Bipolar Advantage

www.bipolaradvantage.com

Bipolar In Order provides the essential message that symptom reduction or elimination is far from the main goal of adaptation and intervention. Sure to challenge traditional thinking, this important work is integrative and wise.

• Stephen P. Hinshaw, PhD, Professor and Chair, Dept of Psychology, UC Berkeley

Tom's message-and approach-is a welcome antidote to many, popular ideas about mental illness. He integrates sound, evidence-based tools (such as self-awareness, self-care, and medication) with an especially humane perspective. Too often, in having to accept their condition, people end up feeling pathologized-reduced from a full person to a label. But Tom looks beyond the diagnosis to help people embrace-and accept-the best parts of who they are, instead of reflexively dismissing their feelings and experiences as a simple manifestation of illness. I can't think of a more important ingredient to living with bipolar disorder-or any mental health difficulty.

• Craig Malkin, PhD, Clinical Instructor in Psychology, Harvard Medical School

Bipolar IN Order explores the positive value of mania and depression, linking it to Eastern traditions of mental discipline, while at the same time appreciating the need for warranted medical diagnosis and treatment. He also describes a team approach oriented towards recovery rather than remission. While complex, and not one size fits all, his approach may help many better understand, treat, and appreciate this condition.

• S. Nassir Ghaemi MD MPH Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Mood Disorders Program, Tufts Medical Center

Tom is doing something no one else is really doing. He is turning a serious mental illness on its head and suggesting that by accepting rather than fighting the disorder, people with bipolar can identify and access their strengths and lead lives that are not only satisfying but productive beyond their wildest imaginings. Tom is standing up to the pervasive deficit-based view of people with psychiatric disorders that is held by both mental health professionals and the lay public alike and saying with grace, humor, and the strength of personal experience that it is possible to take this disorder and live abundantly and creatively. Tom is helping people to both face up to their illness and to resist accepting a diminished story of their lives and futures through self-acceptance and cooperation with caring psychiatrists and therapists. Tom is ahead of the pack. He is staking out new territory and leading the way in showing people with brain-based disorders like bipolar that it is possible to live richly.

• Maureen Duffy Ph.D., Professor and Chairperson, The Counseling Program, Barry University

Bipolar Advantage offers a comprehensive program for bipolars to find their own type of balance--to be themselves and in control at the same time.

• John D. Gartner, Ph.D, Author of The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot) of Success in America

I found Tom Wootton's Bipolar IN Order a unique perspective on bipolar disorder, something the author himself has. If you or a loved one lives with bipolar disorder, the book is worth taking a look at for a very different and much-needed perspective on this disorder.

• John M. Grohol, PSY.D., CEO & Founder - Psych Central

I admire your courage, and the way in which you are using your own experience of bipolarity to try to help others. Indeed, the main message -- which comes across very clearly -- is definitely needed: Bipolar disorder is not something to be ashamed of; it is not a life sentence; and with proper attention, it need not even be regarded as a disease.

• Jim Phelps, MD, Director of the Mood Disorders Program at Samaritan Mental Health, Author of Why Am I Still Depressed? Recognizing and Managing the Ups and Downs of Bipolar II and Soft Bipolar Disorder