I’ve learned from the experience of loving and losing a bipolar spouse that mental illness is both a psychological and a physiological disorder.  It can disturb a person’s ability to think, feel, and relate to others and to his or her environment. Any person with this serious mental illness needs a quick, accurate diagnosis.  They should also seek treatment with specific medication(s) as well as psychotherapy. He or she cannot cure or control it through will power or a change in lifestyle.  Mental illness is a chronic ailment like diabetes or multiple sclerosis and must be accepted as such without a stigma and it must be treated. I’ve also learned that bipolar disorders are often triggered by a crisis such as the murder trial that preceded Frank’s illness.  Woven through my story are threads of history and of social justice, centering on the debate over capital punishment, with opposition in principle coming not from the defense table or civil liberties groups but from the front of the courtroom: the judge himself. Frank's inner debates and torments are the center of this compelling tale with lessons for all of us.

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