RUTH MANNING, PhD has experienced more than a dozen severe manic psychotic episodes requiring hospitalization in her over-forty-year diagnosed history with bipolar I disorder.

 

Ruth is passionate about sharing her own personal experiences to dispel myths, stereotypes, and stigma; to give hope to others with  mental illness; and to educate patients, family members, friends, co-workers, media outlets, and law enforcement officers about mental diseases.

 

When Brilliance and Madness Collide begins with a brief backstory about her life with bipolar disorder, then provides a closer look at the two years leading up to her 2018 manic psychotic episode and the warning signs that were apparent (in retrospect). This book's most unique aspect is the in-depth account of this episode, written during the first six weeks after she returned home from a psychiatric hospital, drawing on the copious notes she’d made during the episode and subsequent hospitalizations.

 

Ruth’s a retired professional with a varied career path—founder and CEO of a biotech DNA sequence analysis software company, consultant for some of the world’s fastest supercomputers, US national laboratory scientist, university mathematics professor, and co-founder and market analyst for a small investment startup. It's a conundrum to explain how she could have been so successful in her career if you compare that timeline side by side with her mental health history.

 

In 1979, Ruth earned a PhD in mathematics with a concentration in computer science from the University of Tennessee. She lives in Charlotte, NC near her two children and four grandchildren.