Manic Man follows the life of a young man called Jason Wegner, who was diagnosed with bipolar.

He recalls the time when his parents had called the paramedics to take him to the hospital.

The book shifts back to build up to when he started to get hypomanic, which grew into mania.

The book captures the big ideas that come with mania, excessive spending, and lack of sleep.

While manic, the author was writing a lot, including texting and posting on social media and making a lot of audio recordings. 

There are pictures of some of his writing inside the book and on the cover. Together, these different pieces give the reader excellent insights into mania.

The author describes how his friends and family were getting concerned about him and wondering if he was on drugs, but he didn’t have any insight into the fact that he was unwell.

About three-quarters of the way through the book, the author was hospitalized. 

He writes about appealing his admission to the hospital and includes quotes from the panel’s written reasons for keeping him detained. 

It’s pretty interesting to see that side of the story, along with excerpts from doctors’ notes in his chart.

The book then jumps to recovery, interrupted by a depressive episode. Jason worked closely with his psychologist Dr Bernes, who wrote the book’s foreword, and together they developed a holistic program for recovery that they called the Octagon of Life. 

Jason’s therapy included elements like exercise, nutrition, and exposure therapy (including writing this book) to process the traumatic experience of mania. Together, the eight features of the Octagon of Life allowed the author to rebuild his life and achieve post-traumatic growth, and the book takes a hopeful stance that recovery is possible. The author is now pursuing a career as a teacher.

The author shows a willingness to be vulnerable and open about his experiences, even those experiences that might be considered embarrassing. Manic Man presents a very genuine picture of what it’s like to be manic. I think this book would be a good choice for anyone looking to gain a better understanding of bipolar mania, and particularly for anyone who’s been newly diagnosed.

Manic Man is available on Amazon (affiliate link).