Manic Depression I studied with a professor at a university who was brilliant and often moody. I didn't know he was manic-depres
sive until several years later, but I wish I had. Now that I've read his account of how he struggled with this disease - also called bipolar disorder - I realize how wrong I was in my responses to an old girlfriend. When we first met, we were both about 20, and she was so much fun. She was a brilliant writer and incredibly articulate, full of energy, always the life of the party. She seemed very successful in everything she did, and, after we broke up, I still saw her once or twice a year. Finally, several years later, she told me that she had started taking lithium for manic depression, and I was appalled. No way was Sandra a candidate for lithium - that's for severe mental cases, I thought. I told her she was being manipulated by her family and by a doctor who helped them control her because they were jealous of her special spark. She told me that special spark had dimmed to a dismal despair and that she needed lithium to keep herself functional. I left the conversation feeling disappointed that such a brilliant star had been wasted and diminished. My professor's story shows me that what I couldn't hear from her is true. When he was suffering the most from it, less was known about the disease, so his went untreated until he was much older than my friend Sandra. He underwent several different kinds of medications, some more successful than others, and finally was able to feel stable after many adjustments. But still, his biochemistry changes and he has to alter the lithium dose that mostly lets him live, so he never claims to be cured from this disease. Chronic mental illnesses like this one make life a difficult struggle both for the person suffering from it and for his or her family members. But manic depression requires medication to keep the patient from cycling in and out of suicidal states of depression. The struggle to find the right medication, adjust to it, and have it adjusted is an intricate one that requires understanding from one's community. None of this is helped by a friend who denies the severity of the person's distress. Select the best answer to the question: What does this passage suggest we should do or believe differently? A. Understand the difficulty faced by people with manic depression B. Support research into the treatment of manic depression C. Appreciate the power of lithium to cure manic depression
