Bipolar Girl: My Psychotic Self - Tapa dura

Maricela Estrada grew up surrounded by poverty and violence in East Los Angels, California. Raised by a traditional widowed Mexican mother, Maricela was the youngest of five children, yet felt completely lost and alone for most of her life. Feelings of isolation and despair increased as she got older as she experienced periods of manic depression that triggered several attempts of suicide, the first being at age fourteen on her mother's birthday. Shortly after being admitted into a psychiatric ward, Maricela was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. A riveting story of a girl's struggle with mental illness, Bipolar Girl is a twenty-eight year journey of courage and survival, a remarkable odyssey that will undoubtedly touch people's lives. Author Bio: ABOUT THE AUTHOR-Maricela Estrada received her Associate of Arts Degree in Liberal Studies from Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California and her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations from California State University in Fullerton. She works for "The Friendship Line", a non-crisis talk line under Project Return Peer Support Network, an affiliate of Mental Health America of Los Angeles. Her next book, Beautiful Bipolar Bisexual, continues her story of survival. She currently lives in Rosemead, California near her mother and family.