Actress to speak in city about bipolar disorder

Call her Anna. Or Professor Duke. Call her an Emmy Award-winning actress and singer. But Patty Duke, born Anna Marie Duke, is most passionate about a distinction she never asked for and has worked to control for much of her life. She is bipolar and speaks openly about her struggle with the disorder in hopes she will inspire other sufferers to seek help.

"You know, I'm telling you the passion was, and is, so deep and real for me,” she said.

Bipolar disorder is not as rare as many people think; in fact, about 2.3 million American adults suffer from bipolar disorder, which equals about 1.2 percent of the population. With treatment, the recovery rate is about 80 percent.

When Duke was diagnosed as manic-depressive 26 years ago, the term bipolar was not widely used. Her relief at finally knowing that a chemical imbalance caused her extreme mood swings from depression to mania was as palpable as the lithium she was prescribed.

"I knew that if this were real and it was working for me that I could not keep this secret,” she said.

After taking lithium for only a few weeks, Duke noticed a big difference in her ability to cope with life.

"It's almost like the bond scientists have where they must reveal something they've discovered. For me, I knew that I was one of the few people who was in a position to go public about it and that it meant more to me to do that than to worry about whether I was going to be ostracized.”

Duke, known for the 1963-66 television show "The Patty Duke Show,” and for her role as Helen Keller in movie "The Miracle Worker,” will talk about her life and struggle with bipolar disorder May 1 in Oklahoma City at a luncheon to benefit the Oklahoma Mental Health Consumer Council. The term "consumer” is used in mental health to indicate a person who suffers from a mental illness.

Oklahoma has the highest rate of severe mental illness per capita in the nation, according to the council, and the state is one of the bottom five states in spending for mental health services.

When Jerry Risenhoover, who also is bipolar, first heard Duke speak at a conference in Boulder, Colo., he decided that Oklahoma needed its own consumer-run statewide advocacy organization. Along with Bob McDonald, Risenhoover started the council. Today, the organization helps educate and provide treatment opportunities for Oklahomans who suffer from mental illnesses.

"If something I said sparked something in them, I am ecstatic,” Duke said, though she was only recently made aware that she inspired the council. "Of course, I'm terribly flattered and tickled and all that, but what matters is Jerry and Bob McDonald did it. They put their money where their mouths are!”

Throughout her years advocating for bipolar disorder, Duke has been approached by people who suffer from the disorder and by psychiatrists. She said she is frustrated by people who are bipolar but do not take medicines faithfully.

"Sooner or later, I mean it is inevitable, the cycles will start again, and my frustration is that the medication, whatever medication you're on, it is not as effective when you stop and start it again,” she said. "Psychiatrists stop me on the street and say please tell people to take their medicines.”

Aside from encouraging people to get treatment for their mental illnesses, Duke hopes that by telling her story, she can help reduce the stigma that she said is still attached to the idea of mental illnesses.

People who know they have a mental illness often do not seek treatment because they are afraid of what could happen if they admit their problem. But the days of institutionalizing people for their mental illnesses are mostly gone, she said.

"The ignorance is not gone, and that's what people like me are used for,” she said.

Today, Duke is living what she calls the wonderful years of her life. Her children are grown, with children of their own. She has recently begun teaching acting courses at the University of Idaho, where she is inspired by the "youthful energy and absolute commitment” of her students.

"I tell you, I just grin the whole time I'm there and it's claimed that I am the professor, but I'm really the biggest student,” she said.

When she is not in the classroom, Duke's days are spent caring for a 6-month-old baby named Kyle who is the son of some family friends. She travels to speaking engagements across the country with her husband of 22 years, Mike Pearce, and still acts in community theater when she gets the bug.

Duke, 61, exudes a radiant happiness that she hopes other bipolar patients will observe and understand is a possibility for them, too. She said she takes her medications religiously, is happy to travel for