Book excerpt: When Charise Jewell decided to leave her career as a robotics engineer to pursue writing fiction, the 40-year old mother of three had no idea that she was embarking on a real life story beyond her wildest imagination. Without warning, and while preparing to celebrate Mother's Day 2017, she rapidly descended into a severe mania, was hospitalized, and was given a devastating diagnosis: bipolar 1 mood disorder. Over the following three years, Charise and her family would experience the ups and downs of not only her manic depression, but also of the mental health care system, and the way that society at large treats people with mental illness. Crazy: Memoir of a Mom Gone Mad is a captivating, heartbreaking and ultimately inspiring journey through the pain and beauty of sanity, and insanity. Originally published in 2021 with the same name.