Bipolar Disorder and a Weird Court Case

Right now, a big story in this area is the trial of a high school gym teacher accused of giving alcohol to and having sex with five football players from her school.  As the trial progresses and more stories come out, the whole situation gets weirder and weirder and more salacious -- which, of course, makes for great news.

For various reasons, I had a morbid interest in this case from the beginning.  I got really interested, though, when this summer the teacher switched her plea from not guilty to guilty by reason of insanity.  I wondered what kind of mental illness would make her give her students vodka and then have group sex with them -- nymphomania?  Some kind of psychosis?

Oh, no.  It turns out, it's bipolar disorder!  This is what the local newspaper had to say (and, admittedly, it's not exactly the gold standard in hard-hitting journalism):

[Her] attorneys, Charlie H. Rittgers and his son, Charlie M. Rittgers, said [she] has a bipolar disorder and doesn’t recall the incidents.

So it's not only bipolar disorder, it's "a bipolar disorder."  I'm assuming he's referring to the different types of bipolar disorder (see the list here), but the way it's quoted, it just sounds weird. It's like saying, "she had a cough," like it was an isolated illness.  I don't know about anyone else, but I would never say, "oh, yeah, that's when I had a bad bout of bipolar disorder."

The teacher also claims to have no memory of the incidents.  I have no idea if bipolar mania (which I'm assuming is what the attorneys are referring to for the insanity plea) causes blackouts, but I did find this article on bipolar disorder and memory loss. It turns out the two are related -- but bipolar disorder causes problems with recall and details, which is way different than forgetting entire events.  I suppose alcoholism can cause blackouts, but I'm not sure that alcoholism would fly when trying to plead insanity.  This article indicates that alcohol intoxication alone is not grounds for an insanity defense, but it can affect the intent of the person accused of the crime.

I find it interesting that the only drug (other than alcohol) that's been mentioned that she was taking was Zoloft.  It seems to me if she had serious bipolar disorder, she would be on other meds in addition to Zoloft.  On the other hand, taking an antidepressant alone can cause a bipolar person to cycle into mania, so maybe if she was just on Zoloft, it was causing mania -- which can lead to reckless behavior, including drinking and reckless sex.

So, maybe she was in some sort of acute bipolar mania phase when having sex with these guys.  On several different occasions.  The only problem is, it seems like she knew it.

The prosecution presented several witnesses who testified the teacher admitted that she was having sex with the boys, and that if she was found out, she'd plead insanity.  Uh-oh.  This, for me, is where the story falls apart.  There's that old adage that if you think you're insane, then you're not -- when you're really far gone, you usually think you're fine.  If she was going around telling people she was doing these things and she'd just plead insanity, that kind of makes me wonder.

I want to stress here that I'm not saying she's not insane, or had some seriously impaired judgement.  And, there's no guarantee that the witnesses are telling the truth, or interpreting events truthfully.  And, frankly, to send her to jail seems to be stupid, as there are a lot of violent, repeat offenders who should be in jail and aren't (or aren't in jail for long enough).  I feel bad for her, I feel bad for her family, I feel bad for the "victims," and I feel bad for their families.

I also want to stress that information I'm getting is from the local paper and news stations, so I don't know how heavily I can rely on the entire story being told in 30-second sound bites and a few columns of newsprint.

What ultimately annoys me, though, is the idea that the lawyers are asserting that she has bipolar disorder, so she should be excused and absolved of responsibility for her actions (which is ultimately what the lawyers are trying to get the judge to buy).  Maybe she does have bipolar disorder; maybe she even had untreated mania.  But to say that those things caused her to drink alcohol, stand around naked, and have group sex with high school boys on at least five different occasions, seems to be a little shaky.  From what I know about bipolar disorder, it just doesn't work like that.

It will be interesting to see what the "experts" (psychiatrists, I assume) say when they take the stand, which should be later in the week.  Maybe I'm wrong; maybe bipolar disorder could cause this kind of behavior over a lengthy period of time. 

Man, if that's true, remind me to keep taking my meds!

Mental and Physical Illness: What's the Link?

Tomorrow, I am to have my gallbladder removed because of some serious pains I've had over the past two or three months. I'm not looking forward to it -- let's face it, who looks forward to surgery? And in light of the surgery, I've been thinking about the link between mental and physical health.

A happy little green gallbladder

Doing a little research on the internet, it looks as though quite a few studies have been conducted on the topic of physical health in patients with schizophrenia. This article concludes that schizophrenic patients have more physical illness problems than those without schizophrenia.  It's not clear from the article, though, if schizophrenia causes the physical illness, or the other way around.

This web page from the UK talks about the link between depression and physical illness, discussing how physical illness can cause mental illness.  There's an entire book which is a collection of essays about the link between the two, called Depression and Physical Illness (Amazon.com has it listed at $108, so I wouldn't recommend picking up a copy).

Anybody that watches TV knows that there's also a link between depression, anxiety, and fibromyalgia.  Doctors consider depression and anxiety to be a symptom of fibromyalgia, And this study discusses a link between rheumatoid arthritis and depression.

I guess my question is, which comes first?  Is mental illness (depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia) more likely to cause physical problems, or vice versa?  With depression, it seems like it could be obvious:  you feel like crap physically, so mentally you start to feel like crap. In my post about World Mental Health Day, I mention that doctors estimate upwards of 50% of cancer patients suffer from depression.  Well, I'd be depressed, too, if I had cancer.  

Of course, physical illness isn't the only reason people suffer from depression (and sometimes, there is no reason -- it's an illness all to itself).  But is is possible for chronic mental illness to cause chronic physical illness?

I know in my own experience, when I am in a bad phase, I definitely tend to neglect myself.  I don't eat right, I don't exercise, I sleep a lot, I avoid doctors (and pretty much everyone else).  Inevitably, this kind of neglect leads to physical complaints.  I usually get headaches, muscle aches, and stomach problems associated with my depressive episodes.

I wonder, though, can the mere fact of having a mental illness can be linked to physical illness?  Like, are people with chronic depression more sensitive to pain?  We always hear about neurons in the brain being blamed for depression -- is it possible these neurons that are "faulty" could be causing physical pain, too?  Or, if I'm bipolar, could my weird chemical shifts that cause it also cause shifts in my physical feelings as well? 

Admittedly, I could probably do some deeper research to answer these kinds of questions right now.  And maybe later I'll look into it.  But I feel kind of lazy at the moment, so I'm just sort of reflecting. 

And, for the record, I don't think my anxiety or bipolar depression caused my gallbladder problems. 

I blame my kids.

World Mental Health Day: Where's My Ribbon?

Happy World Mental Health Day! 

Yep, today is World Mental Health Day, designed to "raise public awareness about mental health issues" (per the World Health Organization).  Incidentally, it is also Columbus Day and World Homeless Day.  And, unless you live under a rock, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, designed to raise awareness (and raise funds, and sell pink crap) for breast cancer.

I'm not saying these other issues aren't important -- well, maybe I am saying that Columbus Day isn't that important, except to people who get off work and school because of it -- because, let's face it, cancer and homelessness are both major concerns in our society today.  In fact, if most people had to prioritize, I'm sure that cancer would be number one, homelessness number two, and mental health number three.  And I understand that.  But let's look at statistics.

According to the American Cancer Society (cancer.org), almost 570,000 people died of cancer in America in 2010, and a little over 40,000 of those deaths were from breast cancer.  Incidentally, lung cancer comprised 157,000 of those deaths, and I don't see a month dedicated to that.  You can see all the statistics here. 

Turning to look at the stats on mental health, this interesting article from the founder of PsychCentral.com, Dr. John Grohol estimates that around 33,000 people die each year in the world of untreated mental illness.  That statistic may be low, too, because there's little information from third-world countries about mental illness mortality.

Though it's hard to find hard statistics on homelessness and mortality, it isn't hard to find statistics on the link between homelessness and mental illness.  According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, as many as 25% of homeless people are mentally ill -- compared to 6% of the general population.

Lastly, in a big "well, duh" statistic, this snippet from the National Alliance on Mental Health reports that experts estimate upwards of 50% of cancer patients suffer from depression, anxiety, and other serious mental health issues.

That's a lot of statistics, and it's obvious that cancer kills a lot more people a year than mental illness does.  But we also have consistent, pervasive awareness of cancer, and a buttload of funds going to cancer (well, at least some types of cancer), every year.  And if someone learned they had cancer, I can guarantee that it wouldn't take them three months to get in to see a doctor, and they wouldn't have family members telling them that it's all "in their head."

Out of curiosity, I did a google search for "October 11, 2011" and nothing about World Mental Health Day came up.  A lot of stuff came up about Judgement Day (should that be capitalized?) and the end of the world, which I'll have to read about later.  But as far as awareness goes, I think the US has a long road ahead.  Mental illness isn't sexy.  Nobody has a "Bipolar Disorder 5k Fun Run."  Very few people, if any, have a "Mental Illness Awareness" ribbon stuck to their car -- let alone their water bottles, wrist bands, or Swiffer Sweeper refills.  In fact,  I'm not even sure there is a mental health awareness ribbon; a google image search for "Mental Illness Awareness Ribbon" comes up with multiple colored ribbons -- some blue, some green, and hey, even a pink one comes up. 

Just because there are no ribbons, no fun fund-raising events, and no pervasive marketing for it, mental illness is still a very real problem in this country and world-wide.  I guess we don't need a ribbon to understand that fact.

Bipolar Knitter...back at it

Well, I kind of fell off the blogging wagon around March. I started having early labor symptoms and was in and out of the hospital pretty much until I gave birth in April. But, I had a healthy baby girl, Lydia, who is beautiful, sweet, and easy (thank God).

So, technically, I'm not Pregnant Bipolar Knitter anymore. I think I am going to keep this blog, though, and just rename it to Bipolar Knitter. Look for a new title/logo/etc. I still believe in the spirit of the blog -- bringing information and awareness about mental illness, specifically in women, to the public. This being said, I'm going to regroup and refocus my energies back to this blog and other outlets.

Also, my brain is rotting, so this is a way to try to prevent that from happening. With three kids 4 and under, it's probably a losing battle, but I gotta try!