DBSA in Other Cities
To find other DBSA chapters, use the National DBSA group finder on their homepage.
Online Groups
Luckily there are many resources for people with mood disorders. If you can't make it to one of our in-person support groups, consider making an account on our National Website and join an online group.
Crisis Text Line
In a crisis you can confidentially work with a trained volunteer through text.
Meditation and Breathing Exercises
If you are having a hard time breathing or need help clearing your head, try out one of UCLA’s guided meditations or breathing exercises.
For a quick, soothing distraction, this app that can be accessed on your cell phone or computer.
Recommended Reading
Sometimes it is hard to imagine that anyone is like you or that anyone else has experienced what you are going through. During these times an excellent book can help remind us that we are not alone and that others with mood disorders have thrived.
Gorilla and the Bird, Zach McDermont
A memoir about Zack McDermont, a public defender with Bipolar 1, as he free-falls into psychosis and his desperate, poignant, often hilarious struggle to claw his way back to sanity. It's a journey that will take him from New York City back to his Kansas roots and to the one person who might be able to save him, his tough, big-hearted Midwestern mother, nicknamed the Bird, whose fierce and steadfast love is the light in Zack's dark world.
Dr. Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness; she has also experienced it firsthand. For even while she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, Jamison found herself succumbing to the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients, as her disorder launched her into ruinous spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempted suicide.
In this memoir, Jamison examines bipolar illness from the dual perspectives of the healer and the healed, revealing both its terrors and the cruel allure that at times prompted her to resist taking medication. An Unquiet Mind is a memoir of enormous candor, vividness, and wisdom—a deeply powerful book that has both transformed and saved lives.
I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying, Bassey Ikpi
In this beautiful memoir, Bassey Ikpi explores her life—as a Nigerian-American immigrant, a black woman, a slam poet, a mother, a daughter, an artist—through the lens of her mental health and diagnosis of bipolar II and anxiety. Her remarkable memoir in essays implodes our preconceptions of the mind and normalcy as Bassey bares her own truths and lies for us all to behold with radical honesty and brutal intimacy.
The Collected Schizophrenias, Esme Wang
Opening with the journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, Wang discusses the medical community’s own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing those with mental illness, and then follows an arc that examines the manifestations of schizophrenia in her life. In essays that range from using fashion to present as high-functioning to the depths of a rare form of psychosis, and from the failures of the higher education system and the dangers of institutionalization to the complexity of compounding factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease, Wang’s analytical eye, honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, allows her to balance research with personal narrative. An essay collection of undeniable power, The Collected Schizophrenias dispels misconceptions and provides insight into a condition long misunderstood.
Gary Gilberg, a mental health advocate and life coach, writes this literary novel combining elements of a memoir, threads of counseling and dialogue evocative of a movie script. Erik, a successful architect with a loving wife, wakes up in a psychiatric crisis center on a 72 hour hold. Struggling to fit together the jigsaw pieces of his shattered memory, Erik is desperate to reach his wife, Christy. When he calls, all he hears is her recording.
"Love and Prozac" is a raw, powerful and heartfelt story of despair, courage and resilience. It is a window into the human mind designed to engage and enlighten. At its core, it’s a love story, genuinely candid, often humorous and generously sprinkled with wisdom. Fifty percent of all Americans will suffer a bout of some form of mental illness during their lifetime, whether it be depression, anxiety, bulimia or other psychiatric disorders. These conditions are not character defects. They are medical in nature. "Love and Prozac" was written to help break the silence that stigmatizes half of the American public.
Join our mailing list
Contact Us:
(415) 758-1799