Nothing General About It: How Love (and Lithium) Saved Me On and Off General Hospital
Written by Maurice Benard
Narrated by Maurice Benard
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
""This shocking true story is General Hospital on anabolic steroids."" — Mehmet Oz, M.D., Emmy Award-winning host of The Dr. Oz Show
The Emmy Award-winning star of General Hospital chronicles his astonishing and emotional life journey in this powerful memoir—an inspiring story of success, show business, and family, and his struggle with mental illness.
Maurice Benard has been blessed with family, fame, and a successful career. For twenty-five years, he has played one of the most well-known characters on daytime television: General Hospital’s Michael “Sonny” Corinthos, Jr. In his life outside the screen, he is a loving husband and the father of four. But his path has not been without hardship. When he was only twenty, Maurice was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In Nothing General About It, Maurice looks back to his youth in a small town and his tenuous relationship with his father. He describes how his bipolar disorder began to surface in childhood, how he struggled to understand the jolting mood swings he experienced, and how a doctor finally saved his life. For years Maurice was relentless in his goal to be a successful actor. But even after he “made it,” he still grappled with terrifying lows, breakdowns, and setbacks, all while trying desperately to maintain his relationship with his wife, who endured his violent, unpredictable episodes. Maurice holds nothing back as he bravely talks about what it was like to be medicated and institutionalized, and of how he learned to manage his manic episodes while on the set of GH.
Nothing General About It is also an incredible love story about an enduring marriage that demonstrates what those vows—for better, for worse, in sickness and in health—truly mean. Maurice also pays tribute to the community that has been there for him through thick and thin, and ruminates on the importance of both inherited and created family.
A shocking, riveting, and utterly candid memoir of love, adversity, and ultimately hope, Nothing General About It offers insights and advice for everyone trying to cope with mental illness, and is a motivational story that offers lessons in perseverance—of the importance of believing in and fighting for yourself through the darkest times.
Supplemental Enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Maurice Benard
Maurice Benard, the longtime star of ABC soap opera General Hospital, is a two-time Emmy Award–winning film and television actor, a member of the prestigious Actors Studio, and an advocate for mental health awareness. He lives in California with his wife, Paula, with whom he proudly raised three daughters and a son—who is already following in his father’s footsteps as an actor.
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Reviews for Nothing General About It
32 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book was so honest and real. It will help so many people. Thank you Maurice for bringing awareness to
This horrible disease. Maureen - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5There are no words for how much I loved this book!!!!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Topic of truth and how Maurice deals with it and helps so many he isn’t even aware of with his story !! Thank you Maurice for telling it so we can see we aren’t alone !! God bless
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved this book. Very enlightening of how much he struggled and how he gets thru it day to day.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a definite listen-to memoir. Listening to Maurice's story made a much greater positive impact on me than it would have had I read it. He is an amazing human being who has allowed the world into the world of Bipolar Depression by sharing his own story. I have watched General Hospital since the day it started in 1963. I watch it after school with my grandmother. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it would be to portray a huge part of your life everyday on TV, especially when you (as yourself) isn't currently going through a dark time. Anyone who has anxiety and/or depression on any level should listen to this book. When you finish the book, you will look at everyone you come in contact with new eyes. Your respect and humanity for people who suffer from any type of disability will grow exponentially. Thank you, Maurice Benard, for sharing your story, your struggles, and your successes with the world.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Maurice Benard has played Sonny Corinthos on General Hospital for over 20 years. He plays a very tough "mob boss". Hearing his struggles with bi-polar disorder was enlightening. How scary that is, to live through panic, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, etc. This book is an eye-opener about this scary mental disorder.