Mental
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CHAPTER 16: CHEEKING MEDS, BARTERING FOR UTOPIA, AND THE PASSOVER CRUISE
And Americans with mental illnesses: Kristen Weir, “Smoking and Mental Illness,” Monitor on Psychology, vol. 44, no. 6 (June 2013), American Psychological Association.
CHAPTER 19: THE BIG BANG, THE THIRD ELEMENT EMERGES, HOSTS ALIEN LIFE . . .
But unlike most other elements: Malcolm S. Longair, Galaxy Formation (Springer, 2008).
“Lithium remained a rather rare element”: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith, Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014).
The flats look like ice interrupted: Joseph S. Levy, James W. Head, and David R. Marchant, “The Role of Thermal Contraction Crack Polygons in Cold-Desert Fluvial Systems,” Antarctic Science, vol. 20, no. 6 (December 2008).
The increasing global demand: Simon Romero, “In Bolivia, Untapped Bounty Meets Nationalism,” New York Times, February 2, 2009.
Nearly 70 percent of the demand: “Graphite Demand from Lithium Ion Batteries to More Than Treble in Four Years,” Benchmark Mineral Intelligence blog, http://benchmarkminerals.com, May 4, 2016.
Prices for lithium carbonate: Stephanie Yang and Biman Mukherji, “Tesla Shakes Up Market for Lithium, Other Metals,” Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2016.
They’re all hydrologically linked: Teresa Matich, “The Clayton Valley: Nevada’s Lithium Hotspot,” Investing News Network, http://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/energy-investing/lithium-investing/clayton-valley-nevada-lithium-hotspot/, April 21, 2016.
CHAPTER 20: LITHIUM’S LORE AND THE TRANSITION TO DEPAKOTE (TAKE I)
One way to think about its effect: Mark Wheeler, “Lithium Builds Gray Matter in Bipolar Brains, UCLA Study Shows,” http://newsroom.ucla.com, April 6, 2007.
“Latterly I have used the bromide”: William A. Hammond, M.D., A Treatise on Diseases of the Nervous System (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1871).
At the turn of the century: Edward Shorter, “The History of Lithium Therapy,” Bipolar Disorders, vol. 11 (June 2009).
Cade became convinced that lithium: John Cade, “Lithium Salts in the Treatment of Psychotic Excitement,” Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 2, no. 10 (September 3, 1949).
Mogens Schou, a physician: Per Bech, “The Full Story of Lithium,” Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, vol. 75, no. 5 (August 2006).
“I am asking about this”: Frederick Neil Johnson, The History of Lithium Therapy (London: Macmillan, 1984).
“In your brother’s case”: Johnson, The History of Lithium Therapy.
“join Cinderella’s godmother”: David Healy, The Antidepressant Era (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).
After five days there were 30 percent: Helen R. Pilcher, “Lithium Livens Up Stem Cells,” Nature.com, March 14, 2003.
The medications were tested on patients: David Healy, Mania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).
The company, Abbott Industries: Andrew L. Wang, “New Depakote Payouts Would Fall on AbbVie, Not Abbott,” Crain’s, August 20, 2013.
In the lawsuit: Rheinfrank et al. v. Abbott Laboratories Inc. et al., case number 1:13-cv-00144, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
About 3.5 million people: Mental Illness Policy Organization, http://mentalillnesspolicy.org.
CHAPTER 21: THE CALM WATERS OF BAD KISSINGEN
Here, I could see both past and future: Molly S. Castelloe, “How Trauma Is Carried Across Generations,” PsychologyToday.com, May 28, 2012.
“what human beings cannot contain”: M. Gerard Fromm, ed., Lost in Transmission: Studies of Trauma Across Generations (London: Karnac Books, 2012).
In an October issue: “Sanitation at Constantinople,” The Lancet, November 24, 1894.
CHAPTER 22: WHEN IN ROME AND THE LITHIUM RECKONING
On July 10, 1890, van Gogh wrote: Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Auvers-sur-Oise, c. 10 July 1890.
“I myself am quite absorbed”: Letter from Vincent van Gogh to his parents, Auvers-sur-Oise, c. July 10–14, 1890.
“The average reduction in life expectancy”: Edward Chesney, Guy M. Goodwin, and Seena Fazel. “Risks of All-Cause and Suicide Mortality in Mental Disorders,” World Psychiatry, vol. 13, no. 2 (June 2014).
CHAPTER 23: DEPAKOTE (TAKE 2), LITHIUM TAPERING
In 2008 when George W. Bush: Peter J. Cunningham, “Beyond Parity: Primary Care Physicians’ Perspectives on Access to Mental Health Care,” Health Affairs, vol. 28, no. 3 (May-June 2009).
“As a result, 2 million people”: National Alliance on Mental Illness, “Jailing People with Mental Illness,” https:/www.nami.org/Learn-More/Public-Policy/Jailing-People-with-Mental-Illness.
I thought about the Sweetwater Park Hotel: Lisa Land Cooper, Every Now & Then: The Amazing Stories of Douglas County (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to everyone who has helped me get to this point, one day after another. Nothing short of miraculous.
Thanks to my immediate family for unconditional love: my mom, LeeAn Lantos, for her rocking chair, a deep appreciation of words, punctuation, expletives, bargains, righteousness, Venice beach walks, softball, and for an early introduction to analysis; my dad, Stephen Lowe, for teaching me to love trees, garden-grown tomatoes, the farmer’s market, soccer and sports, for more righteousness, teaching me to absorb the way music sounds and feels, how to read a book at five a.m. when the streets are silent, and for bailing me out on more than one occasion (ahem, Jinan); Jeff, for patience, piano playing, lyrical genius, strawberry rhubarb pie, making life one big goulash, and teaching me by demonstration that writing requires curiosity, diligence, persistence, and passion; Marilyn, for her fierce dedication to anything she focuses her laser eyes on, letting me play with her court suits and Attorney General’s badge, Lake Hollywood walks, saving the state’s water, and talking me through many rough nights much later in life than any adult should be experiencing drama; my older brother, Matthew Lowe, the order Muppet to my chaos, you’ve been such a crucial part of my life that I don’t know how to define the love except in extreme gratitude that you haven’t murdered me in my sleep for being the crazy one—you’ve taught me a deep appreciation of music, food, travel, diplomacy, and how to gently urge snails to remain in line; my younger brother, David Lowe, for raw enthusiasm and support in everything, sharing a love of sneakers and track suits and cool shit in general, for wanting me to hang out with his friends even though I’m an old lady, and for thinking I might have good life advice in spite of obvious functional flaws.
Thanks to my immediate friends family from LACES: Hana Elwell, there aren’t words, I feel so lucky I get to know you; Rachel Benoff, same; Sarah Jacoby, same; Miriam Kramer, same—all of you basically slay me with love and intelligence and power and beauty. The fact that we’ve known each other since we were thirteen—well, that’s just fucking amazing.
Thanks to my teacher and role model Monsy for being a loud, fierce, uncompromising woman. Arnie for rehabilitating darkroom enlargers and teaching me to process film and develop prints. Thank you to Mack for being open then, and now. Thanks to the movies and moviemakers who got me through high school.
Thanks to Autumn Bernstein, Karey Green, Erin Stack, Stuart Seaborn, Stephanie Haren, Jeremy Engel (serious shout-out to the funniest dude who is still friends with me even after I told him he’s a bad kisser and the fire and I melted his records for fuck’s sake . . . sorry), Greg Seibert, Andrew Nolan, Charles Heath, the Aggie, the UC Davis art department, and the LA Weekly, in particular Pam Klein, Harold Meyerson, and Tom Christie.
Thanks to the smashing Sarah Poulter, who on Day 1 in New York embraced me like family; thank you, Amy Osburn, who twinkles through life in an infectious manner and for calling me sparkleb
utt; Effie Phillips, who straddled the streets of Davis and New York with me, Aaron Samson, and Mark Bard.
Thank you to anyone who has ever given me a job or worked with me. Waking up and having a place to go is an extraordinary privilege, especially considering the people I have gotten to work with. In particular Bill Vourvoulias, James Lochart, Ethan Lipton, Chris Stone, Dana Nelson, Meesha Diaz Haddad, Caryn Prime, Robert Firpo-Capiello, Maer Roshan, Adam Duerson, Danny Habib, Chuck Eddy, Jebediah Reed, Kerry Lauerman, Orion Ray-Jones, Sophie Hoeller, Sam Polcer, Sarah Emerson, Melissa Cronin, Ben Guarino, Jenny Kutner. Deep shout-out to all the fact-checkers and copy editors and production managers, underappreciated backbones of publishing.
Thank you to the entire staff of The New York Times Magazine. First and foremost to Dean Robinson for enduring endless gchats and half-baked pitches and general harassment, but mostly many thanks to him for making me pay close attention to words and sentences. Thank you to Jake Silverstein, Bill Wasik, Jessica Lustig, and Ilena Silverman for guidance, faith, and for publishing the story this book was based on. Thank you to Nandi Rodrigo, Lia Miller, Steven Stern, Dan Kaufman, Renee Michael, Nana Asfour, Mark van de Walle, Rob Liguori, David Ferguson. Thank you to Kathy Ryan for taking the best photo of me ever and preserving evidence of my pre-Depakote hair. Thanks to David Carr.
Thank you to my whole big entire amazing family that I love deeply and dearly: Sally, Aggelos, Ereni, Zoe, Sofia, Carrie, Simon T., Pete, Jan, Debbie, Gavin, Kyle, Andrew, Will, Michael, Michelle, Mark, Madeline, Rachel, Charlotte, Richard, Lorna, Jill, Julie, Jason, John, Martha, Nancy, Hannah, Tess, Emma, Tom, Jessica, Lucy, Marlena, Lauren, Alex, Adrienne, Julian, Stuart, Hal, Gavin, Mia, Pam, Terry, Emma, Michael, Carol, Aaron, Nora, Leah, Katherine, Mitchell, Margot, David, Sarah, David, Jan, Meredith, Sasha, Aaron, Denise, Jake, Jackson. Thank you to all my grandparents—Irving, Helen, Walter, Henny—and to Lynn, Barbara, and Joy.
Thank you to the St. Augustine crew—the best outlaws a girl could hope for. Please know that I could not love you more and I feel so lucky that I have extended family that I consider my own. I’m deeply grateful for midnights at the Chikee, fish fries at Genung’s, and an attitude toward life and people and justice that is incomparable.
Thank you to those that don’t fit into any one category: Mike for being there, my awesome brother-in-law, Romeo Ymalay III, Hardy, Maya, and Eva Fischer, Niko Higgins, Levi Elwell Higgins, Zoe Ani, Craig, Maceo, and Zinnia Melzer, Ethan, Lev, and Liam Minton, Jenny Engel, Evander Bluejay, Joshuah Bearman, Zerline Goodman, Cindy Zaplachinski, Kev, Stuart and Pam, Emily Bazelon, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Dr. G, Jenna Wortham, Claire Gutierrez, Luke Mitchell, Sheila Glazer, Willy Staley, Charles Homans, Leslie Jamison, Greg Howard, Taylor Berman, Caity Weaver, Choire Sicha, Rich Juzwiak, Max Reed, Busdriver, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Adrian Chen, Naomi Zeichner, Tommy Craggs, Ally Millar, Alex Pareene, Jay Kang, Madeleine von Froomer, Gemma Gambee, Jeremy Kleiner, Oliver, Owen, and Marisol Staley, Sharif/Boobaloo and Rosie, Mason Pettit, Lindsay Fram, Jon Mooallem, Dana Shapiro, Brett Forrest, Donnell Alexander, Chris Isenberg, Jeff and Sue, Lynn and Nate, Preston and Phyllis, Shelley and Bob, Susan and Richard, Bob and Kim, Hughbie, Steve Brown, Stefanie and Tony, Jeff and Nancy, Bruce and Betsy, Linda and Michael, David and Joanna, Idene, and John and Sue. Lia Miller deserves another thanks here for cheese, chats, and smiling through tough days. The Schwadrons and Elwells. Lizzie Simon and Reyhan Harmanci for letting me into their ad-hoc residencies in the woods. Thank you to Henry Weinstein and Laurie Becklund for being my journalism role models. Griff, Cody, Nature, Maggie, everyone from Moonwork, Gleason’s, soccer, Noodle Pudding, the Iyengar Institute. Anyone who’s let me interview them, ever.
Massive thank-you to every psychiatrist, researcher, therapist, and historian who let me interview them and pick their brain about brains in general. Thanks to anyone who has shared their story of mental illness publicly or just in conversation with me.
Thank you to Kay Redfield Jamison, Patty Duke, and Carrie Fisher for your humor, strength, voices, and for blazing the trail.
Thank you to Blue Rider for everything. Many thanks to editor extraordinaire Brant Rumble for being patient and encouraging while I barfed this thing up, and then making it sing. Terezia Cicelova, you are a star with impeccable editorial judgment, sharp questions, and excellent instincts. David Rosenthal, thanks for including me in a roster that I have no business being on and for finally allowing me to legitimately call Mike Tyson a colleague. Ghada Scruggs for fact-checking and researching that went above and beyond. Claire Winecoff and Amy Schneider for deft copyediting. Claire Vaccaro, Marysarah Quinn, Jason Booher, and Ben Denzer for absolutely stunning design inside and out.
Firemen and women, everywhere.
Jud Laghi. Super-Agent. Period.
H, you are my love.
Dr. DeAntonio and Dr. Schwartz, I might be dead without you guys. I’m glad I’m not.
Finally, if you or anyone you know needs immediate help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-TALK (8255) or for general information on mental health, call the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Treatment Referral Helpline: 877-726-4727.
INDEX
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.
Page numbers in italics indicate photographs or illustrations.
Abbot Kinney, 162, 164
Abbott Industries/Labs, 235, 236, 278
Abilify, 271
admittance to NPI, 17–22, 36
adolescence, 28–29, 74, 111–12
adolescent group therapy, 70, 74, 82, 83
Affordable Care Act, 281, 282
aggressiveness, 24, 110, 115, 117, 125, 145, 179, 185, 203, 251, 267
AIDS, 31, 41
Albemarle, 220, 222
Alcoholics Anonymous, 233
AlMar, 199–200
Alzheimer’s disease, 231, 235
American Film Institute, 56
American Psychiatric Association, 36
Anatomy of Melancholy, The (Burton), 35
Angst, Jules, 242, 256–57, 259, 260–64, 266, 267–68, 271–72, 282
antidepressants, 90–91
antipsychotic, 25, 158, 159
apocalypse, 13, 18, 24, 26, 27, 29, 55, 68, 72, 152, 165
Aretaeus of Cappadocia, 33–35
art projects, 105, 105, 108, 127–28, 138, 174
assistant duties, 102, 104–6, 107, 108, 110, 124, 126–27, 128
asteroids and lithium, 213
Astin, Mackenzie, 79–80, 81–83, 84, 85, 86
asylums, 37, 43, 52, 118, 120
Ativan, 22
aura, 189
Australia, 219, 221, 222, 227, 230, 262
Azevedo, Tony, 181
Baastrup, Poul Christian, 229
Bad Kissingen, 241, 241–45, 250, 251–54, 258
Baghdad, psychiatric hospitals, 35
Balzac, Honoré de, 71
Barry, Todd, 179
bartering, 134, 144, 150, 162, 165
Bat Mitzvah, 4, 247
batteries, 36, 182, 218, 219, 220, 232
Bavaria, 243, 251
Bayerischer Hof, 248, 249
beach, 61, 73, 78, 87, 164, 185, 206–8
Beck shows, 92, 130, 132
Beech, Robert, 228
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 71
behavior shift, 19–20, 42, 67–68
Bell Jar, The (Plath), 37
Benedict Canyon, 80, 82, 83, 84, 87, 174
Berkeley, California, 19, 56, 59
Bethlem Royal Hospital, 51
Big Bang, 211–14
biological explanation, 227–29, 230–31
bipolar disorder. See also lithium; Lowe, Jamie Rose; manic depressive; mental illness; sexual assault
defined, 31–32, 155
depressive episodes, 21, 32, 34, 36, 71, 75, 80, 81, 174, 175, 176, 177, 240, 262, 271, 278, 279, 282
diagnosis, 19, 22–23, 31, 35, 36, 46, 62, 67, 68, 70, 79, 80, 81, 86, 121, 122, 187, 215, 261, 268, 282, 285
episode 1, 1–93
episode 2, 95–204, 210
famous people, 54, 71, 80–81, 86, 267
genetics and, 20–21, 62, 121
hyperreligiosity, 6, 13, 29, 32, 87, 125, 148, 151, 160, 168, 172
hysteria, 34–35, 117–20
initial symptoms, 74
manic episodes, 32, 33–34, 36, 49, 54, 55, 69–70, 71, 75, 80, 81, 84, 118, 125, 140, 142, 144–48, 152–55, 162, 172, 179, 183, 228, 232–33, 262, 271, 282, 284
percentage of Americans affected, 19, 62
bipolar 1, 36, 155, 271
bipolar 2, 36, 271
Bishop, Elizabeth, 267
Bismarck, Otto von, 241, 252
Blachly, Paul, 230
Blackalicious, 92, 127
Blackwell, Barry, 229–30
Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum, 52
Blender, 136, 137, 138, 145, 146
Bly, Nellie, 52, 70
Bolivia (“Saudi Arabia of lithium”), 13–14, 208, 214–19, 220, 221, 222, 224, 232
Bonet, Theophilus, 36
Bowden, Charles, 235
boxing, 172, 178, 183, 184–85, 186, 188, 203, 237, 272–73, 274
brain, 33. See also mental illness
development of, 28–29, 110–11
lithium and, 225–26, 227, 231, 232
major role in mental illness, 268
past memories as archive, 247
personality and emotion influenced, 52–54
brain gout. See manic episodes
Brennan, Kathleen, 114–15
Brett (friend), 178
Brilliant Madness, A (Duke), 54
Britain, 230
British Journal of Psychiatry, 121
Brompton, Sally, 104