A. Grieme is the author of several books:
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H.O.L.D F.A.S.T: Ride Out Parenting with Bipolar Disorder (1st edition 2019)
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H.O.L.D.F.A.S.T: Ride out Life with bipolar disorder (1st Edition 2020)
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H.O.L.D.F.A.S.T: Ride out Life with bipolar disorder (2nd edition 2022 - AVAILABLE IN HARDCOVER)
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Paging Dr. Freedman (1st Edition 2020)
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Paging Dr. Freedman 2nd edition (2022 - AVAILABLE IN HARDCOVER)
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“Dear Prudence” (2009), the inspiration behind Paging Dr. Freedman
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Motherhood Made ME Get Over MYSELF: A Metamorphosis (2014), a self-help anecdote based on a blog written during pregnancy
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In addition she offers readers an interactive course entitled "Loving Yourself and Others with Mental Illness" and a day-planner for non-linear minds
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Available at www.agriemebooks.com
About A. Grieme: Mother, Mental Health Advocate, Educator & Writer
"In my humble experience, mental illness is as real as a broken bone, and must be treated as such. Although slowly evolving, psychiatry is seemingly STILL archaic. Psychiatric bandages in pill form are only the tip of the iceberg for a person who is struggling. Simply tranquilizing or quieting the often-frustrating erratic behavior inherent in mentally-ill minds with psycho-meds… is NOT the solution. A psychiatrist should NOT be a revolving door that hands out scripts like candy. A psychiatrist should BE all-encompassing compassion, and treat the whole individual.
I write to you as a survivor; it is my mission to create awareness, understanding and hope through my writing. Diagnosed at the age of twenty with rapid-cycling Bipolar Disorder with schizoaffective episodic delusions, it was not until my mental tumble from the living one February, a decade later… that I was not-so-gently shown my path. Today, I live to share how I stayed afloat in this ever-cycling existence to help others understand they can, too.
It was while I was curled into myself, cradled uncomfortably into the corner of my parent’s couch following a psychotic episode… incapacitated, over-medicated and unable to keep my coveted job as a high school English teacher that I found my way out of my own hell with a pen and paper. It was all I could do… the first step in a separation from an insidious diagnosis that did not allow itself to be ignored.
Through my writing, my oftentimes harrowing look at bipolar disorder (based on my own experience) allows me the opportunity to help, not hide from the often stigmatized mental illness. I prefer not to dwell on bipolar disorder and its many faces and manifestations, rather I acknowledge it transparently and provide tools to navigate it mindfully.
I choose writing, mental health advocacy and radio as my creative, cathartic mediums to help others. With my life experience with mental illness, medication and almost two decades as a High School and Middle School educator, I strive to lend readers, students, listeners invaluable, empowering, often quirky life advice, braided in a message of hope." - Amanda