Mental: Lithium, Love, And Losing My Mind
by Jaime Lowe /
2017 / English / EPUB
47.6 MB Download
A riveting memoir and a fascinating investigation of the
history, uses, and controversies behind lithium, an essential
medication for millions of people struggling with bipolar
disorder.
A riveting memoir and a fascinating investigation of the
history, uses, and controversies behind lithium, an essential
medication for millions of people struggling with bipolar
disorder.
It began in Los Angeles in 1993, when Jaime Lowe was just
sixteen. She stopped sleeping and eating, and began to
hallucinate—demonically cackling Muppets, faces lurking in windows,
Michael Jackson delivering messages from the Neverland Underground.
Lowe wrote manifestos and math equations in her diary, and drew
infographics on her bedroom wall. Eventually, hospitalized and
diagnosed as bipolar, she was prescribed a medication that came in
the form of three pink pills—lithium.
It began in Los Angeles in 1993, when Jaime Lowe was just
sixteen. She stopped sleeping and eating, and began to
hallucinate—demonically cackling Muppets, faces lurking in windows,
Michael Jackson delivering messages from the Neverland Underground.
Lowe wrote manifestos and math equations in her diary, and drew
infographics on her bedroom wall. Eventually, hospitalized and
diagnosed as bipolar, she was prescribed a medication that came in
the form of three pink pills—lithium.
In
InMental
Mental, Lowe shares and investigates her story of
episodic madness, as well as the stability she found while on
lithium. She interviews scientists, psychiatrists, and patients to
examine how effective lithium really is and how its side effects
can be dangerous for long-term users—including Lowe, who after
twenty years on the medication suffers from severe kidney damage.
, Lowe shares and investigates her story of
episodic madness, as well as the stability she found while on
lithium. She interviews scientists, psychiatrists, and patients to
examine how effective lithium really is and how its side effects
can be dangerous for long-term users—including Lowe, who after
twenty years on the medication suffers from severe kidney damage.Mental
Mental is eye-opening and powerful, tackling an illness and
drug that has touched millions of lives and yet remains shrouded in
social stigma.
is eye-opening and powerful, tackling an illness and
drug that has touched millions of lives and yet remains shrouded in
social stigma.
Now, while she adjusts to a new drug, her pursuit of a stable life
continues as does her curiosity about the history and science of
the mysterious element that shaped the way she sees the world and
allowed her decades of sanity. Lowe travels to the Bolivian salt
flats that hold more than half of the world’s lithium reserves,
rural America where lithium is mined for batteries, and tolithium
spas that are still touted as a tonic to cure all ills. With
unflinching honesty and humor, Lowe allows a clear-eyed view into
her life, and an arresting inquiry into one of mankind’s oldest
medical mysteries.
Now, while she adjusts to a new drug, her pursuit of a stable life
continues as does her curiosity about the history and science of
the mysterious element that shaped the way she sees the world and
allowed her decades of sanity. Lowe travels to the Bolivian salt
flats that hold more than half of the world’s lithium reserves,
rural America where lithium is mined for batteries, and tolithium
spas that are still touted as a tonic to cure all ills. With
unflinching honesty and humor, Lowe allows a clear-eyed view into
her life, and an arresting inquiry into one of mankind’s oldest
medical mysteries.