Review of Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D by Lizzie Simon

Lizzie Simon was diagnosed as bipolar when she was 17 years old. After a few years of fits and starts, she found herself wondering what it's like to live successfully with bipolar disorder: "I have this idea," she writes, "I want to find other bipolar people like me and interview them....I want to show that people survive this illness and live full lives. I want to figure out what worked in people who are success cases, and shift people's focus away from all the media attention on destructive and violent cases" (page 41).

So Lizzie takes a road trip (as hinted at in her book's title). Along the way, she meets disappointing cases--like "Nicholas," who remains in denial about his condition, and copes with his symptoms through alcohol and drug abuse. "Everybody I interviewed for this book is diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder, between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five, on medicine, and highly functional in society" (page 209)

Lizzie grows through the course of her Road Trip. At first, she sought a "herd" of people who were "just like her" for comfort. But what she later realizes is that she had always had a "herd": "My family is, of course, the original herd. They were the herd I'd always had, and when I was done wandering, they became the herd that welcomed me back. For that I am truly blessed" (page 205)

Simon's book is studded with this and other thought-provoking insights, for instance:

"People who dedicate themselves to personal growth do grow, and they get to enjoy their work almost every day of their lives" (page 207)

"We do not share the same illness, for we each experience it differently. But we do share the same diagnosis" (page 210)

For insights like this, readers will enjoy Lizzie Simon's book. I zoomed through it in a few days--it's readable, absorbing, and insightful.
 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1931680139