Bipolar Disorder and Having Children (3)

Kay Jamison reacts to the suggestion that patients with bipolar disorder should not have children.

This is a very destructive illness, I'd be the last person to romanticize it - I've seen too much of it in myself and in my family and in my friends and in my patients, ever to say that this is something to romanticize. On the other hand, it is very treatable and it's very variable in terms of age of presentation, in terms of severity, it's unpredictable, it's treatable, you know. And it is very much part of who many, many people are, and so you know, I don't take the views, that you don't reproduce under those circumstances, I find that a chilling thought.