Bipolar disorder, or manic depression, is an often devastating mental illness that affects 5.7 million Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. It can cause suicidal depressions and whirlwind manias that shift from a seductive euphoria, increased energy, and little need for sleep, to misery, fear and paranoia, and sometimes frightening hallucinations. Researchers don't understand exactly what causes it, but they do know it runs in families. Unfortunately, it often takes years for a correct diagnosis. And in the storm of the illness, marriages can be destroyed, jobs and schooling lost, and lives shattered. But with proper treatment, those who have manic depression can live fruitful lives without anyone even realizing they have a mood disorder.

The National Institute of Mental Health has recently begun a campaign to educate the public about bipolar disorder. In this special report, Laurie Udesky traces the journey of one family, the Grippos, who battled and learned how to cope with this complex illness.

Diana Grippo, 39, has suffered from bipolar disorder since she was in her early 20s. Now a popular English teacher at a high school in Northern California, she recently won an award for a youth mentoring program she created. Watching her in the classroom, few people would suspect that as a result of untreated manic episodes and hallucinations, she spent the greater part of two years homeless in San Francisco.

Diana's mother tells Udesky about her frantic efforts to try and find her daughter after she disappeared, and how families in a support group of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill gave her advice that finally helped her get her daughter back -- and into treatment.

Also featured is a prominent expert on manic depression, Kay Redfield Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Jamison, who herself suffers from bipolar disorder, explains why treatment for the disease is crucial.

Click here for Part II: Teens and Depression

Click to listen to Consumer Health Interactive Radio's in-depth report. (12:43 min)

If you'd like to read the radio script, click here.

Click here for Part I: Men and Depression

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Last updated January 29, 2009
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