When Lady Luck met bp

In an article in the latest issue of bp, a magazine for those with bipolar, Jane Pauley, talks with author and mental health advocate Lizzie Simon about life after her diagnosis with bipolar and the cancellation of her television program NBC in an article entitled “The sanest person on TV.” Simon writes that had Pauley’s “fans learned that she was seeking help for bipolar they would not have been alone in their surprise. Pauley had never imagined that she would suffer from mental illness.”

Pauley goes into detail about the breakdown she suffered “confusing, humiliating, destabilizing episodes and mania” four years ago and the journey toward recovery that began, in part, because of the help of her husband, the cartoonist, Gary Trudeau, who noticed behavioral changes among the man that Larry Grossman, the one-time head of NBC, publicly called the sanest person in television.

According to the article, Pauley finally received the help she after she told her psychiatrist that while she was no suicidal, she could finally understand why someone would not to commit suicide. The combination of her husband’s concerns and her doctors led to Pauley being hospitalized at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic in New York City. All of a sudden, Pauley’s celebrity status was working against her. A tabloid posted a reporter in the lobby of the apartment building where she lived in order to look into rumors she had been hospitalized.

Several years later, through therapy and lithium, Pauley was back at the top of her game, launching a new NBC show called The Jane Pauley Show, which has since been cancelled. Pauley also wrote a powerful memoir, called Skywriting, that addresses her illness. Simon writes that “the future is wide open for Pauley,” but every indication is that mental health advocacy, with a particular focus on the issue of stigma, will be an important part of her life in the future.

Other articles in this issue of bp include those on improving your moods with food; detecting bipolar among look-alike illnesses in children; a story of being African-American with bipolar; the affect of winter on bipolar patients and getting help from loved ones.