Birth of a New Brain: Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder

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. Birth of a New Brain is the chronicle of one mother’s perseverance, offering hope and grounded advice for those battling mental illness.. When a new mother becomes manic overnight from a rare form of bipolar disorder, she stops at nothing to find the mental stability she needs to stay alive.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. She discovered that despite having a chronic mood disorder, a new, richer life is possible. 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 bo

Harwood lives in Ben Lomond, California, with her two daughters, husband, and Scotch collie.Dr. She founded a chapter of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) and facilitated free support groups for women for nine years. Henshaw is a former president of the International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health, a scientific societ

New moms are often unaware that this condition manifests in the complicated ways Dyane Harwood brings to life with her vivid, compelling prose, and even seasoned clinicians can miss the signs of postpartum hypomania or mania. Verinder Sharma, Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada)"Birth of a New Brain is essential reading not only for mental health care professionals, but for anyone who is suffering or knows someone who has been affected by bipolar disorder or a perinatal mood disorder. Pipich, M.S., LMFT, Therapist, Author, National Speaker on Bipolar Disorder)"Birth of a New Brain is an important contribution to our understanding of postpartum bipolar disorder. In sharing her story of postpartum mania, she poignantly describes the association between bipolar disorder and the exacerbation of symptoms triggered by chi