Lost Marbles: Insights into My Life with Depression & Bipolar

"The foremost expert on mental health, Natasha Tracy, provides an extraordinarily comprehensive and thoughtfully researched, well-organized, and accessible book that should not only be very helpful to those with mental illness but also to their friends and family. 'Lost Marbles' will certainly save lives." -- Andy Behrman, author, Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania

"This is the book that medical students should read, not the DSM. This is the real thing -- powerfully, bravely stated. This is the solution to the broken leg problem (broken legs are obvious, broken brains -- even though they, too, can be healed --  are not). Tracy helps readers understand some of the furious battle that is going on inside the minds of people with severe bipolar and depression, mostly invisible yet nearly all-consuming. She is a one-woman stigma-busting machine. Please buy her book -- buy several and spread them around!" -- Jim Phelps MD, Bipolar Section Editor for Psychiatric Times, and author of Why Am I Still Depressed? and A Spectrum Approach to Mood Disorders

"Natasha's book transforms the terrible into the lyrical, the sad into the hopeful and the confusing into an educational experience that speaks to anyone touched by bipolar disorder symptoms. She knows that learning to manage this illness takes time and a sense of humor. Natasha creates a realistic, stark and always enlightening book. She's aware of the contradictions she presents and offers an honest look at what it's really like to live with this illness. Lost Marbles addresses the questions we all have, but often don't know who to ask for information.What does it feel like to be manic? What is it really like on the psych ward? Is depression forever? Can people with bipolar disorder get better? We learn through her stories of how she finds answers to these questions. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to be entertained while learning the extremely important strategies we all need to live successful, stable and joyful lives." -- Julie A. Fast, author of Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder,Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder and Get it Done When You're Depressed

"Lost Marbles - Insights into My Life with Bipolar and Depression is a witty, original, informed, politically incorrect, and iconoclastic description of what it is like to live with serious mental illness and how to come out on the other side. Natasha Tracy challenges almost every conventional wisdom about living with mental illness. She brings clarity, compassion, a deep understanding and irreverence to subjects including suicide, and deciding whether to take medications or stop medications. She is almost blasphemous in the depth of their introspection. If you want to understand what goes on inside the mind of a bipolar and why, then read this book. You'll understand how Natasha Tracy became one of the internet's top mental illness bloggers." -- DJ Jaffe,Exec. Dir., Mental Illness Policy Org., author, Insane Consequences: How the mental health industry fails the mentally ill

"This is a poignant story that provides valuable insights, lessons learned, and helpful advice on managing mental illness. Refreshingly honest,Tracy covers a spectrum of issues from everyday challenges, including adherence and side effects, to more difficult issues, including self-destructive behaviors and suicide. Well-written and researched, this is a valuable resource for patients, family members of those living with mental illness, and psychiatric healthcare professionals." -- Prakash Masand MD, Founder and CEO of Global Medical Education, Adjunct Professor, Duke-NU

Natasha Tracy has written a book that straddles the chasm between the genres of self-help and memoir. Natasha uses her own experiences with depression, bipolar disorder and even a suicide attempt to illustrate what it is truly like to live with a serious mental illness and she offers real-world ways to live better with a mental illness. Natasha pulls no punches, doesn't sugarcoat and somehow still offers real hope to the reader. This book will give those with mental illness and their loved ones "ah-hah" moments on nearly every page.

Natasha Tracy is an award-winning writer, speaker and consultant who offers her insights into living with bipolar disorder overlaid with more than a decade of mental illness research in easily-accessible ways to audiences worldwide.