| Many people ask me, after reading Hurry Down | | | | florid psychosis has set in, it's usually too late. Sally has |
| Sunshine, how Sally is doing now. The book tells the | | | | learned to dread her attacks and the months of |
| story of Sally's first manic attack at the age of fifteen, | | | | distress and damage that follow them. The poet |
| during the summer of 1996 in New York City. My aim | | | | Robert Lowell, who also suffered from |
| was to recreate the experience of Sally's astonishing | | | | manic-depression, used to say that he could sense a |
| leap into psychosis from both inside and out, and to | | | | seizure coming on by the mercurial, liquid feeling in his |
| show its effect on those of us who are closest to her. | | | | spine. He grew to fear it so much that he once |
| Writing Hurry Down Sunshine, I sometimes felt as if I | | | | overdosed on lithium to try to prevent it! |
| was describing a great storm: an unexpected wind | | | | 2008 has been a steady and rewarding year for Sally, |
| had come upon us, tearing to bits the little boat upon | | | | after a difficult 2007 that included the breakup of her |
| which our family floated. When the wind finally lifted, | | | | marriage and a delicate medication change. In January, |
| we were each holding on to a different plank of the | | | | she moved to Spring Lake Ranch, a therapeutic work |
| vessel, looking at each other from the across the | | | | community in the Green Mountains of Vermont. The |
| water, which was suddenly calm again, surprised to | | | | Ranch is forty percent self-sufficient. They grow their |
| have eyes. | | | | own food, raise animals, and make one of the most |
| The book ends when the summer ends, with Sally | | | | delicious brands of maple syrup in Vermont. A |
| having recovered enough to return to school -- no | | | | tremendous espirit de corps exists between the |
| small triumph. In a short postscript, I suggest that Sally's | | | | residents and the staff. As I write this, Sally is preparing |
| struggles did not end there. Manic-depression is a | | | | to move into her own apartment in a nearby city. She |
| chronic condition. Although Sally has experienced rich | | | | is a vibrant young woman, a caring friend, and a natural |
| and productive periods of remission and calm, the | | | | writer with an unusual gift for language. |
| possibility of a new attack always looms. She is | | | | I'd like to add a word or two about the immeasurable |
| twenty-seven now, and out of necessity she and I | | | | influence Sally has had on her family. Her stepmother |
| both have become experts of her disease, ever | | | | Pat, inspired by her experience with Sally, has changed |
| vigilant of sudden mood swings and other ominous | | | | her career, taking a degree in infant development. She |
| signs. Together -- along with her doctor, her mother, | | | | now works on early intervention with children who are |
| her friends -- we do our best to stave off a fresh | | | | at risk of developing long-lasting problems. Sally's older |
| breakdown. | | | | brother Aaron works for UNICEF, a division of the |
| This has proved to be an essential component of | | | | United Nations, as a Child Protection officer, a path that |
| Sally's care. One of the most diabolical aspects of | | | | was also influenced by Sally. As for me, Sally has |
| mania is its seductiveness in its earliest stages. It | | | | changed my fundamental view of the world. She has |
| beckons you with feelings of omnipotence, fluidity, | | | | taught me about the fragility of even our closest |
| charisma -- who among us would be strong enough to | | | | relationships, and the endurance of our deepest bonds |
| turn away from such an electrified state? By the time | | | | of love. |