Tristimania: A Diary of Manic Depression

If you are newly diagnosed and want to find a balanced first hand account of manic depression, then please read An Unquiet Mind by Kay Jameson. I have had bipolar 1 since I was 13, although not formally diagnosed until I was 40. 20y on from that I can see where Jay Griffiths is coming from, but do not feel that she sufficiently emphasises how different each individual's experience can be. I have suffered from mixed mood states more frequently in recent years, but cannot relate at all to her account of such states.I also strongly criticise her lack of emphasis on finding and regularly taking the appropriate medication. This saves lives, and with a good psychiatrist and perseverance there is no need at all to be dumbed down by drugs. As Kay Jameson says, drugs are life saving and therapy is life giving. Obviously Ms Griffiths is free to refuse medication (as did Stephen Fry for a long time) but whilst this may be ok for a few, for those of us with families and homes to run, and hopefully jobs to go to (though even with meds those with bipolar 1 are lucky to hold down senior professional jobs much beyond 50) compliance with medication is part of taking responsibility for our illness. I too would refuse to push Fry's button to wish my bipolar away, but it is a wild beast that can bring as much misery as joy - very often to our families every bit as much as to ourselves.

I bought this second hand (ex-library book) and the quality is amazing! The book itself is really interesting and very easy to follow along with. Mental illness is something I’m passionate about and reading someone’s else’s story is very helpful! Would definitely recommend!

An extraodinary book. Jay griffith's hallmark is a mix of the erudite, the personal and the poetic and in this book she has gone very bravely into each area. While depression has often been discussed and examined, this book focuses more on mania instead. A bold intimate portrait set in an interesting historical and literary study, ending in pure poetry. Excellent.

As someone with bipolar this is spot on. Should be read by patients, nurses, doctors and even social workers.

The best writers articulate the universal in the human experience, and Griffiths does it with panache and in exquisite prose. Whether we have suffered manic depression, or merely touched the coat-tails of those heights and depths, we will recognise the loops and dives of the human brain she unfailingly catches, page after page, in her unique juxtaposition of the earthy and the erudite. Her use of language is at the same time transcendently beautiful, playful, and carrying a visceral punch: “Depression can have its own awful now, when the anguish of a lifetime seems to be felt in the aggregate, as if time is not linear – nothing has passed, nothing is over – but as if everything is hideous with intensity so even the future seems to fold backwards and lean its illimitable, impossible weight on this moment.”We recognise at every turn in this book the beauty, fragility and impossibility of living with others and without others, with ourselves and without ourselves, when we are raw – without a skin. Never was madness this human; this sane.