Book excerpt: It’s My Life and I’ll Cry If I Want Too: The Diary of a Bipolar Woman is a riveting account of one woman’s journey through mental illness. It’s about the valleys that Kimberly Holmes endured and the mountains that she climbed in order to understand herself and her illness. Kimberly chronicles her tumultuous confrontations with death and heartening resolutions in finding the will to live. She recounts her relationships and there most chaotic outcomes. Kimberly writes openly about her promiscuity, drug abuse, criminal history, and insight into her battle with bipolar disorder—a mental disease that nearly destroyed her life. Kimberly’s personal account of her mental illness reveals a stark, realistic view of the disease so that her readers may understand its magnitude.