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Balancing Act: Writing Through a Bipolar Life
Balancing Act - Writing Through a Bipolar Life offers hope to those living with mental illness and their loved ones, educates the public about mental health, and fights stigma against those living with mental illness by challenging stereotypes.
Kitt O’Malley’s writing recounts her struggle with bipolar disorder, the two decades it took to get a proper diagnosis, and how her journey ultimately gave her purpose. Ms. O’Malley writes to balance living with bipolar disorder with her volunteer work as a mental health advocate and caretaker of her son and parents.
Kitt O’Malley’s writing recounts her struggle with bipolar disorder, the two decades it took to get a proper diagnosis, and how her journey ultimately gave her purpose. Ms. O’Malley writes to balance living with bipolar disorder with her volunteer work as a mental health advocate and caretaker of her son and parents.
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First published April 7, 2018
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10 people want to read
About the author
Kitt O'Malley
3 books23 followersKitt O’Malley, the author of Balancing Act: Writing Through a Bipolar Life, is a mental health advocate and former psychotherapist who lives with bipolar disorder. Both her personal experience and clinical background inform her writing and enable her to help herself and guide people towards mental health recovery.
O’Malley has a bachelor’s in legal studies from UC Berkeley, a master’s in psychology from New College of California, and has attended seminary. Her writing has been featured online with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) California and the Depression and Bipolar Alliance (DBSA). Visit kittomalley.com for more information.
O’Malley has a bachelor’s in legal studies from UC Berkeley, a master’s in psychology from New College of California, and has attended seminary. Her writing has been featured online with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) California and the Depression and Bipolar Alliance (DBSA). Visit kittomalley.com for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 31, 2019
"Balancing Act: Writing Through A Bipolar Life" is an extraordinarily useful, fascinating book. Kitt O’Malley shares rich insights about living with bipolar disorder as she navigates being a mother, a caregiver for her aging parents, and much more. "Balancing Act" is imbued with compelling honesty. Written from a place of compassion informed by Kitt’s background as a psychotherapist, this account will help anyone affected by bipolar disorder. "Balancing Act" is a refreshing and original addition to mental health literature!
August 26, 2022
Reading this book was like taking a journey inside Kitt O'Malley's bipolar head. Who shared her experience with bipolar disorder and being a wife, a mom and a caregiver to her parents.
At first the book felt like disjointed diary entries, which was confusing. But through the pages, it becomes really interesting!
One thing really annoyed me is the repetition of some of the details, which could be due to the entries being blog posts!
Getting to know more about bipolar from the author's personal experiences and challenges is a great reading material, and add to that the good smooth language the book was written in, is icing on the cake.
Thanks to booktasters and the author for providing a copy.
At first the book felt like disjointed diary entries, which was confusing. But through the pages, it becomes really interesting!
One thing really annoyed me is the repetition of some of the details, which could be due to the entries being blog posts!
Getting to know more about bipolar from the author's personal experiences and challenges is a great reading material, and add to that the good smooth language the book was written in, is icing on the cake.
Thanks to booktasters and the author for providing a copy.
October 17, 2023
Kitt writes with rare insight and intelligence about her bipolar condition - insight further advanced by her roles as a therapist and peer supporter of others with the disorder. The same sincerity and warmth that the author exudes in her leadership through NAMI and as an outspoken champion of mental health come across in the emotional effectiveness of her prose.
March 23, 2022
I wrote it, so I'm biased.
July 7, 2022
The book opens with a detailed summary of Kitt’s mental health journey. Starting from her hopes and dreams as a gifted child, through her challenges in college and as a mother of a child with chronic illnesses, all the way to her advocacy through the (US) National Alliance on Mental Illness and the International Bipolar Foundation. The subsequent sections include blog posts relating to how Kitt navigated her bipolar thoughts, as well as her life as a mental health advocate and caretaker to her son and parents. The end of the book contains valuable information on the signs, symptoms and treatment options for bipolar disorder as well as mental health resources in the US.
As the book is a collection of blog posts, there is an ease of readability throughout. It felt like reading a memoir in diary form, with poems and life updates mixed in with details on Kitt’s thoughts and feelings as she dealt with her life changes and mental health challenges.
I think a final round of proofreading would’ve caught the few formatting issues, but they weren’t too distracting while I read. Dating the blog posts would have been helpful, as descriptions of some of the life events included were repeated in multiple posts.
The book contains many valuable insights into the mentally and physically exhausting life of someone living with bipolar disorder. I was interested to learn about how the author managed her treatment options – relying on both identifying and avoiding triggers in addition to taking prescribed medication and the necessary supplements.
Balancing Act does not just inform, but fosters awareness and compassion for those having to work hard at coping with, and eventually thriving, despite being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Recommended for both those facing mental health challenges as well as their families and friends.
Many thanks to Booktasters and the author for a free copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.
As the book is a collection of blog posts, there is an ease of readability throughout. It felt like reading a memoir in diary form, with poems and life updates mixed in with details on Kitt’s thoughts and feelings as she dealt with her life changes and mental health challenges.
I think a final round of proofreading would’ve caught the few formatting issues, but they weren’t too distracting while I read. Dating the blog posts would have been helpful, as descriptions of some of the life events included were repeated in multiple posts.
The book contains many valuable insights into the mentally and physically exhausting life of someone living with bipolar disorder. I was interested to learn about how the author managed her treatment options – relying on both identifying and avoiding triggers in addition to taking prescribed medication and the necessary supplements.
Balancing Act does not just inform, but fosters awareness and compassion for those having to work hard at coping with, and eventually thriving, despite being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Recommended for both those facing mental health challenges as well as their families and friends.
Many thanks to Booktasters and the author for a free copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.
September 27, 2019
Everyone with mental illness knows that managing their disease is a balancing act. Kitt O’Malley, a mental health advocate with bipolar disorder and blogger at the eponymous kittomalley.com, knows this all too well.
O’Malley collected the best posts of her blog into a book titled, appropriately, Balancing Act: Writing Through a Bipolar Life. I was offered an advanced reader copy in exchange for a review, which I am glad to give.
This book is excellent. As a former Marriage and Family Therapist and fellow bipolar sufferer, O’Malley is uniquely qualified to write about the disorder and how it affects her life, as well of those of her loved ones. In the first and second sections, O’Malley clearly lays out the symptoms of her bipolar disorder (first diagnosed as bipolar II, now recently changed to bipolar I), as well as her mental health journey. The third section, Bipolar Thoughts, is an eloquent, haunting collection of posts detailing her “ramping” up in hypomania, and the debilitating dives into depression. The fourth section, Write With Purpose, describes what writing means to O’Malley and how the art fuels her activism. The fifth section, Caretake, is a description of her managing her son’s struggles with chronic illnesses, as well as helping her aging parents–both who suffer from dementia–navigate multiple care homes.
I highly recommend Balancing Act.
O’Malley collected the best posts of her blog into a book titled, appropriately, Balancing Act: Writing Through a Bipolar Life. I was offered an advanced reader copy in exchange for a review, which I am glad to give.
This book is excellent. As a former Marriage and Family Therapist and fellow bipolar sufferer, O’Malley is uniquely qualified to write about the disorder and how it affects her life, as well of those of her loved ones. In the first and second sections, O’Malley clearly lays out the symptoms of her bipolar disorder (first diagnosed as bipolar II, now recently changed to bipolar I), as well as her mental health journey. The third section, Bipolar Thoughts, is an eloquent, haunting collection of posts detailing her “ramping” up in hypomania, and the debilitating dives into depression. The fourth section, Write With Purpose, describes what writing means to O’Malley and how the art fuels her activism. The fifth section, Caretake, is a description of her managing her son’s struggles with chronic illnesses, as well as helping her aging parents–both who suffer from dementia–navigate multiple care homes.
I highly recommend Balancing Act.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2019
It takes someone who really knows what it is like to write about it this way. An excellent book to read. Great insights into the life and the tight rope we must walk. One of those books I wish my family would take the time to read and maybe hearing it from someone else will help them understand better.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
November 4, 2019
This was a great book. I could related to a lot of what she was talking about and the situations that she was in. It helped to put into perspective the mental health issues and how to actual cope with them.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
May 5, 2022
BOOK:-BALANCING ACT-WRITING THROUGH A BIPOLAR LIFE BY KITT O'MALLEY
BOOK REVIEWER:- OKOKO AYEZU TAMARAPREYE.
SYNOPSIS:
A mental health advocacy book that preaches knowing yourself just as the author , amongst other tools to manage bipolar disorder and bipolar and being in control of the situation and the illness.The author uses her personal life sharing her bipolar thoughts; compilation of her blog posts;poems to teach her readers the task of mental health management and also having the recommendation of the right medication.Even as she questions whether she is bipolar or has a bipolar disorder in this book, the reader is drawn to the difference between being bipolar or having bipolar 1 or 11 or any of the other types.The book treats both mental health issue of her movement from Oregon to California; the stress involved and geographical cure and mental illness of bipolar disorder which is a mental health illness and could be pregnancy induced.On the whole it is a great read for mental health issues and mental illness especially managing family life,parenting and a life in social media.
LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE BOOK READ:-
🤸 Identify and restructure distorted and negative thoughts to help in the way the patient feels and behaves.
🤸Replace such negative distorted thoughts with realistic ones.
🤸See a psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
🤸Know your triggers and stressors and reduce same with coping mechanism and techniques such as self care; avoiding caffeine after noon,e.t.c.
🤸Adjusting goals to live successfully with bipolar as she did adjust her goals.
🤸Need to suppress ego and not see people's words as an attack on your person to help with bipolar as seen in the author in her encounter with the woman whose mother had been diagnosed with a manic depressive psychosis and who wanted protection for children of mental illness.
🤸 Condemnation of churches ostracizing and demonizing the mentally ill.
🤸The take home message from holy Friday that God knows our pain for Jesus as God incarnate, suffered and we are not alone in our suffering.
🤸 Menopause as a trigger of mental health disorder.
APPLICATION OF LESSONS LEARNT:
Ostracizing of mental health patients being in condemnation by the author speaks of the right of everyone to associate so long as they don't impinge on the right of others.
By application we also learn that sometimes having bipolar or bipolar disorder has to do with the frequency of the symptoms ; severity and ability to balance the situation.
BOOK REVIEWER:- OKOKO AYEZU TAMARAPREYE.
SYNOPSIS:
A mental health advocacy book that preaches knowing yourself just as the author , amongst other tools to manage bipolar disorder and bipolar and being in control of the situation and the illness.The author uses her personal life sharing her bipolar thoughts; compilation of her blog posts;poems to teach her readers the task of mental health management and also having the recommendation of the right medication.Even as she questions whether she is bipolar or has a bipolar disorder in this book, the reader is drawn to the difference between being bipolar or having bipolar 1 or 11 or any of the other types.The book treats both mental health issue of her movement from Oregon to California; the stress involved and geographical cure and mental illness of bipolar disorder which is a mental health illness and could be pregnancy induced.On the whole it is a great read for mental health issues and mental illness especially managing family life,parenting and a life in social media.
LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE BOOK READ:-
🤸 Identify and restructure distorted and negative thoughts to help in the way the patient feels and behaves.
🤸Replace such negative distorted thoughts with realistic ones.
🤸See a psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
🤸Know your triggers and stressors and reduce same with coping mechanism and techniques such as self care; avoiding caffeine after noon,e.t.c.
🤸Adjusting goals to live successfully with bipolar as she did adjust her goals.
🤸Need to suppress ego and not see people's words as an attack on your person to help with bipolar as seen in the author in her encounter with the woman whose mother had been diagnosed with a manic depressive psychosis and who wanted protection for children of mental illness.
🤸 Condemnation of churches ostracizing and demonizing the mentally ill.
🤸The take home message from holy Friday that God knows our pain for Jesus as God incarnate, suffered and we are not alone in our suffering.
🤸 Menopause as a trigger of mental health disorder.
APPLICATION OF LESSONS LEARNT:
Ostracizing of mental health patients being in condemnation by the author speaks of the right of everyone to associate so long as they don't impinge on the right of others.
By application we also learn that sometimes having bipolar or bipolar disorder has to do with the frequency of the symptoms ; severity and ability to balance the situation.
July 17, 2022
This book feels like a memoir of journal entries with the thoughts, feelings and experiences documented within the book. There are mentions of the author’s past experiences that shaped the person she became, her family members, and what she thought when she came across new things that came into her life at the time of writing the book. And I think that’s really interesting.
To really see from the lens and the world of the author as a person, someone who lives with bipolar. It really makes me understand bipolar disorder a little better, and how someone may think and react because of that. More than just a bipolar patient, the author also shares a glimpse of her life as a writer and mental health blogger. She also shared her small wins and how sometimes ‘taking a bath is an achievement' on its own, and I think that’s very important too. Small wins!
Overall, the book presents a very honest view of the inner world of the author, which I commend. I really love her honesty and bravery in publishing this book, and I could imagine that it must’ve been not easy at all to share these intense thoughts.
She also wrote about the different types of bipolar disorder, and the other illness as well. Some signs, symptoms, and how bipolar can be a little hard to diagnose since they could be similar. Risk factors, therapies, medication, other treatment options and more are found near the end of the book, which I found very helpful.
All in all, I thought it was a great book, and I hope readers of her book would either relate to or understand bipolar disorder a little more as I did.
To really see from the lens and the world of the author as a person, someone who lives with bipolar. It really makes me understand bipolar disorder a little better, and how someone may think and react because of that. More than just a bipolar patient, the author also shares a glimpse of her life as a writer and mental health blogger. She also shared her small wins and how sometimes ‘taking a bath is an achievement' on its own, and I think that’s very important too. Small wins!
Overall, the book presents a very honest view of the inner world of the author, which I commend. I really love her honesty and bravery in publishing this book, and I could imagine that it must’ve been not easy at all to share these intense thoughts.
She also wrote about the different types of bipolar disorder, and the other illness as well. Some signs, symptoms, and how bipolar can be a little hard to diagnose since they could be similar. Risk factors, therapies, medication, other treatment options and more are found near the end of the book, which I found very helpful.
All in all, I thought it was a great book, and I hope readers of her book would either relate to or understand bipolar disorder a little more as I did.
August 10, 2022
Kitt O’Malley shares such rich insights about living with bipolar as she takes us through motherhood, looking after her parents, and much more. "Balancing Act" is imbued with compelling honesty. The book is written from a place of compassion informed by Author’s background as a psychotherapist. Her account will help anyone affected by bipolar disorder. "Balancing Act" is a refreshing and original addition to the mental health literature.
September 26, 2022
Very eye opening!
This book was very eye opening, a look into the thoughts of someone struggling with mental health. The daily struggles that they contend with that others may take for granted and not understand.
There does seem to be a kind of formatting issue in the ebook (I am reading on the kindle app of my iPhone) where some sentences are chopped. It did not take away from the overall book for me though.
This book was very eye opening, a look into the thoughts of someone struggling with mental health. The daily struggles that they contend with that others may take for granted and not understand.
There does seem to be a kind of formatting issue in the ebook (I am reading on the kindle app of my iPhone) where some sentences are chopped. It did not take away from the overall book for me though.
June 26, 2022
A book that is written by a patient and a psychiatrist at the same time, written simply and divided into small parts to make the reading experience easy.
The book gives good info about the brain and mental triggers and helps understanding the suffering of bipolar patients and their struggle to fit in.
The book gives good info about the brain and mental triggers and helps understanding the suffering of bipolar patients and their struggle to fit in.
June 30, 2022
Confused. That's what I was left feeling after finishing reading the book. All parts felt like disjointed diary entries with really no flow. For a book titled balancing act, the boom lacked balance and had poor flow if content. Wasn't a pleasant reading experience and needs a lot of editing to make a cohesive read.
January 8, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and inspiring.
This is a first-person account of one individual's challenging and brave journey with depression and bipolar disorder, all the while struggling to cope with the problems of her immediate family and attempting to deal with all the 'stuff' that everyday life can throw at you. Written in a crisp, easy-to-read style, this is suitable for people who have an interest in the subject and also for general readers. Highly recommended!
This is a first-person account of one individual's challenging and brave journey with depression and bipolar disorder, all the while struggling to cope with the problems of her immediate family and attempting to deal with all the 'stuff' that everyday life can throw at you. Written in a crisp, easy-to-read style, this is suitable for people who have an interest in the subject and also for general readers. Highly recommended!
March 24, 2020
Personal In Depth Account of Mental Issue
This book was written by a mental health professional about her own unique struggles with bipolar disorder. It gives you an inside idea of the working of the brain it's ideas, emotions , confused thoughts and it's effect physically on the body. This book will help other's understand the mental and physical pain of mental illness. And hopefully help them to make better meds and/or therapies for each disorder. And help others show more compassion and caring toward the mentally ill in our society and other's. Job well done very educational, emotional and opened herself and her life completely to other's. Unafraid and fearless.
This book was written by a mental health professional about her own unique struggles with bipolar disorder. It gives you an inside idea of the working of the brain it's ideas, emotions , confused thoughts and it's effect physically on the body. This book will help other's understand the mental and physical pain of mental illness. And hopefully help them to make better meds and/or therapies for each disorder. And help others show more compassion and caring toward the mentally ill in our society and other's. Job well done very educational, emotional and opened herself and her life completely to other's. Unafraid and fearless.
December 23, 2019
Balancing Act is as real as it gets for someone living with bipolar disorder. I've experienced so much what O'Malley talks about, the good and the bad. She is a great advocate and writer, one who puts her heart in her words. This book has given me renewed courage and hope as I continue on my journey of ongoing recovery.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews