The Enemy in Me

One Person's Battle with Severe Bipolar Schizoaffective Disorder

The Enemy in Me is about the harsh reality of living with a severe mental illness. It is a very visceral account of Jacob Newell Campbell’s life living with bipolar schizoaffective disorder. The book offers insight into how the illness progresses. He talks in graphic detail about what he went through, providing examples of the warning signs that people who may be dealing with the same issues should watch out for. In this book he tries very hard to allow people to get into his mind and see things from his perspective. He starts the book off by telling the reader that he will be brutally honest about his life. All the events that happened in the book are very real. In his delusional state he couldn’t make sense of these things. Everything became distorted and often terrifying for him. In the book he often refers to what he calls the “special messengers.” They appeared to him in events that he went through, and he believed they were constantly playing mind games with him. There was a fine line for him between reality and delusion. He also had severe religiosity throughout his life that became obsessive, and very extreme.