1976 - Growing Up Bipolar - by Mark Fleming (Paperback)

About the Book

Mark Fleming reveals his disturbing experiences of bipolar disorder in a candid memoir, taking the reader on a life-affirming journey through locked psych wards to rehabilitation, and rhapsodising about the rejuvenating potency of music.

Book Synopsis

1976 - Growing Up Bipolar is a disturbing, but darkly humorous and life-affirming mental health memoir by Mark Fleming, a Scottish writer and musician. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder in his 20s, Fleming takes the reader into bipolar's depths of depression and unnatural highs of mania, and is candid about his experiences of locked psych wards, the debilitating side-effects of anti-psychotic drugs, and the terrifying places his deluded mind took him to.

Much of the book's timescale overlaps with Grant McPhee's award-winning documentary, Big Gold Dream: The Sound of Young Scotland 1977-1985. 1976 - Growing Up Bipolar also celebrates Scotland's electrifying indie and post-punk music and cultural scenes, with anecdotes about gigging, songwriting, recording sessions at BBC's Maida Vale studios, and teenage obsessions with sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. The cathartic impact of John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show and a long-time devotion to Manchester post-punk legends The Fall figure prominently.

Delving deep into the psyche of a chemically-imbalanced mind, he relives a tragic event during the 1976 heatwave that inflicted the mental injury that might have triggered his bipolar disorder.

Review Quotes

"This is really, really good. Brilliantly written." Tommy Mackay, author of 40 Odd Years of The Fall

"Punk rock lit a fuse that burned through our lives. Mark's analysis of his own traumas rages with the energy and romance of his musical origins." Paul Research, most recent album Skate the Royal Mile

"A fantastic memoir, full of interest and intrigue." Bobby Smith, author of One Love, Two Colours

"Great stuff, but it's totally mashed my heid!" Irvine Welsh