Agents in My Brain: How I Survived Manic Depression

I have read the reviews of the readers and I was so impressed that I am going to buy this book. My husband is Bipolar and he was first diagnosed with this illness when he was 21 yrs old. He is now 54 years old. We have been married for 24 yrs and it wasn't until 1995 that he was diagnosed as Bipolar. The doctors who treated him in the late '60's said he was paronoid schizophrenia. It is a shame that these people are treated like lepers. Bioplar is an illness like, cancer or any other illness. Why is it hard for others to understand that? His bestfriend since he was 6 yrs old doesn't talk or call him. I will get this book.

I knew nothing about manic depression. This book opened my eyes to a disease that is hard to image for most people. Mr. Hannon brings his feelings and thoughts to his readers and in a very remarkable way, he is able to share his painful daily struggles. I would highly recommend this book to all University psychology classes and in particular to Medical Schools. Mr. Hannon's personal insight could help physicians make an earlier diagnosis and positively impact the lives of others that become afflicted with this disease.

I have a friend who is bipolar. I'd read "A Mood Apart" a few months ago, which gave me some good information. But Hannon's book provides real insight and understanding for a nonbipolar person about what this condition must be like. The list of symptoms at the back of the book is also very useful in identifying what may seem like eccentricities of M-Ds. This book, along with "A Mood Apart" or "The Unquiet Mind" will take anyone who wishes to understand the topic a long way down that road. If I could have a magic wish in regard to this book, however, it would be for a better style of writing. At times, it reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions," but I think that may have been unintentional.

This is a wonderful account of the path of destruction manic-depressive illness can leave in the life of it's victim. I was really moved by Mr. Bill Hannon's story. I feel like I know some of the most intimate details of his life. I also felt a kinship to Bill because I also suffer with Manic-Deppresive Illness and had been mis-diagnosed for many years with schizo-affective and schizophrenia regardless to the obvious history my family had with manic-depressive illness. My daughter has now been diagnosed with Manic-depression and even though I had attempted to convey my family history to the psychiatrist treating her, manic-depression was their last resort diagnosis. They tried ADHD, borderline, and schizoaffective labels on her. When they finally put her on the right dose of Depakote, a sleeping peel, and an anti-depressant, she is now like the daughter I remember before the onset of the disorder. She is now 16, her first episode was manic at 14 years of age. Bill does a wonderful job of detailing the symptoms that he went through, even though the lousy psychiatrists he had didn't recognize and diagnose them properly. Bill also does a wonderful job showing how important early diagnosis and treatment is to the sufferer even though he didn't have the benefits of it as a result of incompetence, arrogance, and/or complacency. Finally, I have had a lot of delusion and paranoid thoughts and behaviors with the illness. It really helped to hear the details of what was going on in another manic depressives head. I was afraid to tell my care provider's some things because I didn't want to be misdiagnoses as schizoprenic again. It help to know that the delusions I have while manic are still within the same diagnosis. As Bill says, "Knowledge is Power".Thanks for sharing Bill. I am so happy you are getting better as am I.

This is a groundbreaking book. Agents In My Brain is a study of bipolar disorder from the INSIDE looking out. No one else could have written this book except one who has experienced this bizarre form of human consciousness, based on little understood chemical imbalances in the brain's ecology. Hannon takes you into a delusional world that could only be imagined by the surrealists. To Hannon-or anyone experiencing bipolar effects-it is not a fantasy. It is real. Hannon is a successful walking experiment. The experiment involves psychopharmacology, tweaking the chemical biome within the brain's neural network to regain effective, holistic harmony. Some have criticized Hannon's shoot from the hip style and his less than subservient manner in relation to doctors. The "God Complex" won't work on this insightful "nut case." He's the man, he was there. He's more than a patient; he's a hardcore explorer in the lethal wilderness of insanity and he's back, scars and all, to tell about it. It's must reading for anyone dealing with bipolar phenomena (I don't like the words "illness" or "disorder" because it implies some "normal" mental state as defined by the sober [and sometimes not too sane] judges of mainstream mental health). I would also recommend this book to anyone interested in the nature of human consciousness in general, whether from an artistic point of view, or a psychological one. Hannon shows that whether you are crazy or not depends first on the kind of chemistry set you're playing with, then how you conduct the experiments. It's way out, black sheep stuff. If you want to learn something you don't already know, go for it.