A Disease That Gets No Chicken Pie - Bob Mills

This article originally appeared as a guest column in the October 6, 2003 issue of the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal and is reprinted here with their permission.

Last spring I was diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of the blood. Fortunately the type (CLL) is one of the 'best cancers to have' - slow-growing and treatable. Currently it's incurable, though, and its impact on life expectancy gets one's attention. I've been struck by the similarity of this disease and another with which I was diagnosed six years ago. Bipolar disorder (also called manic depression) is a brain disease that can cause wild mood swings. Both diseases are treatable, but both are incurable and deadly if left untreated (of people who attempt suicide, those who have bipolar disorder are most likely to take their own lives). That's where the similarities end though, primarily because of stigma.

When I was child in the 1950s, there was a terrible stigma associated with cancer. It was discussed in hushed tones as if it were communicable or the result of sin. Though the stigma is still prevalent in many Third World countries and among a few ethnic groups here, it has largely been eradicated in the United States. We know better.


In my own experience, I was able to share with many friends, co-workers and church members the news about the leukemia. My family and I received wonderful support - often from surprising sources - as the news hopped around the e-mails. There were cards, prayers offered, contacts from others with the disease, and even a meal of that local symbol of love and caring, the Moravian chicken pie (baked, interestingly enough, by a Brazilian American friend).


How different things were when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. There was no chicken pie. I felt no shame or discomfort about the diagnosis, but hardly anyone among my family and friends knew how to react to the news that I might be 'crazy.' I was disoriented for a year as I tried to understand what happened and worked with my doctor to find the proper medications. Since then, I've had no further problems with the disease. The mood stabilizer and the antidepressant I take have thus far kept the symptoms in check.


Two years ago we started a support ministry at First Presbyterian Church (Winston-Salem) for people affected with the disorder. We have two groups - one for loved ones and one for folks with the illness. With no promotion or expense, we've served more than 200 people at our biweekly meetings. Most of the people to whom we minister suffer substantially more than I did. As if the disorientation and danger of a mood disorder are not enough, they suffer real threats of social isolation and the loss of job opportunities, marriages, children, friendships and faith.


The number of people in the United States who experience a brain-disorder illness is staggering - 54 million, or 19 percent of the population. Clinical depression and anxiety disorders are the largest categories of illness. Bipolar disorder affects at least 1.2 percent of the adult population (some experts estimate three times as many). In Forsyth County, that equals about 2,400 adults. If one includes the closest loved ones who are often affected severely by their relatives' suffering, the number affected rises to nearly 16,000, enough to fill Joel Coliseum. Estimates are that 60 percent of those with bipolar illness become addicted to alcohol or drugs as they attempt to dull the pain by self-medicating.


Though prescription medications and therapy are effective for about 80 percent of the bipolar cases, most ill people go untreated because of stigma, misinformation and failures of insurance plans to provide adequate coverage for diseases of the brain. Organizations such as the Mental Health Association and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) work valiantly to overcome these problems, but funds and volunteer leaders are scarce.


My particular calling is to engage churches and other faith communities in the fight against stigma. We are seeing remarkable recoveries in families as others who have been broken by these illnesses - yet strengthened by their trials - come alongside them with encouragement and prayer.


There are few churches I know of that would allow stigma to keep them from ministering to people who have cancer. Fifty years ago this was not the case. My dream is that in less than a decade, nearly all churches will minister to those with brain diseases and other mental illnesses.


I wrote a bit of bad verse that sums up my observations about the difference between having cancer and bipolar disorder. Perhaps it will strike a chord with many of those affected:

Two killers live in me.
Both destroy my bod.
One the world will help me fight,
The other, only God.

The enemy's weapon is stigma. Its fuels are fear and human pride. At stake are the hearts, minds, bodies and souls of our friends and loved ones. Perhaps even our own.

It's time for the children of God to join him in the fight.

Bob Mills is Associate Vice President for University Advancement at Wake Forest University and a member of Associates in Christian Counseling’s Board of Directors. As of April, 2005, this support group ministry for people affected with bipolar illness has been visited by over 500 people with attendance at the bi-weekly meetings averaging 35. For information about this ministry, contact Bob at millsrd@wfu.edu or visit http://www.1stpres.com/serve_sup_groups.asp.