Stigma causes her to war against the medication for many years, and soon unchecked mania leads to the darkest depression of her life and a suicide attempt. She begins psychotherapy and a regimen of lithium. At 28, Jamison has a psychotic break and must finally accept her manic-depressive illness. Jamison is able to find in graduate school both the loose structure and understanding mentors necessary for her academic success. While an undergraduate, her academic transcript and personal finances suffer due to the unmanageable nature of her moods. On the way to tenure, Jamison does not seek help for her illness but lives powerless to its terrible highs and lows. Jamison then tells of her time at UCLA, where she attended both undergraduate and graduate school. Jamison's childhood is as defined by her father's unstable moods as it is by her own, and An Unquiet Mind is as much a story of the consequences of the genetically inheritable nature of the disease. She discusses her family, which included a mother, father, sister, and brother, and examines their moods within the context of her own. She begins with a summary of her early life, focusing in particular on her military-family upbringing on Air Force bases. A rumination on how the illness both influenced and impacted the decisions she made, Jamison's memoir uses the author's clinical knowledge of the illness in order to analyze her own past. Kay Jamison tells the story of her struggle with manic-depressive illness.
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