Overview

After the birth of her baby triggers a manic maelstrom, Dyane Harwood struggles to survive the bewildering highs and crippling lows of her brain's turmoil. Birth of a New Brain vividly depicts her postpartum bipolar disorder, an unusual type of bipolar disorder and postpartum mood and anxiety disorder. During her childhood, Harwood grew up close to her father, a brilliant violinist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic who had bipolar disorder. She learned how bipolar disorder could ravage a family, but she never suspected that she'd become mentally ill--until her baby was born. Harwood wondered if mental health would always be out of her reach. From medications to electroconvulsive therapy, from redwood forest baths to bibliotherapy, she explored both traditional and unconventional methods of recovery--in-between harrowing psychiatric hospitalizations. Harwood reveals how she ultimately achieved a stable mood. She discovered that despite having a chronic mood disorder, a new, richer life is possible. Birth of a New Brain is the chronicle of one mother's perseverance, offering hope and grounded advice for those battling mental illness.

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Randye Kaye is a national voice talent and actress, also currently heard as part-time newscaster and classical music host on NPR affiliates WSHU-FM and AM. Prior to that, while raising her children, she was a full-time morning personality for a top-rated Connecticut radio station in addition to her voice-over, on-camera, and theater work. Dr. Carol Henshaw is a former president of the International Marce Society for Perinatal Mental Health, a scientific society devoted to mental illness related to childbearing. Dr. Henshaw is the coauthor of The Modern Management of Perinatal Psychiatry, Perinatal Mental Health, and Screening for Perinatal Depression. Dyane Harwood holds a BA in English and American literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz. A freelance writer for two decades, she has interviewed bestselling authors including Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, Anthony Bourdain, and SARK. In 2007, Harwood was diagnosed with postpartum bipolar disorder (bipolar, peripartum onset). Harwood has been profiled in the Huffington Post about her postpartum mental health advocacy. PsychCentral honored Harwood as a Mental Health Hero, and the International Bipolar Foundation featured her as a Story of Hope and Recovery. Harwood has written about postpartum bipolar disorder for the Mighty, Anchor Magazine, Postpartum Support International, Postpartum Progress, and the Stigma Fighters Anthology. She founded a chapter of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) and facilitated free support groups for women for nine years. Harwood lives in Ben Lomond, California, with her two daughters, husband, and Scotch collie.

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