HEALTH / By Jane Marion Pictured: sity School of Medi- derstanding Suicide, Exuberance, and a Doctors in the cine—is their struggle 1,262-page tome that is considered the House: Kay with bipolar illness definitive textbook on bipolar disorder). Redfield Jamison at home with (also known as manic- Associate professor of psychiatry at Thomas Traill. depression), a mood Yale School of Medicine Thomas Sty- disorder characterized ron, whose father, the late literary titan by episodes of severe depression and mania. William Styron, was a close friend of Although this enigmatic illness (suffered Jamison’s, has high praise for her. by more than 10 million people in the United “She is an absolute giant in the field of States alone, according to the National Al- psychiatry as someone who has been able liance on Mental Illness) was first classified to combine top-notch academic work dating back to the time of Hippocrates, it with this incredible personal story, which has lately found its way into the mainstream, has been such a huge service to people thanks to the success of the feature film Sil- who suffer from mental illness,” he says. ver Linings Playbook and Showtime’s wildly Her students are starry-eyed, too. popular Homeland, whose producer once “When medical residents come to look contacted Jamison to advise on an episode. at Hopkins, they say, ‘If I’m here, do I Of course, to Jamison, the disease is actually get to work with Dr. Jamison?’” nothing new: She is one of the most widely says Dr. Karen Swartz, associate profes- regarded experts on mood disorders in the sor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences world and has spent the greater part of her at Hopkins. “Ray DePaulo [co-director 66 years not only studying bipolar illness, of the Mood Disorders Center] once said, but living it. After years as a clinical psy- ‘She may be the most famous person with chologist first at UCLA and then at Johns bipolar disorder in the world.’” Hopkins, she “outed” herself in her 1995 She lives the more low-key life of a bestselling memoir An Unquiet Mind: A scholar, though, as she shuttles between Memoir of Moods and Madness. the charming circa-1800’s renovated “There were many concerns in writing barn in Sparks she shares with her hus- the book,” admits Jamison, who gave up band, Hopkins cardiologist and profes- her clinical practice after An Unquiet Mind sor of medicine Thomas Traill, and their came out, but continues to teach Hopkins stately 1920s home in Washington, D.C., medical students and residents. She feared where Jamison spends most of her time that she might lose her license. (She didn’t.) immersed in the life of Lowell, who is the And beyond that, there was a fear of “how subject of her next book. Mental one’s work would be perceived once you “He’s someone I read after my have this diagnosis on your forehead. it’s first breakdown when I was 17,” says very easy to be defined by that.” Jamison, who obtained access to Low- There were more personal concerns ell’s hospital records to write her book. as well. “In my own WASP military fam- “He has just stuck with me. I am writing Notes ily, you didn’t talk about mental illness,” says about him because I admire him as an A famous Hopkins psychologist gets personal Jamison, with a smile. “You are brought up to artist and a great, great original poet. when it comes to talking about bipolar disorder. be private. The first time I got up and spoke He was hospitalized 20 times for mania, publically about this, all I could think about but he had depressions after each one t first glance, the works of art in Kay Redfield Jamison’s was my grandmother and her white gloves of them. He was a remarkable man; a sparsely decorated office don’t seem to have much in common. and her hat and her D.A.R. meetings, and remarkable human being.” There’s a charcoal drawing of composer Gustav Mahler; a del- what on earth she would be thinking?” Jamison’s husband can’t help but to icate print of Romantic poet Lord Byron; a black-and-white gush a bit when he discusses his wife’s photograph of one of Jamison’s many muses, “confessional” Even in Hopkins’s hallowed halls, Jamison work. “She’s a major-league scientist,” poet Robert Lowell. But beyond their extraordinary contribu- is considered a luminary—known for her weighs in Traill, who laughs that their tions to the world of music and poetry, the thread that binds ability to offer acute insight on the disease obvious mutual affection for each other these men—and what particularly interests Jamison, the as clinician and patient, as well as for her can be “nauseating.” “You have to set co-director of The Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center eloquent writings on mood disorders (among that against the fact that not only is and a professor of psychiatry of The Johns Hopkins Univer- them: the bestselling Night Falls Fast: Un- she someone who wrote a memoir, but A106 baltimoremagazine.net | MAY 2013 PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID COLWELL MAY 2013 | baltimoremagazine.net 107 HEALTH she’s also passionate about language and rologist and pilot. “I had a great childhood,” Until it wasn’t. “At some point, I “The major age of onset for mood writing. These books come from a pro- she says. “I couldn’t have been any happier. crashed,” she says. “I could scarcely get out disorders is late teens, early 20s,” says digious love of words and literature and My father was in love with life and with of bed. I had never thought about suicide Jamison, who also sits on the advi- Reclaim the real you. serious, worked-over writing.” ideas. My mother was the best mother—if in my life, and I started thinking about sory board of the National Network of Given her long list of accolades, it would you had to put together a mother, you ways to kill myself.” Depression Centers, a mental-health be easy to assume that Jamison’s disease has would say, ‘This was God on a good day.’” In the ensuing decade, Jamison managed network working to transform the field scarcely hindered her. But Jamison’s accom- Early on, a young Kay showed a passion to convince herself that her violent mood of depressive illness and related mood Say goodbye to stubborn plishments—from earning the MacArthur for science, receiving her first copy of Gray’s swings were merely an extension of her pas- disorders. “It’s a hard disease, but it’s fat with our clinically Award to an honorary degree from Brown Anatomy at 12 and touring St. Elizabeth’s, sionate personality. It wasn’t until Jamison a common disease. People consistently proven, FDA-cleared, University to being named Time magazine’s the federal psychiatric hospital, when she was already an assistant professor of psychia- underestimate how serious these ill- “Hero of Medicine” in 1997—are not the was 15. (“I found it fascinating and horrify- try at UCLA in 1974, a full decade later, that nesses are. They also don’t understand totally non-surgical whole story, she is quick to point out. ing,” she recalls.) “I knew I wanted a life in it became clear to her that she needed help. how treatable they are.” treatment without “My life isn’t my C.V.,” says Jamison. “My science because the questions were always While Jamison chose to come clean, the downtime. professional accomplishments mean a huge interesting to me.” she advises others to think it through amount to me, but it’s scarcely the only thing By age 17, while a senior in high school, before coming forward. “You don’t know in my life. There are years lost to pain. When Jamison experienced her first manic-de- “I was full of what what the consequences are going to be,” I would stop my medication, I would stop liv- pressive episode. “I wasn’t sleeping very I thought were fabu- she says. “In many instances, people find ing. I would get manic and then depressed—I much,” she recalls. “I was full of what I it has a freeing effect, but you don’t know ACTUAL PATIENT wouldn’t wish a day of that on anyone.” thought were fabulous ideas, which, in fact, lous ideas, which, how people are going to take it. I’ve had were pretty terrible ones and, at the time, as in fact, were pretty incredible support from my colleagues As the youngest child of three, Jamison spent with a lot of people who get manic, I didn’t and friends, but there were also people MENTION THIS AD AND RECEIVE $100 COOL CASH most of her formative years around An- see it as anything strange—it was pretty terrible ones.” who have said wicked things—there’s TOWARDS ANY COOLSCULPTING TREATMENT drews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., much an extension of my natural personal- a lot of animosity out there. It’s not BEFORE Gift Certifi cates available where her father, Marshall, was a meteo- ity. Life was just too wonderful.” simple; it’s not straightforward.” First Plastic Surgery Practice in Baltimore “I [had gone] floridly, psychotically man- And yet, thanks to her breaking the to offer CoolSculpting! ic,” recalls Jamison who, among other things, silence, she is widely credited with help- went on a wild shopping spree at the height ing to lift the stigma often associated of her mania and purchased a stuffed fox with mental illness.