James T.R. Jones

• Jones described experiencing serious depression and other psychiatric difficulties before entering academia and ultimately came to be treated for bipolar disorder. [1]
• By the time he disclosed publicly, he had been living with serious mental illness largely in secrecy for nearly three decades. For most of that time, Jones kept the diagnosis highly private because he feared stigma and professional consequences. He did not disclose it at the University of Louisville during his first 22 years on the faculty, and at times felt unable to explain how depression and medication side effects were affecting his academic work without revealing the diagnosis. [3][1]
• Jones first disclosed his bipolar disorder publicly in “Walking the Tightrope of Bipolar Disorder: The Secret Life of a Law Professor,” published in the Journal of Legal Education. He explained that he chose to end decades of secrecy in order to challenge stigma and demonstrate that someone with a serious mental illness could have a full professional and personal life. [2][1]

• Jones described experiencing severe episodes of both depression and mania over several decades. His depressive periods could substantially impair his concentration, energy and ability to work, and in 1983 he attempted suicide before being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. During that same period, he slept progressively less, experienced increasingly manic symptoms and developed unusual experiences and beliefs, including hearing symphonies and operas in his head and imagining that he was Shakespeare’s Hamlet reincarnated. [1]
• After lithium had to be discontinued for medical reasons, Jones had a full-blown manic episode in 2004 that resulted in more than three weeks of psychiatric hospitalization. In subsequent years he described reduced sleep, racing and tangential thoughts, irritability, excessive rumination and difficulty staying focused while teaching. By spring 2007, he described himself as “floridly manic” and canceled a summer course after consulting his psychiatrist, therapist, wife and others close to him. [1]
• Jones wrote openly about the difficulty of maintaining a demanding academic career through these recurrent episodes while also concealing his diagnosis because he feared professional stigma. [1]

• Jones described medication and psychotherapy as central to managing his bipolar disorder over the long term. He took lithium for many years and wrote that it helped him remain relatively stable. In 2004, lithium had to be discontinued because of medical complications, and he experienced a severe manic episode while his treatment was being changed. [1]
• After lithium was discontinued, Jones was treated with other psychiatric medications, including anticonvulsants and antipsychotics, some of which caused significant side effects. [1]
• He also emphasized the importance of ongoing therapy and psychiatric care, particularly in recognizing changes in mood and deciding when he needed to reduce professional demands or seek more intensive treatment. His account describes treatment as an ongoing process involving medication, therapy, hospitalization when necessary and support from people around him. [1]
• In A Hidden Madness, Jones presented adherence to treatment, including medication and therapy, as one of the major factors that allowed him to continue his professional and personal life despite recurrent severe episodes. [3]

• Jones described having long periods of relative stability between severe episodes, particularly when treatment was working well. After beginning his academic career, he was able to teach, publish scholarship, earn tenure and later become a full professor while continuing to live with bipolar disorder. He wrote that lithium and regular counseling helped him remain reasonably stable even during demanding periods of his career. [1]
• His account also makes clear that stability was not permanent or linear. He experienced later relapses and hospitalizations, but repeatedly returned to teaching and professional work afterward. Reflecting on his career, Jones wrote that a law professor with severe bipolar disorder could “teach, write, and do service” like anyone else in the profession. [1]
• Jones presented his life as one of continuing to build a satisfying professional and personal life while managing a chronic, recurrent illness. [1]

• After publicly disclosing his bipolar disorder, Jones became an outspoken advocate against stigma and discrimination surrounding serious mental illness, particularly within the legal profession. He wrote that one reason for sharing his story was to demonstrate that people with severe psychiatric conditions can still have full professional and personal lives. [1]
• Jones also focused on the treatment of law students and lawyers with mental illness. He encouraged greater compassion toward students experiencing psychiatric difficulties and criticized intrusive mental-health questions in bar admission processes. He argued that the legal profession should judge people by their ability to function rather than by the existence of a diagnosis. [1]
• Following his disclosure, Jones spoke to students in law, medicine, nursing, psychology, social work and occupational therapy about mental illness and professional functioning. His advocacy was recognized with the Clifford W. Beers Mental Health Consumer Award from Mental Health America of Kentucky in 2010 and the David S. Stoner Uncommon Counselor Award in 2013. [2]

“I want to demonstrate that those with mental illness can have full and satisfying professional and personal lives.”

— James T.R. Jones [1]