Mental: Lithium, Love, and Losing My Mind
- ISBN-10
- 0399574514
- ISBN-13
- 9780399574511
- Series
- Mental
- Category
- Psychology
- Pages
- 320
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2017-10-03
- Publisher
- Penguin
- Author
- Jaime Lowe
Description
A riveting memoir and a fascinating investigation of the history, uses, and controversies behind lithium, an essential medication for millions of people struggling with bipolar disorder. It began in Los Angeles in 1993, when Jaime Lowe was just sixteen. She stopped sleeping and eating, and began to hallucinate—demonically cackling Muppets, faces lurking in windows, Michael Jackson delivering messages from the Neverland Underground. Lowe wrote manifestos and math equations in her diary, and drew infographics on her bedroom wall. Eventually, hospitalized and diagnosed as bipolar, she was prescribed a medication that came in the form of three pink pills—lithium. In Mental, Lowe shares and investigates her story of episodic madness, as well as the stability she found while on lithium. She interviews scientists, psychiatrists, and patients to examine how effective lithium really is and how its side effects can be dangerous for long-term users—including Lowe, who after twenty years on the medication suffers from severe kidney damage. Mental is eye-opening and powerful, tackling an illness and drug that has touched millions of lives and yet remains shrouded in social stigma. Now, while she adjusts to a new drug, her pursuit of a stable life continues as does her curiosity about the history and science of the mysterious element that shaped the way she sees the world and allowed her decades of sanity. Lowe travels to the Bolivian salt flats that hold more than half of the world’s lithium reserves, rural America where lithium is mined for batteries, and tolithium spas that are still touted as a tonic to cure all ills. With unflinching honesty and humor, Lowe allows a clear-eyed view into her life, and an arresting inquiry into one of mankind’s oldest medical mysteries.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2018-08-09
- 288 pages
- Ebook
- Kings Road Publishing
Similar books
-
Designing Preschool Interventions: A Practitioner's Guide
By David W. Barnett, Susan H. Bell, Karen T. Carey... 165 Thomson , C. , 52 , 59 Thurman , S. K. , 230 Thyer , B. A. , 308 Timberlake , W. , 165 Webster - Stratton , 237 , 251 , 253 , 366 Author Index.
-
Assessing and Treating Low Incidence/High Severity Psychological Disorders of Childhood
By Stefan C. Dombrowski, Karen L. Gischlar, Martin MrazikHaberstick, B.C., Lessem, J. M., Hopfer, C. J., Smolen, A., Ehringer, M.A., Timberlake, D., et al. (2005). Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) and antisocial ...
-
The War Between Mentalism and Behaviorism: On the Accessibility of Mental Processes
By William R. UttalSome, like the “behavior systems” approach of Timberlake(1994)assume thatbehavior can be explained by a system of interactingmodules thatareeither built ...
-
The Psychology of B F Skinner
By William O'Donohue, Kyle E. FergusonHowever, there is clear evidence that this constant ratio does not always produce reinforcement (Timberlake & Allison, 1974). Second and, as we shall see ...
-
Finishing Well: Aging And Reparation In The Intergenerational Family
By Terry D. Hargrave, William T. Anderson... 30, 32 Thomae, H., 40 Thompson, L., 23-24 Timberlake, E. M., 16 Tobin, S. S., ... E, 33 Wolfe, S. M., 81 Wolinsky, M. A., 85 Zarit, J., 11, 30, 31, 32, ...
-
The Social Insects: Their Origin and Evolution
By William Morton WheelerLa Crisi Mondiale e Saggi Critici di Marxiano e Socialismo. Bologna, N. Zanichelli. ... TIMBERLAKE (P. H.): 1912. Experimental Parasitism, a Study of the ...
-
Principles and Practice of Behavioral Assessment
By Stephen N. Haynes, William Hayes O'Brien... 143 Tharp, R. G., 80 Thompson, R. H., 250 Timberlake, W., 308,309 Tingey, ... B. W., 70 Ries, B.J., 268 Robins, E.,298 Robinson, S. L., 91,244 Roper, ...
-
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Approaches to a Science of Life: Word Pictures and Correlations Versus Working Models
By William T. Powers, Philip J. Runkel... R.L., McGrath, Joseph E. McKeachie McPhail, Clark Miller, J.G. Mitchell, ... Jerry 469 Taylor 39 Timberlake, William 464 Tolman 72, 140, 142 Tucker, ...
-
Discovering Psychology: The Science of Mind
By John T. Cacioppo, Laura Freberg... 247 Fromme, H., 523 Frost, P., 106 Frost, R., 161 Fryer, R., 291 Fuhrer, D., 4 Fukuyama, H., 408 Fulbright, R. K., 486 Fulero, S., 440 Fuligni, A. J., ...
-
Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding
By Scott Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, Laura Namy... C. 638 Ernst, D. 704 Ernst, E. 278 Esch, T. 110 Eslinger, P.J. 448 Esposito-Smythers, ... E. 197 Frontera, W. R. 408 Frost, J. 332 Frost, R. 699 Frost, ...