INTRODUCTION

It has been a passion of mine to help educational institutions such as schools, colleges, and universities implement evidence-based strategies to stop dangerous acts in their environment such as bullying. My genuinely commitment to this calling has culminated in the publication of books and online curriculum on bullying and hazing to name a few.

Having discourse with SJ Hart and reading her book on "Lies in Silence," I was inspired to write this book on "Your Answers to Bipolar Disorder: A Guide For Every Individual and Organization."

This experience added to my curiosity about how some of the research on best practices to address bullying (such as the ecological-system by Bronfenbrenner) might relate to strategies to support the needs of individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

• The book "Lies In Silence" gives readers an in-depth look at bipolar disorder, and how it runs rampant in the family. It gives examples of how the disease lies in silence in people through symptoms such as high energy level, loss of touch with reality and reduced need for sleep. Hart explains in the book how the genetically transmitted disease will destroy a person. Without a cure, the bipolar disease will take over the brain and will drive you to do something bad.

Having suicidal thoughts is a symptom of bipolar disorder. In her book, Hart describes this symptom as a "picture or suicidal movie theater" in a person's mind. The images are very scary, bloody, horrific and traumatizing. As the images linger in the person's brain, he or she will do anything to make the pain go away.

Hart pursued a bachelor and master's degree in Therapeutic Recreation. She understands the importance of providing people with bipolar disorder more useful information on the symptoms of mental illnesses and suicidal ideation. Hart is an advocate for suicide management and she helps people of all types who are suffering silently from the disease.

At a time when our country is wrestling with horrific murder and an epidemic of suicide often but not always due to mental illness, Hart's book will highlight the importance of providing counseling and treatment and understand mental illness as a brain disease.

Realizing the seriousness of bipolar disorder and how it impacts an alarming number of people in the U.S. and abroad, I decided to attend the 2018 Young Gifted & @ Risk Symposium (YGAR) in Austin, Texas; and the 2018 Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) International Conference in Kansas, City Missouri to supplement the writing for this book. The YGAR Symposium seeks to promote awareness among families, students, faculty members of higher education, mental health professional, etc. about the risk to mental health such as imposter syndrome, microaggressions, discrimination, marginalization, and isolation experienced by college students of color.

The CIT program is a community partnership of mental health, addiction professionals and law enforcement, persons who live with mental illness and/or addiction disorders, their family members and other advocates. Additionally, CIT program "is an innovative first-responder model of police-based crisis intervention training to help persons with mental disorders and /or addictions access medical treatment rather than place them in the criminal justice system due to illness related behaviors."

The CIT conference was most informative and meaningful. One key highlight of the conference was when Keynote Speaker Paton Blough talked about his struggle with bipolar disorder and how he managed to overcome a divorce, altercations with police officers, six arrests, and imprisonment with the support of organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Another key highlight was when Session Speaker Thomas Hemert led a humbling and powerful discussion on understanding mental illness by having the participants to listen to an audio and hear the experience of what individuals with psychiatric disabilities are challenged with on a daily basis.

Thus, this book will discuss useful and resourceful information about bipolar disorder and particularly "what to know" to assist individuals living with bipolar disorder and organizations working with individuals diagnosed with the brain disorder. Since bipolar disorder is a mental illness, this book will start with the critical question, what is mental health?

What is Mental Health?

Mental health represents a person's social, psychological, and emotional well-being. It has an impact on how a person acts, feels, and thinks. Mental health also helps assess how a person makes decisions, relates to people, and handles stressful situations (Mental Health.gov).

According to Mary Giliberti, chief executive officer of the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), 44 million people in this country live with mental illness; and one out of every five people struggle with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. As posted on NAMI's website, the following are additional statistics highlighting the prevalence of mental illness:

• In a given year, approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. (43.8 million) experiences mental illness.

• In a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major activities, approximately 1 in 25 adults in the U.S. (9.8 million) experiences a serious mental illness.

• At some point during their life, approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13-18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder; the estimate is 13% for children aged 8-15.

• In the U.S., 1.1% of adults live with schizophrenia and 2.6% live with bipolar disorder.

• In the past year, 6.9% of adults in the U.S. (16 million) had at least one major depressive episode.

• In the U.S., 18.1% of adults experienced an anxiety disorder such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and specific phobias.

• In the U.S., among the 20.2 million adults who experienced a substance use disorder, 50.5% (10.2 million) adults had a co-occurring mental illness.

• In the past year, only 41% of adults in the U.S. with a mental health condition received health services.

• In the past year, approximately 50.6% of children with a mental health condition aged 8-15 received mental health services.

• By age 14, half of all chronic mental...