Bipolar Girl: My Psychotic Self relates a 28-year journey of self survival. It is also an odyssey that will touch many lives. The author believes bipolar disorder is an illness that can make you stronger and more resilient. Estrada describes bipolar disorder as an illness that changes the way you think, feel and perceive. “Thoughts of death flood your mind. Suicide symbolizes escape and when you’re manic it just causes a happy high, but lethal behavior. With that are psychotic features like delusions and hallucinations. You are in another world far from sanity. At the end of the rollercoaster you’ll soon discover you were always strong enough to survive it.”  

Estrada grew up the youngest of five in a poor and violent neighborhood in East Los Angeles. Raised by a widowed Mexican mother, she felt completely alone most of her life. Her isolation and depression only increased as she got older. Estrada attempted suicide for the first time when she was 14. Four years after her attempt, she fell into a psychotic and delusional episode and her family had no choice but to put her in a mental hospital where she was diagnosed with bipolar.

 

About the Author



Maricela Estrada lives in Rosemead, California. She received her bachelor of arts in communications with an emphasis in public relations from Cal State University in Fullerton. She uses her own experiences to help her work at The Friendship Line, a non-crisis talk line affiliated with Mental Health America of Los Angeles. Her next book, Beautiful Bipolar Bisexual, continues her story.