Andy Behrman
Andy Behrman
Andy Behrman was born 1962 and is an American writer of non-fiction as well as a mental health advocate and national speaker. He is the author of Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania which was published by Random House in 2002. "Electroboy" traces his career dealing forgeries of the art of Mark Kostabi. Behrman was formerly a spokesman for Bristol Myers Squibb until he publicly criticized them for their marketing techniques and made a YouTube video titled, "Abilify Kills." Behrman lives...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
lying littles bed
The little depression I experienced during my manic-depression was not like depression as anyone else had ever described it. It was very violent and angry, and I was full of rage. I wasnt lying in bed.
sleep night four
Most nights, I'm good for only four or five hours of sleep. That leaves the other 20. I have to fill them some way.
imagination people figments
My manic depression was ravaging my life, but because nobody could see it, many people thought it was a figment of my imagination.
mean years cycling
I am a rapid-cycling manic-depressive, bi-polar one disorder, which means I can have thirty or forty episodes a year, and I used to have thirty to forty episodes a year.
attitude people get-better
As no one knew much about my mental illness, a lot of people had the attitude that I had the capability to 'kick it' and get better instantly. This was the most frustrating attitude for me.
eyelashes sound thunder
When I'm manic, I'm so awake and alert, that my eyelashes fluttering on the pillow sound like thunder.
pain unique agony
Like Sylvia Plath, Natalie Jeanne Champagne invites you so close to the pain and agony of her life of mental illness and addiction, which leaves you gasping from shock and laughing moments later: this is both the beauty and unique nature of her storytelling. With brilliance and courage, the author's brave and candid chronicle travels where no other memoir about mental illness and addiction has gone before. The Third Sunrise is an incredible triumph and Natalie Jeanne Champagne is without a doubt the most important new voice in this genre.
successful shopping clothes
Weekly $25,000 shopping binges at Barney's and "high end" boutiques for clothes I barely wore were the norm. So were lavish meals with friends where I picked up $1000 tabs. These high-priced activities were within my limits because I was extremely successful financially, a testament to my manic behavior, not to mention my involvement in illegal activities.
broken guilt six
The guilt I felt for having a mental illness was horrible. I prayed for a broken bone that would heal in six weeks. But that never happened. I was cursed with an illness that nobody could see and nobody knew much about.
act argentina dinners dollars flying included manic middle paris simply spending symptoms taking thousands train york
Like most manic depressives, some of my symptoms included racing thoughts that I simply had to act upon - flying from New York to Paris and taking the train to Berlin; flying to Argentina in the middle of the night; spending tens of thousands of dollars on unnecessary garments, dinners and gifts.
people
I think, when it comes to psychiatry, that a lot of people are overmedicated. I think when it comes to ECT a lot of people go through too much. I think there's a lot of guesswork in psychiatry.
accuse mental people
People accuse me of glamorizing mental illness. Looking back sometimes, that's true. But I don't feel guilty.
call manic opposite people sound type
Manic depression is a type of depression, technically, and it's the opposite of uni-polar. Manic depression is also called bi-polar disorder. Some people don't like to call it that because they think it makes it sound too nice, when the reality is if you have manic-depression you have manic-depression.
again diagnosed graduation june less moved session
After graduation in June of 1984, I moved to Manhattan. My first stop was a psychiatrist, who in less than our first fifty-minute session again diagnosed me with depression.