Synopses & Reviews
"I didn't tell anyone that I was going to Santa Fe to kill myself."
On the outside, Terri Cheney was a highly successful, attractive Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer. But behind her seemingly flawless façade lay a dangerous secret for the better part of her life Cheney had been battling debilitating bipolar disorder and concealing a pharmacy's worth of prescriptions meant to stabilize her moods and make her "normal."
In bursts of prose that mirror the devastating highs and extreme lows of her illness, Cheney describes her roller-coaster life with shocking honesty from glamorous parties to a night in jail; from flying fourteen kites off the edge of a cliff in a thunderstorm to crying beneath her office desk; from electroshock therapy to a suicide attempt fueled by tequila and prescription painkillers.
With Manic, Cheney gives voice to the unarticulated madness she endured. The clinical terms used to describe her illness were so inadequate that she chose to focus instead on her own experience, in her words, "on what bipolar disorder felt like inside my own body." Here the events unfold episodically, from mood to mood, the way she lived and remembers life. In this way the reader is able to viscerally experience the incredible speeding highs of mania and the crushing blows of depression, just as Cheney did. Manic does not simply explain bipolar disorder it takes us in its grasp and does not let go.
In the tradition of Darkness Visible and An Unquiet Mind, Manic is Girl, Interrupted with the girl all grown up. This harrowing yet hopeful book is more than just a searing insider's account of what it's really like to live with bipolar disorder. It is a testament to the sharp beauty of a life lived in extremes.
Review
"Cheney's remarkable chronicle of her painful odyssey is as eloquent as it is brave. It is also profoundly necessary." Providence Journal
Review
"[Cheney] depicts with startling clarity her naked immersion in freezing ocean waves at midnight...[and] rivets us with her recollection of awakening in restraints in a padded room." Booklist
Review
"Cheney shows us bipolar behavior and its effects. Her descriptions of mania are especially strong and visual." Los Angeles Times
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About the Author
Terri Cheney specialized in intellectual property and entertainment law at several prominent Los Angeles firms, where, over the course of her sixteen-year career, she represented such celebrity clients as Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, as well as major motion picture studios, including Universal Studios and Columbia Pictures. She now devotes her talents to the cause of mental illness. She was named a member of the Community Advisory Board of the UCLA Mood Disorders Research Program, and founded a weekly community support group at UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute. She lives in Los Angeles.