Welcome to Nobody Told Me. I'm Jan Black. And I'm Laura Owens. If you've struggled with mental health

issues or if you care about someone who has, then you'll want to hear

what our guest on this episode, Terry Cheney has to say. You may know Terry from her New York Times

bestselling book, Manic, a memoir, which depicted her life as an elite entertainment attorney

suffering from bipolar disorder. Terry's new book is called Modern Madness and Owners Manual. It explores the

struggles, stigmas, relationship dilemmas, treatments, and recovery techniques Terry and others

have experienced in coping with mental health issues. Terry, we thank you so much for joining us.

Oh, thank you for having me. Tell us more about your new book, Modern Madness,

and why you feel people really need a book like this right now. Well, I think that COVID-19 has

launched a second epidemic, which is the epidemic of mental health, which has been going on

for a while, but it's just so much worse than it ever was.

Calls to audio and video centers went up 1,000% in the first few months of lockdown, and it's predicted there are going to be an additional 150,000 deaths of despair from coronavirus.

So this is just the time to talk about these issues.

People are experiencing depression and anxiety in a way they never really have before.

And tell us more about your book and how that plays into this.

Well, my book is a combination of my own personal experience with mental illness, particularly

bipolar disorder and the scientific research into mental illness. So I combined them because I

wanted to give a full picture of both the inside and the outside

of mental illness.

And I organized it like an owner's manual because a few years ago I bought a new vacuum and

it had all these bizarre and scary attachments and I couldn't figure out where they went. And I was thumbing

through the owner's manual. And I thought, wouldn't it be great if there was an owner's manual

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