# My Chaos Narrative-66 Years of Bipolar Disorder



## RonPrice (Apr 17, 2010)

BIPOLAR DISORDER:

A Personal Analysis of My Chaos Narrative

A Longitudinal Context: October 1943 To April 2010
10th Edition

By
Ron Price of George Town Tasmania Australia
(135 Pages: Font 14—50,000 words)

1. Preamble and Introduction:

1.1 This is a small book. Ten years ago it started out as a brief essay and it is now an appendix to my memoirs, a five volume 2600 page opus found in whole and in part at various places on the internet. Both this small book and my memoirs could benefit from the assistance of one, Rob Cowley, affectionately known in publishing circles back in the seventies and early eighties as “the Boston slasher.” His editing was regarded in some circles as constructive and deeply sensitive. If he could amputate several dozen pages, several thousand words, of this exploration of my life experience of bipolar disorder(BPD) with minimal agony to my emotional equipment I’m sure readers would be the beneficiaries. But, alas, I think Bob is dead. 

I did find an editor, a proofreader and friend who did not slash and burn but left my soul quite intact as he waded through my labyrinthine passages, smoothed them all out and excised undesirable elements. But this editor is in the late evening of his life and, after editing several hundred pages of my writing, he has tired of the exercise and so I am left on my own. I have begun to assume the role that Cowley exercised so well in life as the Boston slasher, but it is a difficult and relentless role and I, therefore, only take it up sporadically given the quantity of my writing which requires editing. Without my editor friend, I advise readers not to hold their breath waiting for me to do what is a necessary edit in this now lengthy work.


1.2 This is a longitudinal, retrospective account going back to my conception in the last half of October 1943. Neurobiological, neuropsychiatric and affective disorders like BPD have diverse manifestations and symptomatology as well as a broad range of age of onset and specificity of symptoms. Little is still known about its pathogenesis, that is, the origin and development of the disease. What follows is one person’s story, one person’s life experience of BPD. It is my personal life-narrative with the diverse manifestations, the symptomology of BPD as I experienced it. 

1.3 I make reference to a strong genetic contribution to the aetiology of BPD, a genetic predisposition, a genetic susceptibility as a factor in the pathogenesis of BPD. A family history, what is sometimes referred to as a family pedigree, of affective disorder in a first-degree relative, in my case my mother(1904-1978) is relevant to this narrative. My mother had a mild case of what may very well have been BPD, at least I have come to think of her mood swings as falling into a significantly high place in what is sometimes called the BPD spectrum during her 75 year life. Her mood-swing disability or affective disorder, though, was never given the formal medical diagnosis manic-depressive(MD), a term which was replaced in 1980 after she died by the term BPD. 
----PART 2 TO COME IF DESIRED BY READERS-----


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