Imagine that you are a young adult, minding your own business, happily engaged in your activities and relationships, and enjoying all the milestones that come with such an exciting time of life. Perhaps you are in college, anticipating graduation, dreaming about your future, hoping to one day marry and have children, applying for jobs or making plans to start your own business. And then one night, you begin to hear voices in your head. You dismiss it, telling yourself it is nothing. And then it happens again. Unable to sleep for nights on end, you toss and turn, slowly losing your ability to control your thoughts as your mind travels at breakneck speed through a kaleidoscope of frightening images and sounds. Your mind is racing and yet, at the same time, all the strange things you are experiencing with such intensity have a slow-motion quality to them. You feel paralyzed. Who can you trust? Who can you turn to? How do you sort through all your thoughts and experiences to determine which are real and which are unreal? And where do you go when no place feels safe? My Black Box: Flights of Bipolar offers readers a rare, courageous, and candid look inside a bipolar mind as it takes flight from reality and enters the world of full-blown psychosis. Given the paranoia that often accompanies severe mental illness, it is not unusual for a psychotic individual to hide from strangers and outsiders the frightening and disturbing things going on in their mind and their life. In opening her black box and revealing its contents, Michelle Murphy gives us a tremendous gift—a context within which to understand our loved ones who suffer from bipolar, schizophrenic, and schizoaffective disorders. This book will also serve as a compass for those who may be hearing voices, experiencing paranoia, hallucinating, or suffering with other symptoms of psychosis, and attempting to navigate those frightening waters. Anyone who is living with a serious mental illness will identify with Michelle’s psychotic episodes, and in so doing, feel less alone. And everyone who reads this book will feel both encouraged and inspired by the determination with which the author continues to face her challenges, move forward, and excel in her life. This successful electrical engineer, wife, and active member of her community has done a tremendous service to us all by revealing to us her innermost demons and struggles—and sharing her victories and successes. She proves that with perseverance and proper medical attention, the mentally ill need not be defined by their illness, nor destined to live anything but rich, full, and productive lives.