In this case study, we read the story of Jenny Sloan, a girl who suffered from severe Bipolar Disorder to an extent which almost tragically ended her life. When Jenny was born, she was described as a bright, happy child who was very easy to manage. Her parents, Carl and Stella, did their best to provide a loving, supporting home environment for her by prioritizing her in their lives and researching multiple methods of childcare. Her mother even went so far as to create a journal with which to track Jenny’s milestones (learning to walk, first words, etc.). It should be noted that their prioritizing of Jenny may have stemmed from their own issues in childhood, with Carl’s mother suffering from bipolar disorder, and Stella’s father suffering from alcohol abuse. From a very young age Jenny was a social butterfly who loved attending school and interacting with her peers. In preschool, Jenny also became very active physically, vigorously engaging in gymnastics, as well as dance and swimming lessons. As time went on, Jenny continued to be a very active young girl, winning awards for track and field as well as competing in regional track meets, and also maintained a popular social standing.

Unfortunately, things began taking a more apparent turn for the worse around the time she entered middle school, as Jenny grew increasingly moody and aggressive in reaction to changes in her life. A good example of this was an instance wherein her school guidance counselor altered her schedule, sending Jenny into a tirade in which she believed the counselor had no right to make the adjustment and that her parents were conspiring with the school against her. In reaction to this, Jenny attempted to incite a protest amongst her friends against the school, and became frustrated when they refused to join her. While some children around this age range may become frustrated with changes such as this, Jenny reacted in an extreme way; becoming overly aggressive very quickly. At this point, Jenny’s parents began worrying that she might have some type of disorder, and that they should take her to see a specialist to figure out what exactly, if anything, was wrong with her. Ultimately, they decided that Jenny was most likely simply acting out as a normal adolescent girl and did not take her to see a psychologist. This decision was compounded in part by the praise they received from the parents of other children, who said they wished their children were as motivated and outgoing as Jenny.

She continued this pattern of oppositional and sporadic behavior and mood swings throughout middle school and into high school. Her freshman year Jenny tried out for cheerleading, but was denied. She was devastated by the denial, but vowed to make the cut next year, and became very active in various clubs and alternate sports, including volleyball, all of which she excelled at. The following year Jenny tried out for the cheerleading team again, this time making the cut. She was ecstatic about making the team, and showed off her new cheers as often as possible. Unfortunately, Jenny also became even more erratic in her behaviors and actions towards her parents, defying them more and more as time went on. Soon after she made the team, Jenny decided that she was displeased with her uniform, and started designing her own versions. She spent hundreds of dollars on materials and long distance phone calls to designers and manufacturers. Jenny even started believing that she could become a world-famous designer and created her own line of uniforms. At this point, Jenny felt that she had magical senses allowing her to experience the world around her to a heightened extent. This euphoria was short lived however, and she soon fell into a deep depression in which she could not even muster the motivation to get out of bed. She felt as though she was completely worthless and would never amount to anything, and experienced a deep, unbearable pain. In the middle of this, she attempted to commit suicide by consuming everything in her medicine cabinet. Had her parents not found her in time, she would have surely died.

It is my belief that the most applicable theory to Jenny’s case would be the biological theory. Since Bipolar Disorder is a mental disorder caused by an imbalance in the brain, her home environment and upbringing had little involvement in the development of this disorder. Since Jenny had a history of bipolar disorder in her family, she was already predisposed to developing the disorder. Also, this diagnosis explains why she was such a well-behaved child growing up, and began showing these disruptive signs in adolescence; her brain was still developing during this time, and began developing incorrectly around adolescence.

In my opinion, the best possible treatment for Jenny would be to find a medication which suites her need to help manage her mood swings. With bipolar disorder however, medication can be very difficult to prescribe correctly. The disorder is so unruly that many medications which work well for some people may have no effect on others. Once the correct medication is found to help Jenny, I think that both her and her parents should meet with a specialist in treating adolescent bipolar disorder in order to discuss methods which will help them all understand and better handle her disorder.

In reading Jenny’s case, I learned about various side effects of certain medications in treating bipolar disorder (nausea, weight gain, etc.), as well as the statistics on the percentage of adolescents who react positively to the drugs. I really did not read anything new about the manifestation of the disorder itself, because one of my very close friends in high school suffered from bipolar disorder, allowing me to witness first-hand its effects. While my friend never attempted suicide, my relationship with her did spur me on to research the disorder on my own, in which I read about cases similar to Jenny’s. I think that this case presentation is very informative to people who are not familiar with the disorder, and in this respect I liked it very much.