When the iPhone4 was introduced (推出市面) in the city, Ms C bought four of them.
She reasoned she needed four because should a phone's battery go dead (note 2), she could use the others to carry on (note 3) her conversations with her boyfriend, close friends and distant relatives (遠房親戚) for hours on end until dawn (天亮).
The 27-year-old office worker would get off (下車) a bus to talk, walk aimlessly (note 4) and refuse to take the lift, fearing her calls might be cut off (中斷).
In an average month she would run up (note 5) HK$8,000 in phone bills.
On a two-day trip to Macau, she racked up a phone bill of HK$10,000.
But there were times when she would simply lock herself in her bedroom and refuse to talk to people.
On the advice of her sister, who's a nurse, Ms C went to see a psychiatrist (精神科醫生) and was diagnosed (斷症為) with having bipolar 2 - the same mental problem that affected Welsh actress Catherine Zeta- Jones earlier this year.
Ms C was prescribed (開藥) quetiapine (精神科藥物的一種), and her mood swings (情緒波動) have stabilized.
Bipolar disorder is a problem that is often neglected (忽略) but with proper medication and counseling, sufferers may return to normal lives, said specialist in psychiatry Ricci Chang Lik-chee.
Patients who require hospitalization while in the manic (躁狂的) stage are labelled as "bipolar disorder 1" whereas those with "bipolar 2" have hypomania (輕躁狂).
A total of 31,379 newly diagnosed patients attended specialist psychiatric outpatient clinics last year, according to the Hospital Authority.
The authority does not classify specific mental problems, so it has no data on the incidence of bipolar disorder.
Chang estimates that 17 percent of the territory's population suffers from depression (note 6), and within that group 10 to 20 percent have bipolar disorder.
From good to better English:
(note 1) Bipolar= Bipolar disorder=躁鬱症。
(note 2) battery goes dead=電池沒電了。Dead=死的、無感覺的、靜寂的、精疲力竭的。Be dead and done for=死定了。Dead as a dodo=絕種了、落伍。in the dead of winter=隆冬。
(note 3) carry on=繼續Continue, progress, persevere)。I'm sure Julian can carry on without me=我相信Julian沒有我支持也可以完成她的理想。Carry-on luggage=手提行李 (luggage you take with you when you board a plane)。
(note 4) aimlessly=漫無目的、無目標的。Aim=針對, 企圖，旨在。aim at success=指望成功。aim high=胸懷大志，有志氣，力爭上游。
(note 5) run up=積累、 增加或突然增加 (Accumulate, An often sudden increase)。例句: a run-up in interest rates; a run-up in food prices; a run-up in house values (利息、物價和樓價上升)。 The Hong Kong stock market has had a good run-up in the past week=香港股市上星期上升了不少。.
(note 6) depression=抑鬱症。在經濟上, depression解做不景氣，蕭條，不振。Victor is so depressed=Victor感到很沮喪，意志消沈。
Victor’s View: It is quite alarming to learn that about 17% of people in Hong Kong suffer from depression and 20% of this group has bipolar disorder. The support of family members is very important for the sufferers, so is the government’s.
(Victor Fung Keung, director of HK Baptist University’s M.A. in international journalism program, has published 4 books on English-enhancement [the latest, titled <<學會演說、改變你的人生>>, was published on July 18] and plans to write 6 more by the end of 2012. Write to him: deanfungenglish@gmail.com)
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