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CNN Live Today

Interview With Bebe Moore Campbell

Aired September 29, 2003 - 11:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Author Bebe Moore Campbell has earned awards and accolades for novels over the years. But now Campbell tackles the subject of mental illness in her first children's book. It's called "Sometimes my Mommy Gets Angry." And it's the story of a young girl whose mother suffers from bipolar discord.
Bebe Moore Campbell joins us from Los Angeles for our "Daily Dose" of health news this morning. Good to see you. How are you?

BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL, AUTHOR: I'm fine. How are you? Good to be here.

HARRIS: I'm glad to have you here with us this morning because this is really an intriguing idea. Where did this come from? And when did you start getting involved with working on this issue?

CAMPBELL: Well, it happens that I love several people who have mental illnesses and being involved in those lives and seeing first hand the toll that it can take on children, I begin to become very active. I'm a member of the NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

And I thought that I would try to send a message to children about mental illness, particularly those who find themselves in the situation of being parented by a person who has a mental illness. And by that I mean one of the major brain diseases, either schizophrenia, bipolar disorder which is also know as manic depressive illness or clinical depression.

HARRIS: Any idea how many numbers you're talking about of children who may be in that situation?

CAMPBELL: I don't know about the children, but 1 percent of the population has schizophrenia, 1.5 percent has bipolar or manic depressive illness. So you're talking about sizable numbers, some of whom may have intervention from children services and many who will be reared by a parent who has a mental illness.

HARRIS: I'm sorry. I hate to interrupt you. Just want to try to get in as much as we can on this point.

CAMPBELL: Yes, well my purpose in writing the book is to teach resiliency to those children who do have those parents, who may or may not have the intervention from a children's services department, who will have to learn how to cope emotionally with a parent who is on a roller coaster. Those people who have bipolar disorder or manic depressive disorder are -- have extremes in emotions. They go up and they go down. So a mother can be fine in the morning and she can be completely out of whack by the time the child comes home from school.

HARRIS: I'm glad you brought that up because that's one of the points I wanted to get onto is how you tell that story or how you get that -- an idea communicated to a child.

And I notice that what you do here in this story with little Annie here, you talk about how she leaves -- getting dressed for school or whatever. And she leaves and she goes -- leaving the house that morning everything is fine and mom is all very happy and pleasant and sweet. But when she comes home from school, it's a whole different situation.

CAMPBELL: Yes. What I'm trying to show not on for children, but I'm also trying to tell the village, those people who are aware of the Annies in the world, what these kids are going to need order to have -- to be able to cope and to be able to deal and to be able to lead productive lives.

Because I think the village is going to have to be on the watch. I'm talking about the observant teacher, the neighbor, the extended family, grandma, aunties, uncles, grandpa. All these people are going to have to come in and do additional parenting for this child.

So those are the ones I want to get the book in the hands of so they can read this story to the child themselves.

HARRIS: Got you. And congratulations also to E.B. Lewis. Beautiful illustrations here.

CAMPBELL: Oh, yes. He's fabulous.

HARRIS: They help you tell the story quite well.

What age group are you talking about trying to reach with children when try to first address this kind of issue with them?

CAMPBELL: You know I'd say as young as 4. And depending on what's going on in that house as old as maybe preadolescence. Of course the 4-year-old would be read to and you might be able to give the book to someone who's older. But for many it would be the first introduction to mental illness.

And also I wanted to say this as the book is written I never use the word bipolar disorder or manic depressive illness because this could also be for a parent who's suffering from drug addiction or alcoholism or is just under an extreme period of stress.

And often what looks like drug addiction, I want to say, often masks a mental illness. Because it's quite common for there to be what we call co-occurring illnesses where you've got addictions and mental illnesses occurring at the same time. HARRIS: And the way that those kind of people interact with their families are often the same. That's a very, very good point. Thanks for bringing that up, Bebe. Appreciate that. And good luck with all this. This is a great idea. Bebe Moore Campbell, now author -- children's author. "Sometimes my Mommy Gets Angry." Thank you very much for coming in today. We appreciate that.

CAMPBELL: Thank you so much. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 29, 2003 - 11:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Author Bebe Moore Campbell has earned awards and accolades for novels over the years. But now Campbell tackles the subject of mental illness in her first children's book. It's called "Sometimes my Mommy Gets Angry." And it's the story of a young girl whose mother suffers from bipolar discord.
Bebe Moore Campbell joins us from Los Angeles for our "Daily Dose" of health news this morning. Good to see you. How are you?

BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL, AUTHOR: I'm fine. How are you? Good to be here.

HARRIS: I'm glad to have you here with us this morning because this is really an intriguing idea. Where did this come from? And when did you start getting involved with working on this issue?

CAMPBELL: Well, it happens that I love several people who have mental illnesses and being involved in those lives and seeing first hand the toll that it can take on children, I begin to become very active. I'm a member of the NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

And I thought that I would try to send a message to children about mental illness, particularly those who find themselves in the situation of being parented by a person who has a mental illness. And by that I mean one of the major brain diseases, either schizophrenia, bipolar disorder which is also know as manic depressive illness or clinical depression.

HARRIS: Any idea how many numbers you're talking about of children who may be in that situation?

CAMPBELL: I don't know about the children, but 1 percent of the population has schizophrenia, 1.5 percent has bipolar or manic depressive illness. So you're talking about sizable numbers, some of whom may have intervention from children services and many who will be reared by a parent who has a mental illness.

HARRIS: I'm sorry. I hate to interrupt you. Just want to try to get in as much as we can on this point.

CAMPBELL: Yes, well my purpose in writing the book is to teach resiliency to those children who do have those parents, who may or may not have the intervention from a children's services department, who will have to learn how to cope emotionally with a parent who is on a roller coaster. Those people who have bipolar disorder or manic depressive disorder are -- have extremes in emotions. They go up and they go down. So a mother can be fine in the morning and she can be completely out of whack by the time the child comes home from school.

HARRIS: I'm glad you brought that up because that's one of the points I wanted to get onto is how you tell that story or how you get that -- an idea communicated to a child.

And I notice that what you do here in this story with little Annie here, you talk about how she leaves -- getting dressed for school or whatever. And she leaves and she goes -- leaving the house that morning everything is fine and mom is all very happy and pleasant and sweet. But when she comes home from school, it's a whole different situation.

CAMPBELL: Yes. What I'm trying to show not on for children, but I'm also trying to tell the village, those people who are aware of the Annies in the world, what these kids are going to need order to have -- to be able to cope and to be able to deal and to be able to lead productive lives.

Because I think the village is going to have to be on the watch. I'm talking about the observant teacher, the neighbor, the extended family, grandma, aunties, uncles, grandpa. All these people are going to have to come in and do additional parenting for this child.

So those are the ones I want to get the book in the hands of so they can read this story to the child themselves.

HARRIS: Got you. And congratulations also to E.B. Lewis. Beautiful illustrations here.

CAMPBELL: Oh, yes. He's fabulous.

HARRIS: They help you tell the story quite well.

What age group are you talking about trying to reach with children when try to first address this kind of issue with them?

CAMPBELL: You know I'd say as young as 4. And depending on what's going on in that house as old as maybe preadolescence. Of course the 4-year-old would be read to and you might be able to give the book to someone who's older. But for many it would be the first introduction to mental illness.

And also I wanted to say this as the book is written I never use the word bipolar disorder or manic depressive illness because this could also be for a parent who's suffering from drug addiction or alcoholism or is just under an extreme period of stress.

And often what looks like drug addiction, I want to say, often masks a mental illness. Because it's quite common for there to be what we call co-occurring illnesses where you've got addictions and mental illnesses occurring at the same time. HARRIS: And the way that those kind of people interact with their families are often the same. That's a very, very good point. Thanks for bringing that up, Bebe. Appreciate that. And good luck with all this. This is a great idea. Bebe Moore Campbell, now author -- children's author. "Sometimes my Mommy Gets Angry." Thank you very much for coming in today. We appreciate that.

CAMPBELL: Thank you so much. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com