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Review: ‘Bipolar Disorder:  My Biggest Competitor’ by Amy Gamble

Amy Gamble is a champion for mental health, advocating for awareness, improved care and the removal of stigma. In her book, she painstakingly describes the details of her own battle with bipolar disorder that led her from the U.S. Olympic team to a prosperous career for a top Fortune 500 company to the side of a mountain during a snowstorm to a small jail cell in Montana and — eventually — to recovery.

Gamble’s firsthand experiences with the obstacles of our own health care and justice systems are chilling. And just when you think her nightmare has to be over, it starts all over again. You come to understand that mental illness truly levels the field: No amount of money, prestige or physical strength can protect you from it.

But her survival instinct, her faith in God, and the work ethic she developed growing up on her Sherrard farm and honed as an Olympic athlete kept her trudging onward through her darkest days.

The book is in part a cautionary tale — a “what not to do” — for the health care industry, as well as for families of those who are mentally ill and sick individuals themselves.

Above all, it is a story of Amy’s redemption, a reclaiming of the life she thought she lost and the emerging of a true champion who dares to dream again. Mental illness won far too many battles in Amy’s life, but through her own education, proper care and sheer determination, she won the war.

By sharing her story, she has ensured that her struggles were not in vain and many more people beyond herself will benefit from her victory.

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