In her book, A Brilliant Madness, Patty Duke shares her life with bipolar disorder. Undiagnosed until age 35, Patty experienced her share of manic episodes and depressions. She states, "I knew from a very young age that there was something very wrong with me, but I thought it was just that I was not a good person, that I didn't try hard enough." From panic attacks to crying spells to verbal abuse, Patty lived a life of desperation for many years.

Patty remembers the disease starting at about 8 years of age. She is taking Lithium twice daily.

Section Two: Main Characteristics/Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder (from text). What behavior (in the book) of Patty Duke illustrated these characteristics?

Section Six: What is the most important thing you learned about the disorder and mental illness in general by doing this assignment?

Before Patty was actually given the diagnosis of bipolar disorder, she tried many different drugs. Valium, Librium, Librax, and the "red ones," Seconal. In fact, she boldly tells the reader that she, "...became very clever about how to obtain and stockpile pills." (Duke-Hochman, 1994, page 11). She also participated in psychotherapy but it was never really successful until after she was officially diagnosed and placed on Lithium.

In Patty's book, Hochman states that there is no "definitive laboratory test, no x-ray that confirms manic depressive illness." (page 31). For a major depressive episode a person must have experienced at least five of the nine symptoms listed below for two weeks or more, for most of the time almost every day:

In Patty's case, the experiences she describes in the book are atrocious at best. Being uprooted at a young age and raised by the Rosses was traumatic enough. The Rosses' behavior toward Patty, coupled with losing her family and having a mother who exhibited bipolar symptoms would be enough to make anyone, "want to die," as she describes in a question and answer session after a performance. Overall, Patty suggests that she has tried to come to terms with her behavior during those disruptive years. She has accepted her behavior (as much as she can) and has made apologies to those around her.

Section Three: According to our text, what are the most likely causes of Bipolar Disorder? How are causes addressed in the book?

My feelings about the disorder are fairly strong ones. Growing up, I experienced bipolar or manic depression through a friend of the family. She was 13 years old when her family noticed she began having problems. Based on my notes and the reading for this assignment, her problems, most likely, began before that age. There were several attempts at suicide using pills and slashing her wrists. After many doctors and many years, she was officially diagnosed as bipolar and placed on Lithium. She's been fairly stable since that time as long as she stays on her medication.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). Perhaps not the most successful, but a controversial treatment for bipolar disorder is electroconvulsi

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