Extract from : You Don't Have to be Famous to Have Manic Depression

You Don’t Have to be Famous to Have Manic Depression

A note from the authors

Jeremy Thomas: Why did I decide to write this book? To bastardize a current expression, I am certainly not the only manic depressive in the village. Nor has my condition or experience been that much worse or more serious when compared to others. However, I wanted to write about my experience of manic depression and other mental health issues because I believed it was way past time to demystify and de-stigmatise mental illness in the UK. I also wanted to read a book that actually explained in plain English what certain illnesses were, what they were not and what you could do about them.

 The idea to write the book arose while researching a TV documentary about manic depression which had been inspired by my good friend and GP Tony Hughes. Having been a grateful patient of Tony for over twenty years and fully aware of his complementary knowledge of manic depression, there seemed no better choice of co-author for this book than him. As usual, Tony was his generous self and, after only one application of the thumb screws, graciously accepted my offer. A plan was struck to borrow a friend’s flat overlooking the sea in Brighton and to go and record and write the Manic Dialogues and subsequent Insider’s Guide. The only argument was who would be sleeping in the real bed and who would sleep on the sofa bed.
 
 To put my own experience into context, I need to turn back the clock. After riding a bumpy rollercoaster of adventure, I was diagnosed as suffering from manic depressive psychosis in January 1981 and hospitalised at the Bethlem Royal Hospital. Eighteen months later, I became friends with an intriguing man in his late twenties, called Tony Hughes. He was a doctor and a painter, had a pretty girlfriend called Fiona and drove a blue Renault 4. Six months later he became my doctor, a role he patiently performs to this day. I soon began taking a mood stabiliser drug every day and have done so ever since. A year went by, and Tony was rechristened Dracula on account of the amount of blood he extracted from my unsuspecting arm while testing for Lithium levels. On 12 March 1993, after a spectacular career at the bar, I finally gave up drinking and joined a very anonymous organization. Prior to this point, I was allergic to words like group and therapy and felt slightly nauseous at the sight of any self-help books. However, like many other people, I was always secretly hoping to find just the ‘right’ book to shed light on my situation. In hindsight, a straightforward and amusing guide to manic depression and good mental health would have been unbelievably useful in those intervening twelve years.

 We all want to be seen by others as Mr or Ms or Mrs Sane, Groovy and Wonderful, certainly nothing too different from the rest of the pack. Also, unless you are a poet, comedian, novelist or rock star, having manic depression is not the coat of colours most people would choose to wear. Mental illness isn’t considered to be terribly manly unless, perhaps, you happen to mask it with a bottle of vodka or tequila and endless talk about football or bullfights.

 I have always belonged to the category of people who need to burn their hands on a hot stove at least seventeen times before finally believing it might not be a good idea to continue touching it! Unlike some less fortunate friends, though, I have survived the last twenty-five years of ups and downs and, thanks to various people too numerous to mention, have a wonderful life today. Pass the sick bowl time, I know. That doesn’t mean that there have not been dark clouds or moments of total doubt, gloom or elation, but more that I have learnt ways in which to manage my own mental well-being.

 It’s 2007 and stigmas and suffering are no longer compulsory. Yet everyone at some point in their life is going to be directly or indirectly affected by some form of mental illness; so it’s probably better to be more informed than less. If you don’t want to become mentally ill, try your best to be mentally healthy. Should any of my references appear inappropriate or flippant, please accept my apologies – I do not take the subject of mental illness lightly, but rather believe it is sometimes better to deal with the subject in a lighter vein.

Dr Tony Hughes: … So why did I write this book? Having researched for three years, meeting many of the leading lights in the field and reading widely around the subject, we had to largely hand over development and filming of a documentary on manic depression which we had been making with Stephen Fry, apart from any other reasons due to our own professional commitments. It thus seemed a great opportunity to co-write a book when Jeremy, my dear friend and partner in the original TV documentary project, suggested it.

 It has meant a return to one of the main reasons I began studying medicine – my interest in psychology – and arose directly from my ventures into the world of the arts.

 I felt the chance to mix some humour with such a serious subject might give it a broader appeal. In this way I hoped our book might be able to make a worthwhile contribution to the understanding of this illness that is so close, and yet so far from everyone’s experience of joy and despair.