This autobiographical story comes in the form of a time capsule, recounting both fond and extremely painful memories. As well as a self-help book, the purpose is to share stories that others can hopefully learn from or gain an in-depth understanding of bipolar disorder. Radnai also shares advice and knowledge on bipolar for the general public, to break the stigma of a widely misunderstood mental illness. The story begins with journal-style writing before diving into Radnai’s life from childhood onwards. The timeline of the story jumps back and forth, filling in gaps and context along the way.
Radnai began writing this story in 2002 as a form of therapy, which is why the journal-style feeling has been maintained, to keep the raw emotion of the time that it was written, intact.
Throughout the book we are taken through many career changes and business ventures, wild mania’s, suicidal depression and of course trips to psych wards.
Radnai does not hold back in telling a genuine account of what it is like to live with this condition.
We are also taken to different destinations both to live and to travel, and in the background, or often in the foreground, the ups and downs of manias and depressions and the decisions that come from those different mental states.