Edgar Allan Poe. Sinéad O'Connor. Vincent Van Gogh. Ernest Hemingway. Kurt Cobain. Winston Churchill. Amy Winehouse. Carrie Fisher. Brian Wilson.

This is just a portion of a much longer list of talented people who had a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Some of these people found a way to manage their diagnosis. Some of these people struggled with addiction. Some of these people ended their own lives.

Conor Bezane's memoir, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46209283-the-bipolar-addict" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>The Bipolar Addict</em></a>, explores the particular challenges of those with a dual diagnosis - bipolar disorder and substance addiction.<!--more-->

As Bezane explains, a bipolar diagnosis frequently goes hand-in-hand with addiction. Initially, anyway. The cycle of mania and depression screams out for the crutch of drugs and alcohol (although more <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7495181/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent studies</a>, since this book was published, suggest that there is a genetic correlation between bipolar and substance addiction).
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>The addiction continues when the coin is flipped and mania turns to depression. Now that you're on the downslide, you'll do anything to regain the euphoria you lost, or just make yourself feel slightly better than the agony brought on by the crushing blackness swallowing you.</em></p>
The statistics are frighteningly plain - there are 5.7 million bipolar Americans and 60 percent of them are addicts (it was difficult to find an Australian comparison, although currently <a href="https://www.bipolaraustralia.org.au/bipolar-information" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2.9% of Australians</a> aged 16 and over, or 568,000 people, have a bipolar diagnosis.

Bezane charts his own journey from anxious child and high-school misfit (who found his tribe in the punk music scene) to drinking and partying through university and the beginning of his career as a writer at MTV.
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>I've been drinking every single day for the past five years. At this point, I'm rather certain I could outdrink Kill 'Em All-era James Hetfield of Metallica, a band whose consumption was so legendary in the '80s that it earned the named Alcoholica. I'm also on seven different drugs for my bipolar disorder.</em></p>
Throughout his adult years, he experienced periods of deep depression and then mania, marked by spending sprees, benders and being extremely creative and productive at work (or so it seemed to him).
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>I long for the mania that so often comes with being bipolar, and being drunk feels almost like it.</em></p>
Ultimately, Bezane's family staged an intervention and with time in rehab, he became sober and better managed his medication for bipolar. His love of music and writing have been instrumental in maintaining sobriety, allowing him to find focus and a new community.

The final third of the book features stories about the people Bezane met during his rehab - it's not all happy endings, but each of the stories highlights the particular difficulties faced by people with a dual diagnosis, and the need for supports in order to maintain sobriety.
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>...regardless of which problem came first, and which may have contributed to the cause of the other (and this can happen in either direction...), once bipolar disorder and addiction are present, each one requires specific treatment. Furthermore, there may be other issues. Most of the people in this book had significant trauma issues... These issues also require specific attention...</em></p>
Bezane's writing is straightforward, frank and at times quite shocking. His honesty about the extent of his alcohol and drug consumption is confronting, and I felt so sad about the lengths he went to in order to hide what was going on in his life - no one ever wakes up one day and decides to become an alcoholic, right? The book lost pace at the end with the stories about others - although somewhat interesting, they lacked the depth and the honesty of Bezane's first-person perspective.

3/5

I received my copy of The Bipolar Addict from the publisher, Redwood Digital Publishing, via <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/159294" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NetGalley</a>, in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who dated a bipolar addict, I found this to make a lot of sense and could relate to a lot of what was written.

Thank you Redwood and Netgalley for this ARC.
This memoir an interesting insight into a person who suffers from bipolar and addiction. I am always interested to read memoirs that can help me understand more about people we encounter throughout life and this book added value.

The first half of this book tells Conor’s story of having Bipolar and also being a drug and alcohol addict. It looks at the link between the mood changes and the use of the drugs and alcohol and how recovery isn’t easy but it is possible as long as you do what works for you and work with a doctor to figure out the best medication.

The second half shows other people from Chicago from a mixture of social classes who have bipolar and struggle with addiction showing that often the two go hand in hand,

I found it really interesting to read and I do believe that if someone with bipolar and addiction struggles read it then they would gain the perspective that they don’t need to go through it alone and that there is help for both, not just one or the other.

The Bipolar Addict: Drinks, Drugs, Delirium, & Why Sober Is the New Cool by Conor Bezane shares the author's experiences, as well as the experiences of others, living with bipolar disorder and co-occurring addictions.  I went into his book with high expectations, because concurrent disorders need to be included more often into the conversation about mental health.

There were a few things in the book that concerned me as they seemed to feed into stereotypes.  While some readers may see this as lightheartedness, I'm not seeing enough benefit to outweigh the potential negative.  The author used the term Eccentrics "to refer to the creative and idiosyncratic individuals who have been dually diagnosed."  Later on in the book the author writes that his dad was diagnosed with bipolar II, and he explains that since his dad had always been a quirky, absent-minded professor type, the diagnosis explained a lot.  Is this really useful, never mind accurate?  There's also mention of a substance abusing friend, and the author explains that "since he is bipolar II, he was constantly hypomanic".  If the friend was constantly hypomanic that's fine, but it's not accurate as a characterization of bipolar II in general.

The author is very upfront about his substance use and how good at felt, at least at first.  He wrote about smoking crack for the first time with a dealer in an alleyway, and how it felt like a "soft-core lullaby" that was "damn near blissful".  While the substance use wasn't glorified, the clear, specific descriptions could potentially be triggering for readers who aren't feeling very stable in their recovery.  I think the biggest issue was that stories of the past were told in the present tense, in active addiction voice.

I found that some of the stories the author included from his past weren't woven cohesively together into the overarching narrative, leaving me with the sense that some of them weren't particularly purposeful.  The telling of the past in the present tense meant that there wasn't always a great deal of insight infused into the various encounters included in the book.

The author explains how he was first diagnosed with bipolar and his early treatment journey.  I couldn't help but cringe at his psychiatrist's treatment plan, which flies in the face of evidence-based treatment guidelines for bipolar disorder.

Finally the author's family staged an intervention.  This led to him going to rehab, and he was able to get clean and sober and get his life back on track.

Part II of the book was devoted to "The eccentrics", and included the stories of other people with concurrent disorders who had achieved sobriety.  These were told in the third person, with quotes liberally used, but somehow the style of writing created a sense of distance, and I didn't feel like I was really able to know these individuals.  As in the first section of the book, specific details about drug/alcohol use were included that didn't seem like they served much of a purpose in the narrative.  It was not that these stories necessarily lacked in intimate content, but the sense of distance decreased the effectiveness of the narratives.

The following disturbed me: "There is indeed an element of comfort in being depressed.  Everyone in your inner circle knows it, so they dote on you, coddle you.  Loved ones just want you pain to go away, and their company is more helpful than any therapy, any medication."  This is very far removed from most people's experience with depression, including my own, and while it would be one thing if the author was stating in in the first person as his own experience, using "you" to tell it to the readers seemed rather inappropriate.

The second to last chapter is written by psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Minkoff about recovery from co-occurring disorders.  I thought the placement of this in the book seemed like a bit of an odd choice.  The book concludes with an in memoriam chapter to a substance using friend who didn't make it.  

At one point the author writes, "I have become a little bit internet famous through my online presence."  The mild cringe this induced for me matched pretty well with the mild cringe I had regularly throughout the book.  My impression when I finished reading was that this book needed a much more involved editor to tighten it up. 

I started this book hoping for great things, but unfortunately for the most part I didn't really find them.  That's disappointing, because the voices of those living with concurrents disorders definitely deserve to be heard.

Thank to netgalley and the author/publisher for the Arc for my honest review.

Definite eye opener to the world of bipolar. If you have relatives or friends that have bipolar, check this out. It’ll give you some insight on what they go through.

I received a copy of "The Bipolar Addict" from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley! I am always interested in any book about addiction and mental health as I am a recovering alcoholic myself so I can relate to SO much of what is written. I myself am not bipolar but I have many people that I love who are diagnosed bipolar and struggle with addiction so I was very interested in this book. I loved the honesty in this book about both the author's addiction struggles and his bipolar struggles. I think this book would be great for anyone who is struggling with dual diagnosis. These types of books make people feel not so alone and not so unique which is important. I appreciated his humor as well. Highly recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Redwood Digital Publishing for the ARC.
.
As someone who is diagnosed as bipolar I had a hard time getting into this book. Yes, this book could be a great read for those you arent familiar with the struggles of addiction (food, drugs, etc) and how it all plays a part with bipolar disorder (also known as maniac depression) This is a story about a man who is bipolar and also has an addiction.

The sad thing is, his story is not that different from many others that I have heard and read. Which could be why I just couldn't get into it at all.