Description

By Simon Russell

ISBN: 978-1-78382-218-8
Published: 2015
Pages: 130
Key Themes: Mental Health, Depression, Bipolar, Manic Depression

Description

This Constant Fight is a gripping roller coaster ride between the highs of mania and the lows of depression.

The autobiographical story is set over a twelve year period starting shortly after the new millennium. The author, who at the beginning is a successful businessman, experiences a series of manic psychotic highs that sees him getting into some extra-ordinary situations and meeting several celebrities including Victoria Beckham, the two times Oscar winner Sarah Miles and the celebrated hairdresser Adee Phelan. The mania leads to police detention centres, four sections and four admissions to secure psychiatric wards including two in psychiatric intensive care wards.

The highs soon turn to lows and during several episodes of chronic depression he loses all that is dear to him. His marriage and relationship with his children. His job and career. His financial security ultimately leading to bankruptcy. The new love of his life. His confidence, self-respect and direction. During these lows he travels to Thailand with the intention of committing suicide.

This Constant Fight is not only a factual account of one persons battle with manic depression but also a story of love and hate, success and failure, hope and tragedy and the constant and enduring pain that characterises this illness.

About the Author

My first encounter with mental illness was over seventeen years ago in the spring of 1996. I was diagnosed with chronic depression and admitted to a private clinic in Windsor. Looking for a quick fix that would enable me to return to work I had a course of ECT treatment. I did return to work in 1998 and then begun a series of highs and lows that would later be diagnosed as Bipolar Affective Disorder. Between 2001 and 2010 I had five episodes of mania and was sectioned and hospitalised on four occasions. Two of the four periods of hospitalisation were in psychiatric intensive care units. I had the same number of chronic lows but these were treated in the community with medication and cognitive therapies. I do not regret having this illness as I now believe I can help others and leave a legacy.