Madchen Amick talks about Son Sly’s “ongoing” bipolar 1 journey

For Girl Amik and her family, overcoming her son Sly’s bipolar I disorder is an “ongoing journey.”

“The longer the journey gets, it’s interesting (to see) your perspective and how it expands more and more, so those challenging moments become easier to deal with because you can look at it in a bigger picture ,” the actress, 54, exclusively shares in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “So even though there may be dips in challenge or some destabilization, you look at it over a longer period, which is now 13 years, and you can look at this little graph that just keeps getting better and better.” “

Amick previously opened up about his son’s bipolar I diagnosis in 2023, revealing that Sly, now 32, was diagnosed in 2012 while in college. “Things are going great!” she adds. “He had a bit of a challenge about three months ago when the medication was changed. … He caught it very quickly and they immediately changed that medication and changed it back to what was working before, but these little moments like this can be so destabilizing for the whole family, so you all have to be ready and aware and really communicate among themselves.”

In addition to maintaining his sobriety, Sly now works as a “Certified Peer Specialist” in California. “He’s already becoming the big brother at this treatment center and he’s really making a huge difference in the lives of young people who are going through what he went through, but even at an earlier age,” gushed Amick. “He said it was so important to him because he felt like he looked at himself as a little kid. It really is a beautiful thing.”

Before his recent fight, Sly went through a “destabilizing” experience in 2021. When it comes to preventing it from destabilizing again, Amick says us that she, her husband, David Alexisand daughter Mina, 31, always lend a hand to Sly.

“He really believes in us as a family, so if we see signs that look like, ‘Oh, how (are) you feeling? We’re seeing some troubling signs’ that he’s trusting us and listening to us instead of being defensive and saying, ‘No, no, no, I’m fine,’ because nobody wants to admit they’re sick, right?” she explains. “He really trusts us as a family to point it out sooner rather than later before he can spot it himself.” And also beyond that, creating this recovery team, so he’s really committed to this recovery.

Amick also notes that her son “goes to AA meetings really consistently” and is “really committed to communicating with his psych team and continuing to find that good therapist who also helps him put tools in place so he can to begin registering with mood regulation.”

After years of ups and downs in the mental health care system, Amick and her family formed the foundation Don’t pay attention to mewhich helps people going through similar experiences and provides scholarships to those who cannot afford the care they need.

“We just celebrated three years in May (2024) with the Don’t MiND Me Foundation,” she says us. “It’s always been a goal to one day open a treatment center and apply all of our lived experience and a team around us that we’ve really gotten to know and really trust, and they have a wealth of knowledge and many, many years of experience.”

The organization will hold its 2025 Don’t MinD Me Gala on Saturday, March 8, at the Palm Springs Air Museum. This year the event will honor Ashley Kolayathe director of the Mental Health Storytelling Coalition and Amick’s ex Riverdale costar Molly Ringwald.

“(Molly) was really open about her deep anxieties during those teenage years and about becoming famous so quickly and how sometimes that was crippling and what she would do to find her way,” Amick shared. “So when this gala came up this year and thinking about people making a difference, especially between advocacy and people sharing their story, it came to mind. And I thought it would be really wonderful because she’s been so open about it all these years. So we were in New York visiting, I popped the question and she said yes!

With reporting by Lanae Brody