It's Depression Mode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here. I've rewritten this introduction a few times, and here's the version I've settled on. It's good to know what the hell you're talking about. If you're talking to someone about ancient

history, for instance, you should know who the Mesopotamians were and what they were all about.

If you're talking baseball, you should understand the infield fly rule. And if you're talking about

mental health, it is a good thing to know what bipolar disorder and bipolar 2 are,

especially because those terms get tossed around pretty loosely. In fact, it's probably more

important to know about bipolar than the Mesopotamians or the infield fly rule because it comes up

more often. It's more likely to have an impact on your

life. Bipolar could affect you or someone close to you. So spotting it means someone can get help for it

and have a better chance at a much better life. In a little bit, we're going to hear from the writer

and commentator Anna Marie Cox about her life with bipolar disorder,

what it means on a day-to-day basis, how she has learned to manage it and live a good life.

First, I talk with Dr. Ken Duckworth. He's the medical director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness,

and, as I come to discover in this interview,

someone with a very personal connection to bipolar. I led off by asking what is bipolar disorder?

So let's start with humility and curiosity.

So we don't know.

I thought we were going to start, but all right.

Well, life is funny.

Bipolar disorder is a description of a specific set of symptoms that has been organized into categories.

Now the question is, what's the underlying neuroscience validity?

That is to say, is bipolar disorder a spectrum?

We divide it into several categories.

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