Homeostasis

Donald Rodriguez takes readers on a roller-coaster ride as he shares what it means to live with Bipolar 1 Disorder. When manic episodes began to creep into his life, he put his family through hell and risked his own life in the process. Meanwhile, he loaded up on the toughest classes he could take as a premed student at Boston University, joined a fraternity, played for the club hockey team, and took on more than he could handle. His family physician prescribed him Adderall to focus and Trazodone to sleep. Rodriguez also started taking Prozac because his doctor thought he had situational depression because his grandma had died, his longtime girlfriend had dumped him, and his college coursework was stressing him out. Injuries had also forced him to stop playing hockey. In short order, he was abusing prescription drugs and scaring the people that loved him most. When he was finally diagnosed with Bipolar 1, he had to ease his life into a place of balance.