A Memoir Of Brain Injury Recovery And Bipolar Recovery Disorder

Introduction

This memoir, to be published as a web-log in daily installments, complements my other blog, Tom's Brain Injury Recovery.  Just One Bad Decision describes how I got into the health problems out of which I am digging myself now.  Some names have been changed, but otherwise all of the events are true to the best of my recollection.

This web-log is lovingly dedicated to my wife Lee.

Any readers with connections in print publishing should please contact me through my e-mail, hartmann.t.e@gmail.com.  I would like to see this blog's message about willpower, alternative medicine, and mental disorder reach as wide a readership as possible.

(c) 2013 Thomas E. Hartmann

Just One Bad Decision

Table Of Contents

Part One:  Troubled Youth
Chapter I:  Disowned - The Psychologist’s Office
Chapter II:  Helga - Kickball
Chapter III:  Delinquency - Turned Against Dad
Chapter IV:  Discipline - Impalement
Chapter V:  David - Election Work
Chapter VI:  East Germany - Escape
Chapter VII:  School Trip To Moscow - Sibling Rivalry -   Hacking Computer System - College & Turned Against Mom

Chapter VIII:  Russian Studies - Dad's Heart Attack - Going To Germany
Chapter IX:  Negotiating Soviet Bicycle Exchange - Meeting The Philologist

Chapter X:  Scholarship Interview - Resuscitating Bike Trip - Tatiana
Chapter XI: American Leg Of Exchange - KGB Agent Discovered - Overnight With Russian Peasant
Chapter XII:  Tatiana In Baltics - Soviet Georgia
Chapter XIII:  New York With Tatiana - Marriage Without Mom
Chapter XIV:  Birthday - First Disappointment

Part Two:  Into the Abyss
Chapter XV: End of Cyclists For Peace - Vacation In Moscow
Chapter XVI:  First Manic Incident - Home Remedies
Chapter XVII:  Home Treatment - Hospitalized
Chapter XVIII:  Soviet Mental Hospital - The Patients
Chapter XIX:  Electric Shock Therapy - Escape
Chapter XX:  Broken Back - Rescue By Father
Chapter XXI:  JFK Airport - Home To Wilmington
Chapter XXII:  Withdrawal Pangs
Chapter XXIII: The Psychiatrist
Chapter XXIV: First Job
Chapter XXV:  Back To Graduate School - Studying For Exams
Chapter XXVI:  Life In Bryn Mawr
Chapter XXVII: Car Accident

Part Three:  Smothered By Diagnoses
Chapter XXVIII:  The Wreck - Coming To
Chapter XXIX:  Isolation - Spitting Out Pills
Chapter XXX:  Withdrawal - Into Rehab Center
Chapter XXVIII:  Intake - Suffering - Cursory Psychiatric Followup
Chapter XXIX:  Voluntary Hospitalization - Humbled
Chapter XXX:  Second Escape Attempt - Back to Hospital
Chapter XXXI:  Punished - The Locked Ward
Chapter XXXII:  Signing Out Of Treatment - Isolation Chamber
Chapter XXXIII:  Torture - Medicated Into Oblivion
Chapter XXXIV:  At Odds With System - Leaving Rehab

Part Four:  Treatment At Home
Chapter XXXV:  Chinese Medicine - “Learn a Language”
Chapter XXXVI:  Book Purge - Acupressure
Chapter XXXVII:  The Chinese Decoction - First New Idea
Chapter XXXVIII:  Buying Salt - Disappointment
Chapter XXXIX:  Rehab’s Disinterest - Calling the Professor
Chapter XL:  Second Job - Encounter With Boss
Chapter XLI:  Mayor’s Office Volunteering - First Job Interview
Chapter XLII:  Loss For Words - Tempertantrum
Chapter XLIII:  Alternative Medicine - Tibetan Pills
Chapter XLIV:  First Participation In Conversation - Inability to Appreciate Music
Chapter XLV:  Men’s Group - The Shaman
Chapter XLVI:  The Soul Retrieval - Descent Into Madness

Part Five:  On My Own
Chapters XLVII:  The Mental Ward Again - Putting Life Together
Chapter XLVIII:  Appreciating Music - Tatiana Arrested
Chapter XLVIX:  Tatiana Pardoned - Tatiana Leaves America
Chapter L:  The Quaker Retreat - I Ask For Divorce
Chapter LI:  Dating - Commiseration in Washington, DC
Chapter LII:  The Party - Meeting Joan
Chapter LIII:  Finding Home

Epilogue

     Just One Bad Decision:  A Memoir Of Brain Injury And Bipolar Disorder

                                                          Chapter I