Marya Hornbacher

• Hornbacher was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 24, in 1997, after years of mental-health difficulties that had also included eating disorders and substance use. [5]
• She later identified the diagnosis more specifically as rapid-cycling bipolar I disorder and made it the central subject of her 2008 memoir Madness: A Bipolar Life. In interviews, Hornbacher has said she wrote the book partly to challenge misconceptions about what bipolar disorder looks like. [1][5]

• Hornbacher has described severe manic episodes involving impaired judgment, compulsive spending and self-harm. During one episode, she cut an artery while severely manic and then called 911 after realizing she could die. [4]
• She has also described severe depression and very rapid changes in mood. In one account, she described moving from feeling well early in the day to suicidal thoughts later that day. [5]
• Hornbacher said that during one particularly unstable period she spent two years “in and out of psych wards.” [5]

• Hornbacher has said her treatment has included medication, therapy and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In 2008, The Washington Post reported that she was taking six psychiatric medications daily and receiving ECT during major episodes. [5]
• By 2018, she said she was taking far fewer medications and needed less therapy than before. She has also described sleep, regular eating and sobriety as important parts of managing her mental health. [1]

• By 2018, Hornbacher said she had not been hospitalized since 2007 and no longer generally experienced extreme mania, although she still experienced periods of hypomania and depression. She said bipolar disorder was no longer a central feature of how she understood herself and that when symptoms returned, she addressed them and continued with her life and work. [1]
• Hornbacher has described recovery not as the disappearance of bipolar disorder, but as becoming better at recognizing and managing symptoms when they return. She has said that an important part of this is remembering during severe states that they will eventually pass. [1]

• Hornbacher has said that one reason she wrote Madness was to challenge misconceptions about bipolar disorder. She has argued that severe mental illness should not be treated as a “death sentence” or as something that prevents people from building meaningful lives. [1]
• She has also described storytelling as a way of reducing stigma, arguing that specific accounts of mental illness can gradually change how people understand it. [6]

“Yes, I have bipolar, but for me now, after all this time, it is like having diabetes.”

— Marya Hornbacher [1]