"Bipolar Disorder - My Biggest Competitor: An Olympian's Journey with Mental Illness" by Amy Gamble

​  Amy Gamble, the author, had it all; she worked for a large pharmaceutical company, had many friends, a loving supportive family, and was an Olympic basketball player.

​  She was dealt the card of Bipolar Disorder from her family history.  Dealing with her mom’s and sister’s mental illness crises impacted her mentally and emotionally.  These were the main triggering events into the depths of the disorder.

  After Amy’s onset she bounced from severe depression to high manias; buying vehicles, an RV, disappearing to travel over all over states without anyone knowing her whereabouts, and even to the extreme of a close call with death.
  Yet throughout her illness, when she was taking her medications, Amy rebounded back to an elevated position in her career. However, when she did not comply with her medication regime her symptoms of depression and grandiose mania would return.  She had numerous admissions to psychiatric units across the country and even jail time.

  Amy finally accepted that she truly had a severe mental illness and chose the road to recovery.
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  What I found of importance in Amy Gamble’s life story, “Bipolar Disorder – My Biggest Competitor:  An Olympian’s Journey with Mental Illness”, is that she has held back no details, no sugar coating, in her firsthand experiences with Bipolar Disorder with hopes that others, with mental illnesses, will take their mental health seriously to avoid the pitfalls, mistakes, losses, and consequences that had occurred in her life.