Life Inside Panic

“A Brilliant Madness” is how actress Patty Duke describes her battle with bipolar disorder and its impact on her highly successful career that includes an Academy Award for a performance as Helen Keller in the “The Miracle Worker.”

“There is something going on inside me, in my eyes, in the cells of my face that is, in a strange way, so alive and yet so mysterious,” Duke writes in her memoir, co-authored by Gloria Hochman. “Is that mystery the gift? Is it the illness? Is it a certain intelligence? Or fear? In my opinion, it has to be a combination of all of those things.”

For Elyn R. Saks, associate dean at the University of Southern California, with triple appointments as a professor of law, psychology and psychiatry, “schizophrenia rolls in like a slow fog, becoming imperceptibly thicker as time goes on . . . After a while the sun is a dim light bulb behind a heavy cloth. The horizon has vanished into a grey mist and you feel a thick dampness in your lungs as you stand, cold and wet, the afternoon of the dark.”

In her highly acclaimed biography, “The Center Cannot Hold” Saks takes the reader along in her descent into madness and her ascent to a normal life through successful treatment.

Duke and Saks will share their struggles and ongoing recovery at the “Journey into Wellness from Mental Illness” a free community education program, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. next Saturday at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. Sponsored by Sunshine From Darkness, (formerly NARSAD Florida), the weekend event includes a black tie gala Sunday evening when Duke, along with Lee and Bob Peterson, founders of NARSAD Florida will receive Luminary Awards for their advocacy for the mentally ill.

In exclusive interviews with the Bradenton Herald, Duke and Saks talked about how their lives have changed as the result of successful treatment and going public with their own battles.

For Duke, going public has had positive results.

“Being an advocate strengthens you,” Duke said. “One of the things people with mental illness sense is that we are truly alone in the world, but the more we talk about it the more realize that’s not true.”

Duke has found that sharing her story helps silent sufferers to speak up. “It is always remarkable to me when I stand in front of people and say you can recover. For some it may give that little push to go have it checked out,” she said.

In turn, Duke believes those conversations about mental illness are helping to dispel the public’s fear.

“I don’t know that there is significant change, but I see a forward thrust,” Duke said. “People on TV talk about mental illness openly. You can strike up a conversation on an airplane and find out that if not that person, then someone they know has a problem.”

But even when they open up, some people hold back, says Duke. “They are willing to talk about it, but many are not willing to go for help because of fear of the unknown. That’s why my saying, ‘I am going to show you mine and you can show my yours, if you want,’ helps breaks down barriers. I didn’t think there was any hope for me. Now I know there is hope.”

Still, mental illness carries a stigma that blocks support for more research and treatment options, says Saks.

“One of the reasons more people don’t support mental health programs is they don’t understand what mental illness and they fear people who are mentally ill,” Saks said. “In these economic hard times, treatment and intervention are less available. I count my lucky stars that I have had access to treatment.”

“We are a very judgmental society,” Duke said. “As much as we may be informed, there is still that shadow, that fear. Don’t go near that person, that person is nuts.”

Both Saks and Duke lament the disparity in mental health care.

“What we are trying to do is to connect with the government, so we can get more funding,” Duke said. “We had just a fraction of the money going toward heart disease and cancer research it would benefit thousands of people.”

“The loss is measured in lost lives and contributions to society,” says Saks. “It’s a tragedy that most people don’t get the help they need. If they got help, they would be much happier and higher-functioning.”

She fervently believes that people with mental disorders should be allowed to pursue their dreams.

“People think they are doing the right thing when they tell someone who has been diagnosed to lower expectations,” Saks said. “I say shoot for the stars to do the things you have always dreamed of doing before you got sick. To tell people to lower their expectations is to do them a great disservice.”

Saks is currently conducting a research study of schizophrenics who, like herself, have become very successful in the careers through treatment of their mental illnesses. Her goal is try to determine what common denominators might exist among the study group that may be the basis for treatment options for others with the same diagnosis.

I do believe that most psychiatric illnesses are biochemical,” Saks said. “Stress exacerbates illness. If you keep someone stress-free, they will do better.”

Learning how to recognize the onset of her psychotic episodes helped Saks develop ways to handle them, especially by avoiding overstimulation.

“Stressful situations can cause me to have a break,” said Saks. “My husband likes to say that psychosis is not an off/on switch but dimmer switch. At the one end I could be confused. At the far end at I could be cowering in the corner.”

Psychoanalysis, Saks says, helped her learn how to identify her delusions, allowing her to understand their relationship to reality. To date, Saks has not had a major psychotic episode since 2001.