Overview
When Marya Hornbacher published a nationally best-selling memoir of her battle with anorexia and bulimia, she had no idea that there was, still to come, a piece of shattering knowledge that would finally make sense of the chaos of her life. Her struggles with mental illness, and the story she would have to tell about them, were far from over.
At twenty-four, Hornbacher was diagnosed with Type I rapid cycle bipolar disorder, the most severe form. In Madness, she details her fight back from the disease that nearly destroyed her. Tracing the history of her illness, she shows how bipolar can spawn a number of other conditions, including eating disorders, substance abuse, promiscuity, and self-mutilation. Like Hornbacher, many struggle with these behaviors never knowing that bipolar may be the larger cause of their particular pain. Now, in this brave, heart-stopping, beautifully written memoir, Marya Hornbacher offers a challenge to the perception of bipolar in America. Madness is an incredible portrait of a difficult, sometimes beautiful life.