Don't Give Up Before the Miracle tells in harrowing detail Joni Nebel Rhodes' life of alcoholism and undiagnosed manic depression. Joni took to drinking while living in Manhattan as a flight attendant. Alcohol offered her solace from her insecurities, which stemmed from her younger years in a volatile, alcoholic home. Boarding schools provided her childhood's best refuge until a short early marriage. A career as a flight attendant fulfilled her desire for travel and an active social life, but it was the perfect environment for her developing alcoholism. The pace of her life masked the roller coaster of her intensifying mood swings, and her relationship with her parents exacerbated her inner turmoil. Seeking emotional solace, Joni engaged in a string of marriages and affairs. Her life went from bad to worse when she bought a sailboat and took off for the Caribbean. The alcohol and the mental disorders caused her to be in and out of both medical and psychiatric hospitals. Doctors failed to recognize her bipolar illness until she was in her forties.