She is 28 years old and single with no dependants. She has a long and well documented history of mental illness. At the age of 17, while a junior in high school in Spencer, Iowa, she was hospitalized for several weeks because of extreme depression. Debtor was subsequently diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. This is in common parlance referred to as manic depression.
Bipolar disorder is a chronic mental health disorder that is genetic in nature.
Symptoms usually first appear in early adulthood and typically resurface throughout the person's lifetime. A person with bipolar disorder experiences dramatic swings in mood and behavior. During the depressed phase, the individual can have extreme feelings of low self worth and typically becomes detached from society. Conversely, during the manic phase of the illness, the individual experiences very poor judgment and has a tendency to become delusional as well as paranoid. The illness can be treated with medication.