Agents In My Brain

Book excerpt: What is it like to be at the mercy of biochemical agents in your brain that make you think you are working in league with secret agents? In Agents in My Brain, Bill Hannon guides you into a world in which crossword puzzles are coded messages from the CIA and a scrap of masking tape on your car windshield means that your conversations are being monitored. Never before has anyone described the bizarre though processes of a manic-depressive so clearly. Hannon shares glimpses of his life as a happy, well-adjusted high school student with many friends, a member of the high school swim team, then as a young man going off to college and wondering what he should tell his roommates and potential girlfriends about the unpredictable behavior brought on by his illness. In this authentic, gutsy, sometimes humorous, first-person account of surviving manic depression, one that hasn't been prettified or romaticized, Hannon tells what is ultimately a success story. He describes how he eventually finds a competent doctor who prescribes medications that help prevent mania and depression with minimal side-effects.