Life Interrupted: A Bipolar Memoir, by Samantha Smirin

In 1988, at the age of 18, Samantha Smirin is diagnosed with Bipolar Affective Mood Disorder 1. Within an hour she is sent blindfolded, without an explanation, and checked into a mental health institution.

Samantha is stamped with a 'bipolar' label that becomes the trajectory for her tortured existence. For the next three decades, she will wind through a maze of anguished suffering, accompanied by memory-effacing medical interventions, heaps of pills and enticingly repellent hallucinations. She yo-yos between acceptance and denial of her diagnosis. Time and time again believing she is well, she plummets into the devastating chasm of her illness.

Through a series of enlightening encounters and hard-fought-for realisations, she finally manages to transform herself. Acceptance finds its breath, and so does she. Today Samantha lives an inspiring life reclaimed.