Into the Void

Manic-Depressive Illness 2nd Ed.

December 11th, 2007

The long awaited Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression, Second Edition, by Frederick K. Goodwin and Kay Redfield Jamison is finally in stores.

Hopefully you have the first edition. It is *the* reference book for bipolar disorder. Over the years many of the hypotheses set forth in the first edition have been proven out. It’s all there. Phototherapy, circadian rhythms, bipolar creativity. The effects of lithium on the suicide rate. Why we must avoid unopposed antidepressants. And that’s what I saw just riffling the pages! I can’t wait to sit down and read the medical roadmap that Drs. Goodwin and Jamison set out for the next 15 years.

A sample chapter is available for download from the Oxford University Press.

If you apply for the Amazon.com Visa when you make the purchase you can get a hefty rebate. Yippee!

Tags: Bipolar disorder, Circadian rhythms, Depression, Frederick K. Goodwin, Kay Redfield Jamison, Manic Depression, Manic-Depressive Illness, Phototherapy
Posted in Books and reading, Psychiatry, Psychology | 1 Comment »

Extrapolated Salary

November 21st, 2005

I graphed my salary from the Social Security Statement this morning. After diagnosis and meds, my salary increase faltered and I began to have steep drops in salary, usually corresponding to a period of unemployment, every three years.

Just for giggles I’ve uploaded a gif of the graph.
I let Excel do a logarithmic extrapolation based on the pre-diagnosis data and it predicted the same salary as the salary reports in the tech journals say I should be making. A quick guesstimate by counting blocks in the graph shows that my lifetime earnings have been about half of what they would have been if I wasn’t mentally ill. I like to play with numbers when I’m bored. Can you tell?
There is no doubt in my mind that I benefited from being bipolar. I could think quickly, I had a great visual memory, and when I was hypomanic I could work long hours on very little sleep.
There are times when I miss what the meds have taken away.