Book Review: Darkness Visible, A Memoir of Madness by William Styron

A first hand account of severe depression by Pulitzer prize winning writer William Styron.

Book Review: The center cannot hold : my journey through madness by Elyn R. Saks.

Probably the only autobiography of a schizophrenic, The center cannot hold truthfully captured Elyn R. Saks (a MacArthur genius winner and USC professor)'s struggle with mental disease.
First hand, insightful and honest. Especially her truthful depiction of hallucination and affected thought process

Book Review: A kind of mirraculas paradise : a true story about schizophrenia by Sandra Allen.

Sandra Allen's uncle is a schizophrenic, who wrote a autobiography. Sandra mostly used his own words with her added research and background notes.
A good semi first hand description of a schizophrenic mind and how he viewed the world and people in a distorted mindset. And the writing was very good, showing a deep empathy and captured author's belief and understanding of her uncle

Book Review: Resilience : two sisters and a story of mental illness / Jessie Close with Pete Earley

A OK first hand recount of Jessie Close (who is sister of famous actress Glen Close). Jessie suffered from bipolar disease (which was only diagnosed later in her life). One contributing factor may be her parents belief in a cult organization and following the cult's way of life (living in a commune, kids separate from parents). Also there is family history: Jessie's maternal grandparents suffered mental disease.

Book Review: Mental : lithium, love, and losing my mind by Jaime Lowe

A first hand account of a woman struggling with bipolar disease. Jaime Lowe is a middle class Jewish girl grew up with caring parents (father a lawyer and mother is script writer for Hollywood, they divorced when Jaime was 18 months old) in LA. Her manic episode first happened at 16 when her older brother went to Berkeley for college and she attributed her episode to separation anxiety. And a relapse when she went to NYC working as a magazine writer after graduating from UCLA. The 2nd episode lasted for a year or two and she had to come back to LA living with her mother while she tried to recover from psychotic at home (per her psychiatrist recommendation). She took lithium for twenty plus years and later found that lithium caused her kidney damage and had to switch to Depakote.
A very engaging first hand depiction of her thought process and mental state.
One interesting anecdote is when Jaime switched to Depatoke, she noticed that she had lesser side effect when taking Depatoke ER(Extended Release) than Depatoke DR(Delayed Release), which her pharmacist failed to distinguish and don't know the difference

Book Review: The Kevin Show: An Olympic Athlete’s Battle with Mental Illness by Mary Pilon

A second hand recount of an Olympic and American cup sailor Kevin Hall. Kevin graduated from Brown, with two parents who are both doctors immigrated from Canada. The bipolar episode started at his college year, and relapsed several times during his college and athletic years when he was not on medication.
It offers perspective from his parents, sister and his wife, which may not be possible if written first hand by Kevin himself. On the other hand, it may not provide full account of thought process and mental state of Kevin during his episodes.