bipolar disorder and becomes quite functional.

I consider this title an utterly important one especially for those suffering from the disease or who have a relative, a friend or an acquaintance that suffers from it. It gives the reader a more realistic perspective of what goes into the minds of the sufferers of Bipolar Disorder I, and the reasons why they sometimes refuse to take their medications or act in unbelievable manners. The book also pinpoints the important factor that the family, spouses, and friends become in understanding and helping the sick ones.

Is I have mentioned before, Marya is a gifted and brilliant writer and I cannot wait to read her first title, Wasted, which deals with her ordeal with Anorexia and Bulimia.

Definitely worth the read!

A vivid description of the terrors and difficulties of being bi-polar. Reading this book would encourage anyone who is bi-polar to get treatment and continue with medications and therapy to avoid the agonies of the author.

I have just begun to read this book and usually it takes me a few pages to get into the book, this book has istantly caught my attention.

I was 23, the same age as Marya Hornbacher, when her first book, the eating disorder memoir WASTED, was published. I devoured the book, simultaneously struck by envy (how could someone my age write with such authority and emotional authenticity?) and admiration at her courage to write so openly about such a deeply personal and painful topic as her own decade-long battle with anorexia and bulimia. WASTED has stayed with me since its publication, and I have often found myself wondering whatever happened to that promising young author, who, with the exception of a 2005 novel, has been silent for the past decade.

Now I know.

In MADNESS: A Bipolar Life, Hornbacher candidly and often brutally describes her life before and after the publication of her first book. At that time, she, her friends, family and therapists all believed that, with the conquering of her eating disorder, she would finally also have control over her chaotic and at times out-of-control life. Little did they know, however, that Hornbacher was in the grip of a much larger mental illness, one that had been overlooked since her childhood.

Even as a preschooler, Hornbacher rarely slept, waking her parents at all hours of the night demanding to play. Her ambition and seemingly inexhaustible energy actually served her well during her school years, enabling the high-achieving young author to accomplish far more than anyone could have thought possible. But almost no one knew that Hornbacher was already using alcohol and drugs to manage her manic episodes, engaging in sex in exchange for drugs, and trying desperately to exert power over her out-of-control body by cutting herself and developing a soon-to-be life-threatening eating disorder.

Only after one of those cutting episodes resulted in a near-fatal loss of blood, only after the publication of WASTED, only after she had already alienated many of her friends, acquaintances and colleagues did Hornbacher finally receive the diagnosis that would redefine her life. Hornbacher was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic-depressive disease).

Giving a name to her condition was only the first step in a long and painful process, however. Hornbacher's alcoholism sabotaged her doctors' attempts to control her bipolar disorder; therapists brought in to control her resurgent anorexia misdiagnosed her and prescribed harmful anti-depressants; her own high-achieving personality constantly undermined her will to manage her disease. Soon her bipolar disorder threatens not only her one mature romantic relationship but even her own life. In the end, though, a compassionate husband, supportive friends and, most importantly, a personal, conscious decision to re-imagine her own life allow Hornbacher to strike a cautiously hopeful tone at the end of the book.

MADNESS is, at times, a nearly exhausting memoir to read. Written in Hornbacher's breathless, rapid-fire style, the prose occasionally seems to echo her manic episodes, as ideas and details come flying off the page a mile a minute. In addition, it can be emotionally draining to spend so much space locked in another person's troubled head --- but, as in this case, it can also be fascinating to read an intelligent, compelling exploration of a life defined by forces largely outside one's control. What's most remarkable, especially in light of my own musings about "what happened" to this eminently talented young author, is that she was able to accomplish so much even when wracked by such a debilitating disease, including writing much of this memoir in between a series of hospitalizations over the past several years. In that light, MADNESS is not only a much-needed exploration of an often-overlooked disease; it is, for this particular writer, a triumph.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

MADNESS: A Bipolar Life by Marya Hornbacher
May 15, 2008

Amazon Rating 4/5 stars

I normally don't read non-fiction, except I am fascinated by psychologically minded books such as this one. MADNESS is a memoir by a woman who suffers from bipolar disorder (what at one time had been known as manic depression) but was not diagnosed until much later in life. Because of this belated diagnosis, Marya obviously was not treated for a disorder that could have been kept under control if caught in time. Instead, Marya was diagnosed with something totally different, and because of that she had been given medications that actually harmed her.

Her symptoms throughout the years came and went, but as she describes what she has gone through, she gives a good example of what a person afflicted with Bipolar I disorder goes through, and what their loved ones and friends deal with day to day. Marya had the severe form of Bipolar disorder, and because it was left untreated for so long, her life was one horrific hell on earth. With manic highs and lows, she went from one relationship to another, bingeing on food and money, and began to resort to acts such as cutting, one of the few ways she felt in control of her crazy life.

I found MADNESS a fascinating and insightful look into the life of a person with bipolar disorder, and having friends and family members of friends afflicted with it, I found this book very helpful in allowing me to understood a lot more of what having bipolar disorder is all about. Marya brings the reader into her madness, and shows us the pain she has gone through and her journey to the road of recovery.

Marya Hornbacher, despite the hellish life she has led, is a gifted writer and it shows what any one can do, no matter what their state of mine is in. This is not her first book, and I hope it is not her last.

Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder myself, I thought that reading another person's account would help to deepen my understanding of my own situation. That being said, I am glad this book wasn't around for me to read a year ago when I first found out. I would have been scared to death. If you have never encountered a bipolar person (there are many degrees of bipolar, some more serious than others) this is NOT the book for you. It may give you the wrong impression of the disorder.
Her chapters read like manic episodes, jumping from thought to thought which I found discomforting, despite my complete understanding of what that feels like(and didn't she mention throughout that she was working on this book while experiencing episodes?). Her multiple hospitalizations, wild road trips, and even more than one marriage can make one think that bipolar is too much to handle and is something to be scared of.
However, there were moments in there that floored me - that had me saying "Oh s**t. That is exactly how I felt before I was treating my disorder." She also details the inevitable process of denial that occurs when one is diagnosed with something as stigmatized as bipolar disorder. The continual self-abuse that makes treatment that much harder.
If you have already learned about bipolar and can handle a horrendous story of one woman's personal experience, then go ahead. There are many resources listed in the back which can be helpful if you havn't already found them on the web. However, I do not plan to re-read this book and plan to sell my copy.

I have some addiction issues with Klonopin and I started reading this book when I was going through some serious Klonopin withdrawal. I am not bipolar but I found this book helpful and comforting while going through my own personal madness.

Like she says in the book, I honestly don't know how she made it through all this without killing someone (by mistake of course) or herself, accidental or intentional. It is a miracle and she is blessed to come through this. Her writing is so convincing. I really felt like I was in her head and this is how it feels to be bipolar.

I don't know how she drank as much as she did!! I kept thinking, Wow, considering her situation she was able to travel for her book tour and become an accomplished woman.

I hope she stays on the straight and narrow and am glad that she told her story. I feel like anyone who reads this will finally understand what it is to have mental illness. Because so many people don't understand and I know I have a very hard time explaining how I feel sometimes.

I cried reading this book. While I have been diagnosed with Bipolar II, where the mania is not so severe, but the depression is, I got to see myself from the outside. Marya's pictures in to the life and mind is extrodinary.

My husband is reading this after hearing an interview with her on the Dianne Rhem show on NPR. He said he finally knows me better than he ever has. The book is frightening, but at the same time hopeful.
A must-read for anyone who wants to see mental illness from the inside

This is a brilliant follow-up to Wasted. I've been reading it for less than a day and I am nearly halfway through. It's a tragedy that this book will end...

I liked Marya's memoir. I have read a number of biographys/memoirs of people with mental illness and what I found most unique and original about Marya's is that she really puts you IN the bipolar mind. So much so that you are taken on the ride with her, more so than is generally the case. In doing this, she has to sacrifice some clarity and details. I'm guessing she does this to make the experience more real but also because many of her experiences occurred when she was either very off balance or both off balance and drunk... so in those cases, it would be harder for her to get all the details objectively clear anyway... so rather than focus on those details or presenting those details absolutely perfectly, she seems to have decided to put you in that 'confused space' with her, so that you can really feel what she was feeling... this to me was the best part, the greatest achievement, of what Marya has created here for her readers. It is possible that some may find this jarring for the first 100 or more pages...but the final 100 pages do give more overall perspective, if that is something you are concerned about.

Of course, being very interested, I wanted to know more, I wanted, at times, more objectivity, more details about her life, about the people around her (friends and family, etc), about the process by which she learned to write so well and do other things so well, including the magazine work. But I think she kept to a very clear purpose here. And that seemed to be, I think, to give the reader a very real honest, straightforward sense of what the bipolar mind is, how it thinks, how it hears and unnderstands and interprets, etc.... she achieved this very well...

I'm a clinical social worker. As a professional I found Marya's story very compelling. I do think, however, that the writing was only fair and the book could have been edited down some (especially the sections of her hospitalizations....too much to read...too repetitive). And at times it seemed a bit chaotic and disjointed. But I think it's worth reading.

Just reading the table of contents in Marya Hornbacher's book, Madness: A Bipolar Life, offers the reader some insight into the world of bipolar illness--"Depression," "Meltdown," "Escapes," "Hypomania," "The Diagnosis," "Losing It," "Hospitalization #1," "Hospitalization #6," "Release." The nature of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia makes the illness worse by the vicious cycle of paranoia, pain, and insanity that cause the suffering person to do everything to sabotage her treatment, or as Hornbacher says, "...how to make sure that you'll be getting crazier by the day." So when her psychiatrist says, don't drink alcoholic beverages, keep a routine, eat healthy, take the meds and so on, Hornbacher does just the opposite. Not because she's intentionally trying to disregard her doctor's advice, but because her manic episodes and the voices in her head tell her that she's okay, while the depressive episodes prevent her from taking any action at all.

Confounding all this confusion, the quality of care also takes its toll on her mental state as the emergency room doctors sometimes make medical decisions that oppose her doctor's treatment plan. In a sad but amusing account, Hornbacher patiently explains to the hospital psychiatrist that she's not depressed, but coming off a manic episode. The psychiatrist decides to increase her antidepressant medication and sleeping pills. When Hornbacher argues that she's an addict and can't take the medication the doctor prescribes, the doctor says, "I'm sure you won't start abusing it." Nothing Hornbacher says can convince the doctor to follow the regimen prescribed by her own doctor.

The author's account of her heroic struggles to escape the insanity of bipolar disorder, and her honesty and insight into her bizarre behaviors, make a fast-paced, gut-wrenching story. One that causes the reader to not only better understand those who suffer from this illness, but to cheer with the hope that Hornbacher expresses in experiencing good results as she strives to take her medications, exercise, use light therapy, participate in group therapy sessions, and listen to her therapist. Her ability to maintain this tenuous balance depends upon whether she can keep her swinging moods under control.

Hornbacher chronicles the often humorous though sad episodes of a person with bipolar disorder. In her manic episodes, she's a university teacher, a writer, and a lecturer doing a hundred and one different things all at once while drunk, on medication, and with little or no sleep. With insight, she says, "That I have made it all this way without dying or killing myself or someone else is a miracle, or a joke." It's no joke that she has successfully chronicled an illness that has contributed to her brilliance as well as to her suffering, in a way that allows the reader to understand and feel compassion for people afflicted with bipolar disorder. And she offers direction to those who might help.

by Susan Andrus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Madness is one of the few personal accounts of bipolar disorder I've read that covers the escalating unfolding of the disorder from such an early age (4 years old) to the present. The book covers just about every aspect of the struggle with bipolar disorder - early failures to diagnose it, misdiagnosis, clueless and competent psychiatrists and therapists, stressors, triggers, the tendency to self-medicate, hospitalizations, hyper-sexuality, the terrible side effects of many of the medications used to treat depression and mania, bipolar and career, alcoholism, self-mutilation, relationship dynamics, lack of insight (not realizing when a manic episode is settling in), and the highly productive and invigorating hypomanias that often convince those with bipolar disorder that nothing's wrong. Her narrative functions almost like a textbook case study of bipolar disorder.

The book has a solid chronological structure that leads the reader through the escalating and exhausting mood cycles Hornbacher experienced. She is a highly skilled writer who keeps the narrative progressing at a quick pace while revealing dazzling insights about the disorder, about people, and about life in general along the way.

What I found particularly helpful about the book is Hornbacher's descriptions of how her mood episodes began so seemingly innocent enough. One day, life seems to be just fine and then over the course of several days, weeks, or months becomes wonderful - everything is clicking and Hornbacher's energy and joy seduces all those around her - and then, just as suddenly, her world crashes in on her. People who haven't experienced this, don't know what it's like. They wonder why people with bipolar disorder can't tell when their moods are cycling or why a loved one didn't step in sooner. I think Hornbacher's accounts can help people gain a better understanding.

As co-author of Bipolar Disorder for Dummies and as someone who's "married to bipolar," I could relate to just about everything in Madness. Hornbacher does an incredible job of taking the reader on the roller coaster ride that is bipolar disorder, revealing the wreckage that bipolar leaves in its wake, and filling those who battle it in their own lives with an appreciation of the positive aspects of the disorder and hope for a better future.

I can not describe how comforting it is to read someone's personal account of bipolar and to know that someone else understands. The book is raw, and people can relate to it. An excellent read for anyone who is diagnosed with bipolar, cares for one with bipolar, or is simply curious about bipolar.

Once again she has written another amazing and thought provoking book!!! After reading Wasted I realized for the first time that someone knew all the secrets I was keeping inside. I felt ashamed and alleviated at the same time for her excellent and amazing portrayal of what it is like to suffer with different eating disorder.
Then I read Madness and again I felt like someone was exposing my thoughts and letting me know that it was ok, as if there was hope and I just needed to let someone know. I have suffered for so long and luckily I have not gone the depths that she did but I was comforted that Marya took them on in a very raw and in your face way. She leaves nothing unexposed and delves into her life in a very personal way that the reader can relate to. She bares it all and lets us into her life with no reservations.
Even if you don't suffer bi-polar or an eating disorder I highly suggest reading both books, just to get an insight into what it might be like. Although I suffer with an eating disorder and could relate to many of the symptoms in Madness reading the books has made me a more compasionate and aware person. She is nothing less than remarkable and both books have helped me talk about my "secrets" and not feel so ashamed.

Marya Hornbacher, you've done it! This book is amazing. Couldn't put it down, read it in just a few hours. Definitely a must read for anyone who has Bipolar or for those who know someone who suffers with it. She knows how to put feelings, experiences and altered states of mind into the perfect wording, it clicks, it makes sense. After you read this book you will heave a huge sigh of relief that you are not alone and you can get help for your bipolar. If you are curious or there is someone you know with bipolar this book is an eye-opener. Marya Hornbacher is an AMAZING writer! She knows how to say things just the right way.

This is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding bipolar disorder, as well as anyone searching for a very well written memoir. Hornbacher proved herself to be an accomplished writer with both Wasted and The Center of Winter, but Madness is her best book yet. The writing is much more mature and is interspersed with humor and wisdom. I highly recommend this book!