Birth of a New Brain, Dyane Harwood
Birth of a New Brain, Dyane Harwood
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
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Birth of a New Brain
Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder

Author: Dyane Harwood, Dr. Carol Henshaw

Narrator: Randye Kaye

Unabridged: 7 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/23/2020


Synopsis

After the birth of her baby triggers a manic maelstrom, Dyane Harwood struggles to survive the bewildering highs and crippling lows of her brain's turmoil. Birth of a New Brain vividly depicts her postpartum bipolar disorder, an unusual type of bipolar disorder and postpartum mood and anxiety disorder.

During her childhood, Harwood grew up close to her father, a brilliant violinist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic who had bipolar disorder. She learned how bipolar disorder could ravage a family, but she never suspected that she'd become mentally ill—until her baby was born.

Harwood wondered if mental health would always be out of her reach. From medications to electroconvulsive therapy, from "redwood forest baths" to bibliotherapy, she explored both traditional and unconventional methods of recovery—in-between harrowing psychiatric hospitalizations.

Harwood reveals how she ultimately achieved a stable mood. She discovered that despite having a chronic mood disorder, a new, richer life is possible. Birth of a New Brain is the chronicle of one mother's perseverance, offering hope and grounded advice for those battling mental illness.

About Dyane Harwood

Dyane Harwood holds a BA in English and American literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz. A freelance writer for two decades, she has interviewed bestselling authors including Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, Anthony Bourdain, and SARK. In 2007, Harwood was diagnosed with postpartum bipolar disorder (bipolar, peripartum onset).

Harwood has been profiled in the Huffington Post about her postpartum mental health advocacy. PsychCentral honored Harwood as a Mental Health Hero, and the International Bipolar Foundation featured her as a "Story of Hope and Recovery." Harwood has written about postpartum bipolar disorder for the Mighty, Anchor Magazine, Postpartum Support International, Postpartum Progress, and the Stigma Fighters Anthology. She founded a chapter of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) and facilitated free support groups for women for nine years. Harwood lives in Ben Lomond, California, with her two daughters, husband, and Scotch collie.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tucker on May 24, 2020

I blew through this because it was amazing. It was a heartbreaking and honest story of something only a truely brave person could survive. This was well written and I could tell the author poured her heart and soul into writing this. I especially loved all pictures at the end of the chapters. | Goodr......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on November 14, 2018

Please visit my blog at [URL not allowed] Birth of A New Brain: Healing From Postpartum Bipolar Disorder By Dyane Harwood Post Hill Press, October 10, 2017 272 Pages, PDF Author Review Copy Adult Memoir/Non-fiction From Goodreads "When a new mother becomes manic overnight from a rare form of......more

Goodreads review by Kitt on October 10, 2017

Dyane Harwood thrilled me when she sent me an advance copy of her memoir, Birth of a New Brain: Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder. (I pre-ordered it and was anxiously awaiting it’s October 2017 release.) Her memoir fills a much-needed niche in sharing the experience of bipolar disorder, p......more

Goodreads review by Leslie on April 06, 2018

A gripping account of one woman's battle with the little known and relatively rare postpartum on-set biploar. When I was pregnant, my husband heard on NPR that a mother's brain drastically changes during pregnancy and then again again during labor/delivery.It's why some expecting mothers are a litt......more

Goodreads review by Marie on August 29, 2017

Indeed, a new Brain can be born even from the deepest dark of a debilitating mental illness Mental illness is more often than not associated with incompetence, fragility, frugality, vulnerability, undesirability: I don’t make that association however, and memoirs like Dyane’s make a pale of those who......more