Living Well with Bipolar Disorder provides targeted, evidence-based practical strategies for coping with the numerous daily challenges encountered by people with the disorder and family members. It is organized by the common vexing questions that the author’s patients have posed over the years. To enable readers to easily identify their own current, urgent concerns and acquire succinct, targeted solutions. The questions addressed include:
How can you have a higher quality of life – with good relationships, satisfying work, and an optimistic view - despite living with this often-painful disorder?
What can you do other than take medications?
What about the problems introduced by medications themselves?
How can you keep substance abuse from ruling your life?
How can you maintain good physical health when your moods destroy your motivation to do so?
How do you explain the disorder to potential partners or employers?
How can you use family members and friends to help with stability?
In addition to being a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Child and Adolescent Mood Disorders Program at the UCLA Semel Institute, Dr. Miklowitz is also Visiting Professor of Psychiatry at Oxford University in the UK. His research focuses on family environmental factors and family interventions for kids and adults with mood or psychotic disorders. His work has helped establish the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions as adjuncts to medication for bipolar disorder across age ranges. Dr. Miklowitz has published over 400 research articles and 8 books, including Bipolar Disorder: A Family-Focused Treatment Approach and The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide, an international bestseller with over 350,000 copies in print and translated into 8 languages. He has received numerous awards for his research including most recently, the Mood Disorders Research Award from the American College of Psychiatrists, one of only two psychologists to have done so.
Michael J. Gitlin, MD, Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Gitlin is currently the Director of the Adult Division in the Department of Psychiatry; Interim Director of the Geriatric Division in the Department of Psychiatry; Medical Director of the Neuropsychiatric Behavioral Health Services; and Director of the Mood Disorders Clinic at the UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital.
Robyn Mandelberg, PhD is a founding member of the Friends of the Semel Institute and serves on the executive board. She is also co-chair of the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Council and a member of the quality committee. Dr. Mandelberg currently facilitates in person peer-to-peer support groups on the inpatient unit at Resnick through the National Alliance on Mental Health Westside LA (NAMI) and speaks about the importance of mental health to middle and high school students in Los Angeles. Dr. Mandelberg did her post-doctoral fellowship at the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center. She identifies herself as a grateful patient who strives to give back to the community of UCLA and beyond.