"I've learned from the experience of loving and losing a bipolar spouse that mental illness is a psychological and a physiological disorder. It can disturb a person's ability to think, feel, and relate to others and to his environment. A person with serious mental illness needs quick, accurate diagnosis and treatment with medication as well as psychotherapy. He or she cannot cure or control it through will power or a change in lifestyle. Mental illness is a chronic ailment like diabetes or multiple sclerosis and must be accepted as such without a stigma -- and it must be treated. I've learned that bipolar disorders are often triggered by a crisis such as the murder trial that preceded Frank's illness." The author combines the observational skills of a journalist, the love of a mother, and the grief of a wife in this gripping tale of what happens to a family when one member suffers from bipolar disorder. Inner guilt and torments are the center of this compelling story with lessons for all of us.
