Twenty poems, six essays and 21 drawings make up this personal account that celebrated poet Marge Piercy calls "a brilliant narrative. Many people have written about their experiences with mental disorders, but few are excellent poets able to communicate the arc of what they went through in readable, powerful and emotionally charged poems." Filled with heart-wrenching details and, finally, with hope, Bipolar Disorder for Beginners covers a decade of struggle, success, relapse and triumph.