Finding Your Bipolar Muse
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Original price
$17.99
Current price
$11.25
Author: Lana R. Castle
Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
Paperback:
ISBN 10: 1569243409
ISBN 13: 978-1569243404
Do creativity and mental illness truly go hand in hand, as many people believe? Or are all creative artists a bit "crazy"? Do psychotropic medications cause creative droughts? Are suffering and deprivation necessary for creative work? Or is there a better approach? Lana Castle draws from research, interviews, surveys, and her own experience to examine what bipolar disorder and depression bring to the creative mix. Drawing from forty-five years experience in the arts, Castle shares first-hand knowledge, tools, and resources to help both aspiring and professional "creatives" affected by mood disorders overcome challenges and move forward. Illuminating and inspiring, Castle's new book helps artists of all types deal with depressive droughts and manic floods. With sensitivity and grace, Castle explains how "creatives" can tap their talents to recover their lives. Readers will learn how to: manage medications and treatment without thwarting creativity; find focus; set daily, weekly, and monthly goals; develop self-esteem and independence; use their creative talents to generate income.
From Publishers Weekly
Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Castle has penned an upbeat, insider's guidebook for those faced with a similar set of circumstances. Considering the disorder's potential for creative and artistic output, Castle offers sound advice for managing the illness while establishing a creative career. Castle stresses the importance of physical health and its link with mental health, insisting that "you simply can't reach your creative potential if you ignore what sustains your body through the day and night." Drawing from personal experience and interviews with other bipolar artists, Castle provides practical strategies for coping and thriving, like her rules for bipolar "success," a prescriptive outline for sleep, nutritious meals, emotional support and "crisis planning." In the section dedicated to "finding and organizing your creative space," Castle explains the need to minimize distraction with a calm, clean work space. For those using their creative talents in a professional setting, Castle includes an incisive "pro" and "con" list to use when deciding to reveal one's bipolar diagnosis to potential employers. Castle's informal tone can grate when it gets overly imperative, but her encouraging tips and strategies address well the contemporary problems facing bipolar artists.
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Review
"Offers highly pragmatic examples [and] helpful information...distinctive in its approach to helping creative readers with bipolar disorder." -- Library Journal, September 2006
About the Author
Lana R. Castle is a writer, speaker and mental health advocate based in Austin, Texas. She is the author of Bipolar Disorder Demystified: Mastering the Tightrope of Manic Depression. A member of the National Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Speakers Bureau, her mission is to openly and honestly communicate her thoughts, feelings, and experiences with mood disorders, suicide, and recovery to help as many people as possible.
