CEREBRAL STORM 
CEREBRAL STORM
The buzz word is DUAL DIAGNOSED or DUAL DIAGNOSIS, and the condition (in my case) applies to mental illness with addiction. It is a condition which is tough to identify clinically and a hundred times tougher to treat. The treatment for mental illness is quite different from the treatment for addiction, and it seems that almost no one treats both concurrently. Dual diagnosed individuals may end up wasting years of life in frustration and misery, perhaps even death. Yet my experience with my own dual diagnosis will demonstrate to you that you don't have to spend your life imprisoned by these troublesome and incurable diseases. Time, however, is the enemy as regards treatment, and self-help seems useless. Read the book, BLESSED TO BE BONKERS and explore some of the truths and insights I have employed to manage my dual diagnosis and to find happiness.
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Book Synopsis--BLESSED TO BE BONKERS
--ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
--PREFACE
CHAPTER ONE "A Good Season"
Using a parody in the form of a touching and evocative story about baseball, the author seeks to draw his reader in. This chapter previews the process to fundamental changes the author undertook to facilitate recovery.
CHAPTER TWO "De-Nial is not in Egypt"
This chapter establishes a graphic, frank, and detailed foundation for dealing with the essential truths in bipolar disorder and addiction.
CHAPTER THREE "The Bogeyman Gets a Name"
Bipolar disease and addiction are like monsters under the bed challenging the author to face fear through identification and communication--a poignant and truthful journey to escape from ignorance. Using conversational style the author describes his first step into recovery.
CHAPTER FOUR "Normal !?"
Using pragmatic reasoning and drawing from his own hard experience, the author decries the treacherous comparisons which demean, daunt, and defeat the recovering bipolar/addict.
CHAPTER FIVE "Crowd Control"
The author details how he had to face, assess, and overcome his misperception of pharmaceutical treatments and how he had to apply subtle insights he gained in order to make a choice both life-threatening and courageous, to enhance his chance for survival.
CHAPTER SIX "Preparing to Give Birth [to Me]
This chapter expresses the transition period common to early recovery, in which the author began to achieve some momentum and during which he started the process of accumulating and applying tools and principles which would give him that vital welcome lift from under the yoke of his diseases.
CHAPTER SEVEN "I Give Birth to Me"
The author reaches into a reservoir of raw emotions in order to rescue and restore his identity from a troubled and painful past.
CHAPTER EIGHT "Crying Like a Baby !"
Having finally squared off with and committed to a vital choice, the author submits himself to the penultimate and redeeming flood of indigenous emotions. Thus released, he moves forward into the final and lasting state of emotional awareness and growth.
CHAPTER NINE "If He Doesn't Take It, I Have to Keep It"
A powerful and mystical parody--this chapter presents a story in which the author describes vividly his escape from death and the overwhelming and lasting spiritual transformation which resulted.
CHAPTER 10 "Lost in Space"
Following his emergence from certain death, the author describes how he found himself at the very threshold of spiritual restoration, and how he finally came to grips with the lifelong and profound anger which had barred him from entering.
CHAPTER ELEVEN "The Big River"
With sublime imagery and serene metaphor, the author introduces a "touchable" concept of spirituality, and provides a believable and understandable framework to describe his own spiritual growth.
CHAPTER TWELVE "Wrestling with Inspiration"
This chapter offers a provocative illustration how the channels of the author's mind, unique to addiction and bipolar disease, generate compelling thoughts and notions which induce obsessive, spontaneous, and destructive behavior.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN "Psychology 101 and Up"
The author describes the curious, sometimes grave and often humorous, role which his therapist and his therapy have played on the road to his recovery.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN "Battle Zone"
At this point the writer dives into the nature of the extreme conflict in his mind, and the daunting subterfuge of fear and dysfunction which can arise in the simplest mental and emotional challenge under the burden of bipolar and addiction reasoning.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN "Failure is the Best Teacher"
The author briefly explores his childhood for clues to describe and explain the early onset of his disease. In this chapter, for the first time, he applies inspiration to understand the root of his condition.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN "Back to the Battle Front"
This chapter opens with a forceful passage which propels the reader into the midst of manic turmoil. The graphic beginning serves to underscore the author's need to achieve a level of valid reasoning in dealing with the aberrant notions and behavior inherent to the untreated diseases of addiction and bipolar disorder.
It introduces the role of humility and limitations in determining a mode of disease management. The chapter surveys the shortcomings of various resources available to help him in recovery. The author demonstrates finally the new found process of reason which leads him to discover the one reliable resource.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN "The Long Chapter"
Long in content, but not in words, the Long Chapter surveys the complexity and implications presented by the author's diseases, and challenges the afflicted and the professional to consider an insightful perspective which the author has drawn, unassisted, from his experience and his observation of others in his own genre. The author presents here an extremely provocative viewpoint.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN "I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone"
The author summarizes his writing and elaborates on the confluence of his recovery from both bipolar disease and alcoholism. He ends the chapter with dialectical assessments of the state of treatment for these two diseases, and with gratitude for and fitting tribute to notable professionals in the field of mood disorders.