Closing the Chasm: Letters from a Bipolar Physician to His Son

Filed under: Themes, The UpDown Report, Books & Book Reviews

What would it be like to be a physician with a major mental illness? You would have all the challenges of medical practice complicated by moods that swung from high to low and back again. What if you were also struggling to be a husband and a father?

Quoting Dr. Benjamin Diven, author of Closing the Chasm: Letters from a Bipolar Physician to His Son:

[My book] is a warm and personal account of life with bipolar or manic-depressive disorder. It offers no surprise solutions or magical answers to the many problems and questions of a major mental illness. It does offer a great source of insight and first hand experience with bipolar disorder and its treatments. The limitations and the wonderful successes of modern psychiatry and modern medications are paired with the great help of a unique psychologist and his psychotherapy. The book is full of fear and anxiety, confusion and mystery, hope and prayer, and a marriage that carried the full burden of illness. Along the way you get to know my amazing children and my remarkable wife who shared every bit of the day to day life of a mentally ill person who was struggling to be a father, husband, and physician. Closing the Chasm is a collection of letters written to my eldest son Matt that each portray an event or events or a discussion of events. Just the right length for a nonfictional work, the letters make it an easy book to pick up for a few minutes but a difficult book to put down.

Quoting the website bpso.org (Bipolar Significant Others):

This is a well-written, candid and insightful account of the author’s experience of bipolar disorder. Dr. Diven’s form of the illness is characterized by depression, anxiety, and great bursts of activity and energy (the latter identified by what his psychiatrist called the Five S’s: speed, speech, sex, sleep and spending). Diven and his family are fortunate in that he was generally able to function capably in his career as a physician, that he was generally free of rage and irritability, and that (after diagnosis) he generally retained insight into his condition and his need for medical treatment. I highly recommend the book for those whose experience of bipolar disorder is similar to the author’s . . . Dr. Diven makes it clear through at least a couple of examples that his wife’s ability to communicate with his psychiatrist—including occasional participation in sessions—was instrumental in securing medical treatment or rendering the treatment more effective. Dr. Diven seems somewhat baffled by his marriage’s survival, but I think the reader can detect the explanation from the author’s likability, commitment to recovery, and general concern to do the best he could in life given the range of personal characteristics with which he was endowed.

If you live in Canada, help support Benjamin Diven AND Irked:

…by clicking on this book, and buying it!

Learn more at ClosingTheChasm.com

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