Judge, Two Law Profs Decide Mental Illness Should not Be a Secret

Two law professors and a judge whose lives have been touched by mental illness are joining to fight the stigma surrounding psychiatric diagnoses.

One of the law professors, Elyn Saks of the University of Southern California, has written a book about her struggle with schizophrenia, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. The other, James Jones of the University of Louisville, suffers from bipolar disorder and has written articles about it in two publications.

The judge, Susan Gibson, contacted Jones after reading his articles. She told the Courier-Journal her husband, a prosecutor, committed suicide because he feared seeking treatment for depression would ruin him professionally. Both law professors also feared that revealing their mental health problems would hurt their careers.

All three are appearing this month at events in Louisville, Ky., sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. They hope that by going public they can help others understand mental illness and show that those who suffer from it can be successful.

"There are two sides to mental illness—there's hope and life or despair and death," Jones told the newspaper. "My story is hope and life."

Hat tip to Legal Blog Watch.

Related earlier coverage:

ABAJournal.com: "Law Prof Succeeds Despite Schizophrenia"

ABAJournal.com: "Bipolar Lawyer Publishes a Memoir That Mirrors Her Disease"

Updated at 3:32 p.m. to clarify that the lawyers featured in the post were dealing with different conditions and at 6:48 p.m. to add links to related earlier coverage.