This should give you an idea of what her work is

Kay R. Jamison, Ph.D., Gives Personal Perspective on Manic Depressive Illness

by Ellen A. Diamond

July 2001, Vol. XVIII, Issue 7

Kay R. Jamison, Ph.D., was named the sixth annual Gene Usdin Distinguished Visiting Professor and Lecturer in Psychiatry by the Ochsner Clinic and Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation in New Orleans. The lectureship was created to honor Gene Usdin, M.D., senior psychiatrist emeritus at the clinic.

Jamison, professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and honorary professor in the department of English studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland, has written or been co-author of five books. In her memoir, An Unquiet Mind, Jamison revealed her own experiences with manic depressive illness.

Jamison drew from this book for her lecture, "An Unquiet Mind: A Personal Perspective on Manic Depressive Illness." She said she wanted to talk about what happens if a person in the fields of psychology, psychiatry and medicine goes public about having a severe psychotic mental illness. She characterized this decision as, in some ways, "not a great thing to do, but having done it, I thought I would talk a little about what the experience was like."

Many people thought it would be easier for her, as a professional in psychiatry and medicine, to go public with her illness. Jamison responded, "Wrong! There is a lot of stigma in medical schools, in particular in any hospital situation, about people who have [hospital] privileges."

Jamison called for the medical community to start dealing with mental illnesses in staff members more effectively. Depression, especially, is extremely common, she said. After saying that she had just written remarks on the sixth house staff member or resident to commit suicide in the past five years at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Jamison commented, "By the time you speak at enough funeralsýyou get a real appreciation of the tragedy of people not being able toýbe honest and seek the kind of help that they need."

Turning to her own history, Jamison said that within a month of signing her appointment papers at UCLA, she was "well on [her] way to madness." The start of her illness, however, could be traced to her childhood. Jamison described herself as "frighteningly, although occasionally wonderfully, beholden to moods: intensely emotional as a child, mercurial as a young girl, first severely depressed as an adolescent and then unrelentingly caught up in the cycles of manic depressive illness by the time I began my professional life."

Like many individuals with manic depressive illness, Jamison found herself initially entranced by the increased flow of thoughts and ceaseless energy of her early and mild manic states. However, as she wrote in a textbook on the illness, "Somewhere this changes. The fast ideas are now too fast and there are far too many. Overwhelming confusion replaces clarity."

Still, Jamison resisted medication for many years, another common trait of people with manic depressive illness. She noted that many of her colleagues find this behavior infuriating and incomprehensible. However, pointing out that physicians often do not complete a 10-day course of antibiotics, Jamison asked how an asymptomatic individual can be expected to stay on a medication with adverse side effects for a lifetime. She said that she finally realized, "The freedom from the control imposed by medication loses its meaning when the only alternatives are death and insanity."

Worse still, according to Jamison, are the many people suffering from mental illness who do not seek treatment at all, either due to a lack of information, poor medical advice, stigma, or fear of professional and personal reprisals. This leads to a continuous cycle of misinformation. People with mental illness who have responded to treatment keep their illness hidden because of the stigma surrounding it. Therefore, society's views of mental illness are formed by those they see--the mentally ill who do not receive treatment. This view leads people who respond well to treatment to remain more convinced of the need to keep their own experiences with mental illness hidden.

All these issues played a role in Jamison's decision to go public with her own mental illness. In the end, she said, "I was tired of hiding, tired of misspent and knotted energies, tired of the hypocrisy. And tired of acting as if I had something to hide."

Describing her life as "unpredictable, often terrifying, [with] occasionally glorious storms of moods, thoughts and behaviors" that she had managed to keep hidden from all but a few friends and colleagues, Jamison decided to not only write a book about her experiences, but to reveal her illness in an interview with the Washington Post. Jamison said she was "frightened beyond measure" upon returning to work after the Post article appeared. What she found, however, was that once the normal routine had reasserted itself, any initial discomfort was replaced by a reassuring collegial support. Some colleagues were not so supportive, and Jamison said she is "resigned to the fact that no one really knows what anybody else actually thinks." She added, "Those who disapprove are unlikely to say so to one's face."

Jamison claimed that speaking about her illness has allowed her to speak her mind more freely on other topics as well. She quipped, "Everybody thinks I'm crazy anywayýI am much more able to say what I really feel now."

Writing about her illness brought Jamison's family closer together. She said they have begun talking about the prevalence of manic depression among themselves--a topic they had ignored before. She described her family tree as "very loaded--as they say in genetics."

Since the publication of An Unquiet Mind, Jamison has received over 5,000 letters. While she described some as vicious, the majority came from others struggling with mental illness--either their own or that of a family member. Jamison said, "The level of despair and frustration was palpable."

Jamison is committed to using her own experiences to inform clinical research and practice. She continues to try and illuminate for her colleagues what she calls "the paradoxical core of this quicksilver illness that can both kill and create." And always, she works to eradicate the stigma attached to mental illness, a stigma that keeps many talented, intelligent individuals from seeking and receiving the medical care that can enable them to succeed as Jamison has.