Resources

Websites and Books

Websites

My criteria:

Must be depression or bipolar-related. Our reading needs to range a lot wider and deeper, but this isn’t the Library of Congress.
Must provide unique information and insights, not just the standard introductory drill.
Must be committed to giving you insights into your illness and behavior and in helping you make intelligent choices in your treatment and recovery.
Information must be accurate. Fact-based opinion and speculation and agenda-pushing is acceptable. Flagrant violation of the facts is not.
Must be a safe environment. Your emotional safety is paramount. Some pushing and shoving is allowed.

Best of the Best

McMan’s Depression and Bipolar Web
You are here right now. You decide.

PsychEducation.org
Jim Phelps MD deserves some kind of doctor of the year award for this site. He has a passion for sharing his clinical and scientific wisdom combined with the talent to get his message across.

About.com - Depression
Hats off to Nancy Schimelpfening, who has been on a mission for at least a decade. Plus forums and other features.

About.com - Bipolar
Kimberly Read and Marcia Purse anchor this great resource. Plus forums and other features.

HealthCentral - BipolarConnect
General corporate health sites tend to suck bigtime. HealthCentral decided to break with tradition by featuring “expert patients.” BipolarConnect spotlights yours truly, plus other outstanding writers. Also forums and write-your-own blogs and other features.

HealthCentral - MyDepressionConnection
The same for BipolarConnect applies here. Their panel of expert patients is outstanding.

Medscape - Psychiatry
You really need to be reading what your psychiatrist is reading, or is supposed to be reading. The information is current and first-rate, clearly written.

Best Personal Sites

Wing of Madness
Deborah Gray is living proof that first is best. Personal sites come and go. Wing of Madness keeps getting better. Also check out Deborah’s blogs on MyDepressionConnection.

BipolarWorld
Founder Colleen Sullivan has turned over BipolarWorld to a group of individuals who share her passion and commitment. Jim Phelps is the Ask the Doctor, plus forums and other resources.

Best Community Site

Mood Garden
Founder Sekhar is my good friend, but I don’t know how to spell his last name and I’m too embarrassed to ask. A thriving bipolar community with numerous forums and do-it-yourself blogs, plus other features.

Best Doctor Sites

DepressionCentral
Ivan Goldberg MD provides the most current and comprehensive first stop to your enquiry.

PsychCentral
John Grohol PsyD has been doing the work of six people for at least a decade.

Best Family Sites

Depression Fallout
Anne Sheffield is the author of the highly-recommended book of the same name. The main attraction is the message board, where long-suffering family members can talk to one another.

The Bipolar Child
Demitri Papolos MD and Janice Papolos are authors of the landmark book of the same name. Here, parents of bipolar kids will find a wealth of info. The site is also highly-recommended for the general public as an informed antidote to mindless mainstream media reporting and antipsychiatry agitprop.

Bipolar Children
Tracy Anglada, author of Intense Minds, is living proof why parents of bipolar kids are my favorite people.

Patient/Family Organizations

Depression and BIpolar Support Alliance (DBSA)
The major organization for patients with mood disorders, run by patients. Find a local support group, get general info, work on your recovery, plus other features.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
Originally for families of the severely-mentally ill, NAMI now features a lot more patient involvement.

Mental Health America
The oldest mental health organization in the US, with a focus on advocacy.

Recovery Inc
Recovery is the big buzzword these days. Recovery Inc has been practicing it since the 1930s.

Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
A godsend for parents of bipolar kids. A wealth of info, plus forums where besieged parents can connect with one another.

Families for Depression Awareness
Depression in the family is the major untalked about topic. These people talk about it.

Resources

NIMH
These guys lead the field in breakthrough research. The info they publish is also first-rate.

Network of Care
This is a private organization that works with local governments and other parties in offering a very wide range of general and service information. Plus online courses and other features.

American Psychiatric Association
Their treatment practice guidelines offer the best medically-based info on the web. For an annual fee, Psychiatry Online provides a wealth of further info, including online subs to the authoritative American Psychiatric Journal and other APA journals.

American Psychological Association
A wealth of info and current news.

Research

PubMed
Search their database for abstracts of literally every published medical article since the 1960s.

EurekAlert
Sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, here you will find press releases on just-published studies.

Recovery

Mary Ellen Copeland
Recovery and Mary Ellen Copeland’s WRAP are virtually synonymous these days.

Recovery Innovations
While others are talking about recovery, these people are actually doing it. Read how and why.

Best Alternative/Complementary Site

Safe Harbor
The organization and site attracts an antipsychiatry following, but Safe Harbor features a lot of medical input and offers by far the best range of articles on complementary treatments.

Publications

McMan’s Depression and Bipolar Report
Winner of a major international award, a free email service. Sign up here.

CNS Spectrums
Featuring articles by leading psychiatrists in plain English.

Blogs

Typically, blogs are about the writer rather than you, the patient or loved one. Accordingly, the only ones I can recommend are the “expert patient” blogs on HealthCentral, including my own. Do not confuse these blogs with those written by the wider HealthCentral community.

My Blog
These are more personal and immediate and informal than the articles on my site. The distinction: Here, I am more of a reporter. On my blog I am more of a columnist.

Books

There are many excellent books, but I can only vouch for the ones I have read, which significantly narrows my recommendations. My intention was to put together a list based on my criteria for recommending websites, then after several books I noticed two things: The books I truly valued were the ones unassailable in their authority and/or left me viewing myself and the world through a new set of eyes.

You will find other very excellent books mentioned in the articles on this site. What you will find here are the ones that have profoundly informed and changed me, ones I find myself enthusiastically discussing with others, even years later.

Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression (2nd edition) by Frederick Goodwin MD and Kay Jamison PhD. A classic since it was first published in 1990, the long-awaited second edition of 2007 is just what the doctor ordered. Drs Goodwin and Jamison have pedigree establishment credentials, but their authorative analysis strongly challenges conventional diagnostic wisdom, Highly technical and intended for clinicians and scientists, but mandatory for informed patients seeking to learn more.

Living Well With Depression and Bipolar: What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You That You Need to Know by John McManamy. The first book by a patient on the doctor topics, plus a strong recovery focus. Why did I put myself on this list? Dr Goodwin enthusiastically endorses the book, and who am I to dispute his authority?

The Bipolar Child: The Definitive and Reassuring Guide to Childhood's Most Misunderstood Disorder (3rd edition) by Demitri Papolos MD and Janice Papolos. This is the landmark book that literally put an illness on the map and proved a godsend for beleagured moms and dads who had long been told they were bad parents.

Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness by Pete Earley When his college grad son got sick and wound up at the mercy of the criminal justice system, investigative journalist Pete Earley set out to do what he does best and started investigating. An eye-opener, heart-breaker and conscience-scorcher.

Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Shenk. You will learn more about your illness from reading about how our greatest President dealt with his life-long depression than from reading texts devoted to depression. At once heart-breaking and uplifting.

The Bipolar Advantage by Tom Wootton. Probably the worst-written book of all time by the biggest non-dictator narcissist of all time. But that is just a minor quibble. Tom convincingly argues that we should not consider ourselves disadvantaged. Rather, he lays down a convincing argument that we are wired to run rings around those who have the misfortune to be born normal. All that is holding us back is our tendency to lose control and our own misperceptions of our illness, and Tom has answers for that.

The Depression Advantage by Tom Wootton. This later book is much-better written. Focusing on the lives of Christian and eastern saints, the book documents how despair was the necessary prelude to spiritual breakthrough and growth for St Francis of Assisi and others. In our own lives, our descents into darkness can sensitize us into achieving higher awareness and superhuman insights.

The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between a Little Craziness and A Lot of Success in America by John Gartner PhD. America was discovered and invented and re-invented by individuals with hypomanic default settings - from Columbus to geneticist Craig Ventner - contends Dr Gartner. The author convincingly argues that hypomania is a positive (though potentially dangerous) trait that is a legitimate part of our personality rather than a pathology that needs to be medicated out of us.

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Jamison PhD. THE bipolar memoir.

The Bell Jar: A Novel by Sylvia Plath. THE depression memoir.

Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament by Kay Jamison. There are other books exploring the bipolar-creativity connection, but this is the one that started the conversation.

Knowledge is Necessity

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