In Months Before Wild Capitol Scene, Miriam Carey Battled Psychosis
But without in any way discounting the seriousness of postpartum depression, a prominent forensic psychiatrist who is familiar with the details of Carey’s case suggests that she was very likely simmering with a bipolar disorder long before Erica’s birth.
In earlier days, when the disorder only manifested itself as a relatively benign condition known as hypomania, it may even have helped Carey become a success story. People who are hypomanic often possess heightened energy and goal-oriented drive.
With the baby came the exhausting demands any single mother faces, along with postpartum depression. Her irritability became more pronounced and she was fired from her job with a periodontic practice in Hamden.
These stressors, along with the possible effects of the head injury, seemed to push Carey past hypomania into a more serious manifestation of bipolar disorder. Her boyfriend would later say that she began to lose her mental balance in September of last year.
In early December, the stressors apparently triggered the full-blown manic episode that prompted the boyfriend to call the Stamford police. She was briefly hospitalized and sent home with medication in time for a family gathering in Brooklyn on December 20.
One thing that distinguishes manic episodes from schizophrenia is that those who suffer them can suddenly appear to recover themselves completely, as Carey seemed to do by early January. Her boyfriend, as reported by ABC News, told a social worker that she was “100 percent normal.”
“You go back to being your regular self,” says the forensic psychiatrist, who asks not to be quoted by name.
But the psychiatrist cautions that once people suffer an episode of full-blown mania, they are more likely to have another.
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Wow...I think this is what Carrie on the Showtime series Homeland has.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/05/in-months-before-wild-capitol-scene-miriam-carey-battled-psychosis.html
