Poway Author to Discuss Her Bipolar Disorder at Lecture

If you met her during her freshman year in college, you would've met an athlete determined to make it the Olympics. Maggie Reese—who earned a full scholarship to the University of Idaho for her athletic abilities—raced to a number of finish lines at national competitions, often in first place.

But in 1995, her life took an unexpected turn when she broke her leg during what became her last competition. And though she won the race in Spokane, WA, on a broken leg, depression overcame Reese's life and she was soon diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Now, 15 years later, Reese is living in Poway with her husband and daughter, hoping that her vivid journal entries that have been bound and edited into the book "Runaway Mind" and her lecture on April 14 for the International Bipolar Foundation will help those dealing with the disease.

"From the very beginning of the book to the end, it takes you to the 'how in the hell did I get to this depression' to what my family and I did to save my life," she said. "It gives you hope, is what people tell me. It's not just for people who want to learn about bipolar disorder. It helps."

But it took her years to get to the point of happiness and to be the published author she is now.

Reese said her depression surfaced immediately after the race in 1995.

"That was the defining moment for me. ... Within a few weeks, my brain started to go downhill," she said. "We're talking to the point where you're suicidal. I had to quit school. We didn't know I was manic depressive or bipolar until a few months later when I was prescribed medicine for depression."

Eventually, Reese was forced into different mental institutions to deal with the disorder. Her parents even hired a bodyguard named Matt, who would later become her husband, to follow her during her trials and ensure her safety. And throughout her time in the institutions and as she attempted to overcome it, she began to write—not knowing at the time that her therapeutic exercise would become a book.

"When I was in the mental institution, I wrote every day what was happening to me, what it was like and what I was thinking—what a person goes through when they're really ill."

But it wasn't until weeks later, when Reese stepped into a halfway house, that she decided she wanted to "get better."

"There were people who were 15-20 years older than me, and it seemed like they weren't getting any better," she said. "I told myself, 'I don't want to be here in 15 years. I want to get better.' "

"And, well, I was 19," she said, laughing. "I told myself I want to go see Matt, and I'll do whatever it takes to go see that cute boy again and make him my boyfriend."

With thoughts of Matt in her mind and the same determination she had as the moment in 1995 when she crossed the finish line on a broken leg, Reese changed her life. She followed the guidelines of the halfway house and the recommendations of her doctors and now lives the fulfilling life of a stay-at-home mom in Poway while her husband, Matt, teaches at Patrick Henry High School.

And at the insistence of friends and clients of a day spa she once owned in Coronado, she opted to move forward with publishing her journal entries—which comes full-circle with pages from her mother, sister, best friend and mother-in-law on what it was like to work with Reese as she dealt with the disorder.

Since publishing her book in 2009, Reese will go through another publishing of the book that even caused a Lifetime for Women movie producer to knock on her door. She also working on her second book. Though she's flattered by the interest in her book and hopes to sell more copies, she hopes it will help others the way it helped her to write it.

"For me, it's very freeing," she said. "I've never been embarrassed; it's been a part of me for 15 years now.

"Bipolar is like diabetes," she said. "It's a daily process to stay well and, to me, it's worth it if you want to be out there living. I want people to know that there is hope in any situation that you may have—I truly believe that."

Reese will speak at the Sanford Research Center, hosted by the International Bipolar Foundation, at 5 p.m. April 14. For more information on her book "Runaway Mind," visit Runawaymind.net