There are not many parties and social functions I attend that I can stand around and talk about having alcoholism and bipolar II and not have people politely excuse themselves to use the restroom, get another drink, call their kids, eat or walk the dog.

Especially in Palm Beach, where cracking one’s own finely polished and cosmetically altered reputation is verboten. Especially at a charity fundraiser at a swank restaurant in Palm Beach attended by some of the island’s most distinguished residents.

But I recently did that without anyone politely excusing themselves to use the restroom, get another drink, call their kids, eat or walk the dog. I was able to do this because Dusty and Joyce Sang decided – while at the cemetery burying their only child – that something needed to be done about early onset bipolar disorder.

Ryan Licht Sang died when he was 24-years-old.  He began exhibiting the symptoms of bipolar disorder at age 5. The Sangs devoted themselves to finding the best care and treatment for Ryan.

After his death they founded the Ryan Licht Sang Bipolar Foundation. According to the Foundation’s website:

“At the time of his death, Ryan was in the most productive and promising phase of his life. He was completing his first novel, composing experimental music and producing artwork, all while holding down a day job in the family business. To the outside world, to his family, to his friends and to his psychiatrist, Ryan had turned the corner and was on his way to becoming a remarkable citizen.”

No one knew until after his death that Ryan had decided to stop taking his medication. He believed – like many of us do – that we can control our illnesses. When he suddenly slipped into a manic episode and stopped sleeping, he self-medicated – like many of us do. Ryan died in his sleep.

The Foundation’s mission is to find an empirical test to diagnosis bipolar. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, early-onset Bipolar Disorder affects potentially up to one million teenagers from the ages of 14 to 18. Without an empirical test, it can take years before a diagnosis is made.

The Sangs are not just throwing money around. They scour the internet for cutting edge research and travel to meet with researchers. They recently met with researchers from the Bascom Palm Eye Institute to learn about whether nystagmus – involuntary eye movement – could be a predictor of bipolar. And there was a meeting with James D. Watson (Nobel prize winner for the discovery of the double helix of DNA) about genetics and bipolar. And lunch with Dr. Kay Jamison and on and on.

This year the Sang’s announced a partnership they had formed with Johns Hopkins University to fund a program called the ADAP project – Adolescent Depression Awareness Depression Program -  to educate high school students, their parents and their teachers about Depression and Bipolar Disorder and to help reduce the stigma associated with these illnesses. The foundation has already introduced the program into schools in Chicago and and now wants to underwrite the program for schools in Palm Beach county schools.

I cannot imagine what my life would be like today if my depression had been identified when I was a teen – when things got really, really bad. I started self-medicating with drugs and alcohol and eventually tried to kill myself with booze and pills.

Today I have a teenage daughter. She is my only child – just as Ryan was to the Sangs. If my daughter died I don’t know if I would be capable of the Sangs persistence to find a way to diagnosis the disease that killed my child. I don’t think I would want to think about that disease at all. It would be too painful.

Which brings me back to my Sunday night at a charity fundraiser at a swank restaurant in Palm Beach. I openly talked about my bipolar and alcoholism while Joyce and Dusty Sang danced the night away.

God bless ‘em.

Comments

This post currently has 2 comments/trackbacks.
You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts.

Trackbacks

No trackbacks yet to this post.

    Last reviewed: 16 Feb 2011