The Other Side of Bipolar: Revealing Your Strengths to Move Beyond the Diagnosis - Softcover

Polly, Lauren

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0997107707 ISBN 13: 9780997107708

Publisher: Over and Above Creative, 2016

Synopsis

The Other Side of Bipolar offers hope and a new perspective of mental illness that can help millions of people. A unique combination of memoir and self-help book, it invites us to reexamine our definitions of mental illness as a debilitating disease, and consider another possibility: what if instead of a wrongness, these symptoms point to capacities that are not yet fully understood? What if being bipolar or mentally ill is a sign that you have intelligences that others do not understand?
Through this new perspective, you can be empowered to go beyond any diagnosis or label you have been given and start to explore the uniqueness and beauty of who you truly are. Embedded throughout this poetic story are examples of tools and techniques you can apply immediately to begin to create a sense of peace and possibility in your life.
Lauren's story will captivate you and show you a path to finding peace and joy with being different, and ultimately how to utilize your difference to shift from surviving in this world to thriving and creating a satisfying life for yourself. You don't need to live a small, safe existence; you can go after your dreams, challenge yourself, and create a life far beyond what you may have thought is possible.
"The Other Side of Bipolar sits apart from other autobiographical surveys of psychological struggles, offering readers the rare opportunity to explore and utilize many of the gifts formerly identified as disabilities. Any who have faced such a diagnosis will find this an inspiring, engrossing saga which offers hope, revelation, and much food for thought as it follows a journey that takes the identification of 'bipolar' and turns it upside down." -- Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

About this title

About the Author

Lauren Polly earned a Master's Degree from the U. of Va. in Communication Disorders with a focus in Speech and Language Pathology. An ASHA Certified Medical Speech-Language Pathologist, she works at several hospitals in the LA area. She is also a Certified Access Consciousness Facilitator, Certified Talk to the Entities Facilitator, and Registered Yoga Instructor. She coaches and offers workshops worldwide. Her teachings have been featured in The Change 6: Insights into Self-Empowerment, (Jim Britt/Jim Lutes, 2015), and on her weekly radio show, Beyond Speech, Limitless Communication.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I was diagnosed with bipolar when I was fourteen, after a suicide attempt. What followed was sixteen years of being drugged, disempowered, and made wrong by others and myself. I was in constant fear that I would be put away in a mental institution. I exhausted myself trying to be normal so I could fit in with a world that told me I was crazy. I watched my family struggle to find ways to help me.

I was on multiple medications for six years before a doctor even mentioned the roles that stress management, diet, exercise and self-awareness could play in my recovery. I weaned myself off fourteen pills a day (my all-time high: no pun intended) down to nothing with the support of some very forward-thinking doctors and self-help techniques.

It was another three years after getting off all the meds before I gained a radical and unique perspective on my diagnosis: rather than judging myself as wrong I began to see my 'disabilities' as gifts and capacities that had been misunderstood. Discovering this new perspective changed my life. I stopped making myself wrong, constantly editing myself, and trying to be 'normal' so I could fit in. I started exploring and accessing more of my innate gifts that allow me to be more fully who I am while contributing to the world in joyful and satisfying ways.
If you have been recently diagnosed, or have lived with a diagnosis for most of your life, or have always felt different – as though you don't fit in anywhere – I wrote this book for you. If you're anything like I was, you have judged yourself, made yourself wrong, and struggled to make sense of what it means to be "bipolar" or to have "PTSD" or "name that diagnosis." And, also like me, you've sensed another perspective beyond what the medical system knows. You just haven't found it, yet.

This book tells my story of "riding the storm" of bipolar and moving beyond a diagnosis. I share my journey with you to show you another possibility beyond the wrongness of your diagnosis, so that you, too, can explore your 'disability' as a gift, and discover the magic and beauty of who you truly are.
Will you join me on the journey?

Edition details

• Publisher: Over and Above Creative
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0997107707
• ISBN 13: 9780997107708
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240