Mental health advocate Patty Duke kicks off lecture series

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By Deirdre Cox Baker/QUAD-CITY TIMES | Monday, May 19, 2008 |

As a teen actress, Patty Duke played the role of the blind and deaf Helen Keller to the heights of her profession, but she does not know if creative mania associated with bipolar disorder may have helped her Oscar Award-winning performance.

The star of “The Patty Duke Show” and “The Miracle Worker” has made more than 120 movies and television shows and won acting honors that include the Golden Globes and multiple Emmy Awards.

At age 61, she spends much of her time as a mental health advocate. Duke will kick off the Vera French Foundation Lecture Series next week in Davenport, speaking about her life and what it takes to live in a mentally healthy way.

Bipolar disorder is an “equal opportunity disease” that can affect anyone, said Ann Tubbs of the Vera French Foundation.

Mental illnesses affect one in four Americans, said Donna Hague, director of behavioral health for Genesis Medical Center, Davenport. Hague said a diagnosable mental ailment is the greatest cause of disability for those 18-44 years of age in both the United States and Canada.

20 years of mania

“It may have been getting going in me,” Duke said of her bipolar disorder that was finally diagnosed in 1983. The illness may have helped her portray Keller, who was deaf and blind, raging internally in frustration at a world that did not understand her, she explained in a telephone interview from her home in Idaho.

Duke has been a star since childhood. She went on Broadway with “The Miracle Worker” at age 12, made the successful movie at age 16 and starred in her own popular television show at the same time.

She points to the age of 19, when depression first hit with a vengeance and she removed herself from society for almost four months. “I was simply unable to function,” she said, explaining that set off almost 20 years of manic episodes that put her life on a frenetic coaster ride.

High highs, low lows

Mania, she said, is actually a fascinating process that takes a person from ultimate highs and feelings of invincibility to the deep pits of depression. This mania kicked in when Duke was in her 20s and she lived tumultuously until age 35 when she finally went to a psychiatrist and caught a break.

“I had a manic episode while I was with my psychiatrist, and I was elated when I finally got the diagnosis. I was happy that what was happening to me had a name, and that it also happened to other people,” she said.

Duke was put on the prescription drug lithium and has taken it with success ever since. She does have some side effects, including dry mouth which can be a problem during her public speaking appearances.

In hindsight, Duke wishes she would have been more open to psychiatry when it was first suggested to her years ago. She instead raged against the system, quite publicly at times.

She has sympathy today for the young actresses whose self-destructive lives are featured in the mass media. “I rail at that cruelty,” she said, noting the media these days is not like it was when she was young.

“I’d go to the grocery store and see myself on the magazine racks, and turn all the magazines around so people couldn’t read the headlines,” she said. “We get so interested in other people’s troubles, but they are human beings, too.”

Duke recognizes that it is difficult for some in their 20s and 30s to accept treatment, as young people with bipolar disorder want to do whatever their friends do, including alcohol and illicit drugs. “There are those who enjoy their manias and don’t want to give them up,” she said. “Unfortunately, it does have consequences.”

Easier today

Today’s diagnosis of bipolar disorder is easier than it used to be, Duke said. Her current work is aimed at reducing stigmas that remain for those who have mental health problems.

Family members and friends who have known Duke for years have mainly forgiven her past transgressions. “I did want absolution from everyone, but some just cannot forgive. I just do the best I can and move on,” she said.

“People do like to hear what it’s like to be in my shoes, not in enormous detail, but the highlights and the lows,” she said. She finds Midwesterners to be “balanced and kind,” and she loves to take questions from the audience.

Public speaking appearances help Duke to feel inspired, like she has a place in the world. “I love people and it’s a way to keep me energized, and if I’m lucky, to do a little good here and there.”

Tubbs said tickets for the Duke lecture event are selling well.

Deirdre Cox Baker can be contacted at (563) 383-2492 or dbaker@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at www.qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

What: Vera French Foundation Lecture Series, starring actress Patty Duke

When: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Rogalski Center, St. Ambrose University, Davenport

Cost: $60 per person; $1,000 for corporate table of 10, with extra features

Information: Call Karen at (563) 888-6268; or online at verafrenchmhc.org