Courtesy of Patty Spinks
- Marcia Naomi Berger is a psychotherapist in San Rafael, California.
- This is an adapted excerpt from her memoir, "The Bipolar Therapist: A Journey from Madness to Love and Meaning."
- In the book, she discusses shame, stigma, and her experience with inpatient treatment.
A year after my first psychiatric hospitalization in Queens, New York, I returned to my job at an alcoholism treatment center in San Francisco. A year later, in 1975, I had a second manic episode, which landed me in Langley Porter Hospital.