Jamison's father leaves the Air Force and the family moves to California, where his mood swings worsen into alcoholism.

Jamison experiences her first severe depressive episode during her senior year of high school.

Jamison begins undergraduate studies at UCLA, where her mood swings repeatedly disrupt her academics despite her passion for learning.

A professor notices Jamison's unusually vivid Rorschach responses during class and offers her a research lab position.

Jamison begins doctoral studies at UCLA and impulsively marries a French artist she meets during that period.

Jamison joins the UCLA faculty as an assistant professor and her mania begins escalating dangerously out of control.

A concerned colleague recognizes Jamison's psychosis and insists she take time off and begin psychiatric treatment.

Jamison begins seeing a trusted psychiatrist and receives a formal diagnosis of manic-depressive illness.

After repeatedly stopping lithium, Jamison falls into a suicidal depression and attempts to overdose on lithium pills.

Jamison's brother calls during her suicide attempt and realizes what is happening, saving her life.

Jamison and two colleagues establish the UCLA Affective Disorders Clinic, which becomes a successful research and treatment facility.

Jamison earns tenure at UCLA, which she credits in part to the extreme productivity of her manic periods.

Jamison takes a sabbatical in England and returns to Los Angeles feeling restored and fully re-engaged with life.

Jamison meets schizophrenia researcher Richard Wyatt and eventually moves from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. to marry him.

Jamison concludes that if given the choice, she would choose to have manic-depressive illness again given lithium's existence.

This pool traces the central arc of Kay Redfield Jamison's life from the first signs of her illness in high school through her eventual management of it as a successful professor. Her father's deteriorating moods and the family's move to California introduce instability that coincides with Jamison's own worsening mood swings. After struggling through undergraduate and graduate school, she joins the UCLA faculty, where her mania finally escalates into full psychosis. A trusted colleague intervenes, leading to her diagnosis and a fraught relationship with lithium that culminates in a near-fatal suicide attempt. With support from her brother, colleagues, and psychiatrist, she rebuilds her life, founds a clinic, earns tenure, and finds stability with her second husband. By the book's close, she has come to see her illness not as a curse but as a fundamental, if turbulent, part of who she is.

The defining moments of Jamison's journey with manic-depressive illness.

Jamison witnesses a military pilot sacrifice himself during a crash rather than endanger children playing nearby.

Jamison visits St. Elizabeths federal psychiatric hospital as a teenage volunteer nurse and is deeply frightened by the patients.

Jamison receives a federal grant to spend a year studying at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Jamison's mania becomes visibly erratic at a chancellor's faculty welcome party, though she believes she was charming all evening.

Jamison goes on an uncontrolled spending spree due to mania, accumulating debts far beyond what her salary can cover.

Jamison's brother helps her sort through her financial debts without judgment and takes out a loan to cover them.

Jamison's marriage to her first husband deteriorates as her illness worsens, and they ultimately separate and divorce.

David Laurie joins UCLA as a visiting professor and he and Jamison develop an immediate, close friendship.

Jamison accidentally spills her lithium while visiting David in London and is forced to reveal her illness to him.

David invites two manic-depressive military officers to dinner to help normalize Jamison's condition and make her feel less isolated.

David dies of a heart attack while on military assignment, devastating Jamison.

Jamison travels to London for David's funeral and begins to distinguish between grief and clinical depression.

A physician tells Jamison she should not have children because her illness has a genetic component.

A colleague Jamison calls Mouseheart reacts to her illness disclosure with blame and questions her professional fitness.

The Johns Hopkins department chairman grants Jamison clinical privileges and says the faculty would be worse without manic-depressives.

This pool focuses on the secondary events and relationships that shaped Jamison's experience with manic-depressive illness at every stage of her life. From a childhood memory of a pilot's sacrifice to her frightening first encounter with psychiatric patients, the foundations of Jamison's understanding of duty and illness are laid early. Her college years bring a transformative grant to study abroad in Scotland, while her faculty years bring visible symptoms, financial chaos managed only through her brother's quiet generosity, and the eventual breakdown of her first marriage. Her most significant romantic relationship, with British psychiatrist David Laurie, is traced from its beginning at UCLA through his tragic death and her grieving trip to London. The pool closes with the professional risks of disclosure, capturing both the cruelty of a colleague's reaction and the unexpected warmth of a department chairman who welcomes her without hesitation.

The people and moments that shaped Jamison's path to stability.

Jamison first notices dramatic swings between weeks of high energy and lethargy during her teenage years in California.

An abnormal psychology lecture at UCLA first prompts Jamison to consider that she might actually be ill.

Jamison decides to pursue psychology rather than medicine, recognizing her mood swings make medical school impractical.

Jamison completes an uninspired dissertation on heroin addiction, passes her exam, and joins the UCLA faculty.

During a manic episode, Jamison goes on a workplace photocopying frenzy and unknowingly distributes a poem that describes her illness cycle.

Lithium's side effects make it impossible for Jamison to read serious books, devastating her sense of identity for years.

Jamison first contemplates suicide as her mania reaches a peak and her racing mind becomes uncontrollable.

Jamison endures a suicidal depression lasting over a year after cycling off lithium once again.

Following her suicide attempt, Jamison struggles to reconcile her behavior during psychotic episodes with who she believes herself to be.

While visiting David's grave during her sabbatical, Jamison realizes she is now thinking about what he missed rather than what they lost together.

An unnamed Englishman during Jamison's sabbatical persuades her to experiment with reducing her lithium dosage.

After lowering her lithium dosage, Jamison discovers she can read serious books again for the first time in years.

Jamison meets with Jim Watson to examine family trees demonstrating the clear genetic component of manic-depressive illness.

Jamison opens up about her own illness to Mogens Schou after he shares his family's history with manic-depressive disease.

Jamison considers whether genetically eliminating manic-depressive illness would impoverish society by erasing its link to creativity and greatness.

This pool captures the internal turning points and revelations that define Jamison's relationship with her illness across her lifetime. Beginning with her first awareness of her own mood swings as a teenager, it follows her gradual recognition that she might be ill, her shifting academic ambitions, and the profound loss of her ability to read caused by lithium's side effects. The pool then traces the escalation toward her first suicidal thoughts, a prolonged depression, and the difficult reckoning that follows her suicide attempt. Her sabbatical in England brings a pivotal shift as a new relationship helps her reduce her lithium dosage and reclaim her ability to read and feel fully alive. The pool closes with Jamison's deepening understanding of the genetic roots of her illness and her ultimately affirmative stance on having lived with manic-depressive illness at all.