Nell Casey
What was your sister's experience with bipolar disorder?
The first time Maud experienced depression, she was 18 years old and in her
first year of college. She ended up in the nurse's office after someone
on her dorm floor called to say she wasn't coming out of her room. She
was delusional and had lost touch with reality. My parents had to bring her
home and she was hospitalized for about a month. My parents were really involved,
although I did visit her in the hospital. I was only 16 years old, so it all
seemed incredibly foreign to me. Maud responded quickly to lithium. She regained
her composure and became very driven to get back to college. She only ended
up taking a semester off from college. It seemed to be a very quick recovery.
When Maud was 29, she went off lithium under the supervision of her therapist,
but without telling anyone in the family. She felt that the medication was
a decision that my parents had made for her. I saw Maud before I knew she
went off the medication and she seemed agitated. Finally, Maud signed herself
into the hospital, and then called the family. That was when we found out
she had gone off the medication.
Initially Maud was in control enough to realize that she had to go into a
hospital and get on medication. But, then the mania got worse and she was
in the hospital for six weeks.
When Maud was able to get out of the hospital, she moved back with my mother
to Illinois for about month. Then, just as she was incredibly driven to get
back to school the first time, she was driven to get back to New York. She
wanted to get back to her life.
When she came back to New York, she still seemed really frail and I was uncertain
as to how well she was doing. She was living alone in her apartment. Then,
she slipped into a very deep depression that no one had predicted. She had
a four to five month period of depression. So the whole episode was about
six months, but even after that it was such a long process to pull everything
back together.
Incredibly, a year later, Maud had recovered. She sold her novel, and had
a fully high functioning life. She had a boyfriend and a good job. In putting
together the book, Unholy Ghost, I've realized
how lucky we are. Maud found medications that really work. We are so happy
that Maud is doing so well now. She's been very strong.
