Pauley discusses struggle with bipolar disorder at AIM Center event

May 08--Emmy-winning broadcast journalist Jane Pauley was the featured guest at the AIM Center's "Creativity and Courage in Mental Health" series Thursday night, celebrating the center's 25th anniversary as well as Mental Health Month.

The AIM Center's mission is to help people with mental illnesses take charge of their lives, by helping members explore their talents and assist them with continuing education, job placement and securing housing.

Pauley, who gained national fame as co-host of NBC's "Today" and subsequently "Dateline NBC" programs, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2001. Since then, she has become an advocate for mental health research and awareness. She spent Thursday morning touring the AIM Center, and met with many of the center's members. She said she was impressed with the facility, known to members as the "clubhouse."

"The AIM Center isn't a show place, but it is a good-looking place," Pauley said. "To walk in and know that it's your clubhouse, members say, 'I must matter.'"

Several members shared in a video presentation the impact the center has had on their lives. One member, named Carolyn, described her struggle with bipolar disorder. She said she sank into alcohol, drugs and homelessness before turning to the center for help.

"They made me feel like I was someone, not just a person without any meaning," she said. "They gave me hope."

Several paintings and drawings by center members were on display at the event, available for purchase. During Pauley's visit to the center, one of the members, Michael Tyous, presented her a painting he made of a glowing sun against a blue background. An amateur painter herself, Pauley gushed at the painting's color, energy and complexity.

"I just love this," Pauley said. "It's going to be my showpiece in my office."

In early 2001, Pauley went to the doctor to be treated for a severe case of hives. She was put on steroids, which triggered a period of depression that developed into a hypomanic episode. She said her husband, the cartoonist Garry Trudeau, was one of the first to realize something was different. She said he wouldn't know what he was coming home to after work each night.

"Garry was living with Cruella de Vil," she said.

Shortly thereafter, her doctor diagnosed her as bipolar.

"I accepted the diagnosis," Pauley said. "I recognized that I didn't recognize myself."

She spent three weeks in the hospital and took a sabbatical from "Dateline." She returned to work that fall. Her first day back was Sept. 10, 2001. The pall 9/11 cast on the nation and the world had a strange effect on Pauley -- it helped her realize she wasn't alone in how she felt, and it reignited her journalistic instincts.

"As a journalist during that time, we had a purpose, we had a story to tell," she said.

Today, Pauley is just as active as she was before she stopped working full-time in 2004. She credits her success to taking care of herself -- she's hawkish about maintaining her sleep patterns, and she conducts regular "mood checks" on herself. She serves on the boards of education and mental health nonprofits. She was the AARP's ambassador for its "Your Life Calling" series, based on a book she wrote of the same name, which looks at how people of retirement age are re-inventing themselves in their later years. And she's been a contributor for "CBS Sunday Morning" for a little over a year.

Of the many different roles she plays, she values her ability to put a public face on those suffering with mental illness. She talked about the billboards that she's on all over Chattanooga, advertising the AIM Center's event. She hopes she can use her fame to help to take some of the stigma out of having a mental illness.

"I hope people are able to look up, and say, 'Hey, that's Jane Pauley. I have what she has.'"

Contact Will Healey at whealey@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731.

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