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Amber Portwood’s ‘Crazy’ memoir tackles mental health battle

Amber Portwood is ready to tell the uncensored version of her life story — including the ups and downs of her mental health battle — in her forthcoming memoir, “So, You’re Crazy Too?”.

“Honestly, this book had to be cut down,” the “Teen Mom OG” star, 31, exclusively told Page Six of her second literary project, which will be slapped with a warning label upon its Feb. 22 release, as it’s full of explicit details. 

“We fought hard for this warning label. I’ve read this book now three times, and I can’t even believe that I’ve lived this life.”

Since making her reality TV debut on MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” in 2009, Portwood’s personal setbacks have been incessantly dissected by internet trolls and heavily covered by the media. 

While navigating unexpected fame, she powered through the challenges of being a teen mother, grappled with addiction and completed a 17-month prison stint in 2013 — painful yet transformative experiences that are re-examined in her tome. 

Amber Portwood
Amber Portwood exclusively told Page Six that her forthcoming memoir explores her mental health battle.
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But what Portwood is most proud of, she said, is learning to live with five mental illnesses — including bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder — diagnoses she previously struggled to accept. 

“The anxiety in me. The bipolar, the borderline, the PTSD, all these different things that come together, that’s my makeup — but it’s not exactly who I am,” she said. “This is just what I go through and I work through. I’ve really learned to live happily with major mental illnesses.”

The Portwood AF founder explained that the title of “So, You’re Crazy Too?” — the follow-up to her 2014 book “Never Too Late” — is her personal reclamation of a label she once loathed. 

“This is the truth of what mental health is. This is mental illness and this is what people call ‘crazy.’ So, when I say, ‘So, You’re Crazy Too?’ — it’s not what we like to hear,” she said. “And that’s why the book is called that.” 

The cover of Amber Portwood's book, "So, You're Crazy Too?".
“So, You’re Crazy Too?” hits stores on February 22, 2022.
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These days, the mom of two — who shares daughter Leah, 13, with ex-fiancé Gary Shirley and son James, 3, with ex Andrew Glennon — clears her mind with the help of therapy, medication, meditation, sobriety maintenance and other forms of self-care.

“I go to psychotherapy once a week. I am not playing around here,” she said. “I put in the work.”

The college student — who is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in psychology in applied behavior analysis and considering going after her doctorate — elaborated, “I do everything that I need to, from drawing to writing poetry to reading to educating myself. I’m never going to stop [bettering myself].”

About the author

Tina Sanders

Tina is the mind behind Gruntstuff.com, and she ideated it when she was working for an online magazine company where she used to cover US-based headlines news. She holds a degree in journalism and has more than 4.5 years of experience in an online magazine company. She had the idea while working there but when she was quite sure about starting something on her own, she took the risk and left the job to start Gruntstuff. Since then she added a few team members, and along with them, she creates General US news content on the site.

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