Mad, not mad: how one woman overcame her demons

Emily Reynolds is mad. At least, that’s the word used on the promotional blurb for her mental health memoir, A Beginner’s Guide To Losing Your Mind. Reynolds was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at a relatively young age, in her 20s, after many years of grappling with her own mind.

In her teenage days, doctors dismissed her symptoms as part and parcel of adolescence. She describes the blessed, hard-won moment of diagnosis as “the ...