MUSC hosts movie screening, discussion about bipolar disorder

Being “touched with fire” through bipolar disorder can be dangerously addictive, according to Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D. “People get hooked on their own brains,” the nationally known expert said during a recent panel discussion at the Medical University of South Carolina. 

She would know. Jamison has bipolar disorder, which can cause mania and severe depression. She has also treated patients, written a book about the illness and now appears in a movie about it called “Touched With Fire.”

The movie is a love story featuring Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby as poets with bipolar disorder who meet in a treatment facility. It shows how their illness brings them artistic gifts while also causing them and their loved ones terrible pain and sadness. The movie was recently shown at the Medical University of South Carolina with a panel discussion afterward that included Jamison, who’s now a psychiatry professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 

Jamison says people need to know more about bipolar disorder, which affects about five and a half million American adults. “It’s a treatable disorder,” she said. “It’s really important that people get it treated early rather than late - to go to a good facility like MUSC and get a good consultation and get treated in the community.”

Not everyone with bipolar disorder wants treatment, which can include medication, psychotherapy and brain stimulation. Baron Short, M.D., medical director of the Brain Stimulation Service at MUSC, was on the panel with Jamison. He says it can be very difficult to convince people to stay on their medication, which tamps down their mania while reducing the risk of depression. “Some people have been touched by fire and don’t know how to let it go,” he said.

Jamison first used the term “touched with fire” as the title of her 1996 non-fiction book, “Touched With Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.” Manic depression is another name for bipolar disorder, and Jamison wrote about its link to creativity in some artists. 

Paul Dalio, a filmmaker who has bipolar disorder, read her book after his diagnosis and ultimately wrote the movie “Touched With Fire,” inspired by Jamison’s words. 

“I received the label [of having bipolar disorder] at age 24,” he wrote in The Huffington Post. “It was just after I could have sworn I saw God lift the veil and unfold the entire miracle of the universe before my eyes.”

Seeing himself as being touched with fire instead of having a disease to be ashamed of resonated with Dalio. He later connected with Jamison, who continues to write about the struggles and strength of artists with bipolar disorder, and she agreed to appear in his movie. She plays herself, telling the couple at the heart of the movie that taking medication for bipolar disorder could improve their lives, not make them worse.

In real life, she tells her patients the same thing. “It takes patients sometimes several rounds of going on and off medications for them to see how it helps,” Jamison said. “I tell them, ‘Don’t you think you’ve run this course often enough to know how it’s going to turn out?’”

Between a quarter and half of all people with bipolar disorder try to commit suicide at least once. “The amount of pain and suffering in this illness is beyond description,” Jamison said. After her own suicide attempt decades ago, she committed to staying on medication for life. 

Jamison said there is plenty of help available for people suffering from the disorder, praising the treatment available at MUSC Health and the research coming out of MUSC. Treatment options at MUSC Health include inpatient and outpatient care through the Institute of Psychiatry and a group treatment program called MUSC ReVisions. 

The National Alliance on Mental Illness recently named the MUSC Health Institute of Psychiatry the South Carolina Hospital of the Year. A patient who was treated there for bipolar disorder was part of the panel discussion. He said it’s important for others with his condition to get help. “There’s help out there. You just need to get mad enough to find it.”

Jamison advised people to plan for what they want to have happen in a crisis. “Have a loved one, in a calm moment when they are at their highest level of functioning, sign advance directives as to what kind of therapy they do and don’t want when they are in crisis. For example, they may choose to be involuntarily hospitalized if they go off their medications and are in crisis.”

Thomas Uhde, M.D., chairman of the MUSC Department of Behavioral and Psychiatry Sciences, agreed. “It’s important to help patients gain insights when they’re not in a depressed or manic mode.”

He said his favorite part of the movie was when it listed people with bipolar disorder who have made artistic contributions to the world. He also liked how it showed the importance of family support for people with the disorder. “The word that came up a lot was love. We don’t talk about love very much in psychology. It seems so incredibly important in terms of survival and moving forward.”

The movie was also a reminder, Jamison said, that life is complicated. “Bipolar disorder is a bad illness, and an interesting illness, that gives some gifts, takes away a lot of life and is treatable. It’s important for people to see how complicated it is, and appreciate – for doctors to appreciate how complicated it is and how terrible it can be.” 

Dr. Jamison was invited to MUSC through the Jason Pressley Visiting Professorship, which honors the memory of a man who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at a young age. His family and friends support research to help others with the disorder, aid families in understanding the illness and discover new ways to treat it. 

Dawn Brazell also contributed to this story.