Andy Behrman
Andy Behrman
Andy Behrman was born 1962 and is an American writer of non-fiction as well as a mental health advocate and national speaker. He is the author of Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania which was published by Random House in 2002. "Electroboy" traces his career dealing forgeries of the art of Mark Kostabi. Behrman was formerly a spokesman for Bristol Myers Squibb until he publicly criticized them for their marketing techniques and made a YouTube video titled, "Abilify Kills." Behrman lives...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
When I'm manic, I'm so awake and alert, that my eyelashes fluttering on the pillow sound like thunder.
My manic depression was ravaging my life, but because nobody could see it, many people thought it was a figment of my imagination.
In my most psychotic stages, I imagine myself chewing on sidewalks and bulging and swallowing sunlight and clouds.
My ever-present mania meant I was never phased by staying up twenty hours a day or by the different time zones. I was Superman.
My illness is one often characterized by dramatic overspending - in my case through frenzied shopping sprees, credit card abuse, excessive hoarding of unnecessary material goods and bizarre generosity with family, friends and even strangers.
I felt like I was the only person on the planet with this 'thing called depression', and I remember being frightened. I was knocked out and dopey, and I cried all of the time.
I counterfeited Mark Kostabi's artworks. During the eighties, Mark didn't paint his own paintings. Instead, he had other artists painting them, and he just added his signature. So what I did was to use some of the same painters, and signed his name myself.
Manic depression is a type of depression, technically, and it's the opposite of uni-polar. Manic depression is also called bi-polar disorder. Some people don't like to call it that because they think it makes it sound too nice, when the reality is if you have manic-depression you have manic-depression.