Madchen Amick Opens For Bipolar Tour 1 ‘Continuous’ Son Sly

For Amick’s daughter and her family, navigating her son Sly’s bipolar disorder as a “continuous journey.”

“The longer the journey gets, it’s interesting (to see) your perspective and how it expands more and more, so those moments of challenge become easier to handle because you can look at it in a picture more,” the actress, 54, shares exclusively in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “And so, while there may be reductions in challenge or some destabilization, you look at it over a longer period that’s been 13 years now, and you can look at that little graph getting better and better.”

Amick previously spoke about her son’s bipolar diagnosis in 2023, revealing that Sly, now 32, was diagnosed in 2012 while in college. “Things have gone great!” he adds. “He had a bit of a challenge about three months ago when his medication was changed. … it caught on very quickly, and they immediately changed that medication and they changed it back to one that was working before, but those little moments can be so destabilizing for the whole family , so you all have to be prepared and aware and really communicate with each other.”

In addition to maintaining his sobriety, Sly now works as a “certified peer specialist” in California. “He’s already becoming a big brother in that treatment center and making a huge difference in the lives of young people who are going through what he went through but even younger,” Amick said. “He said it was so meaningful to him because he felt like he was looking at himself as a young child. It really is quite a beautiful thing.”

Before his recent fight, Sly went through a “destabilizing” experience back in 2021. As for preventing him from destabilizing again, Amick tells Us that she, her husband, David Alexisand daughter, Mina, 31, always lending a helping hand to Sly.

“He really trusts us as a family, so if we see signs that look like, ‘Oh, how (are) you feeling? We’re seeing some worrying signs,’ that he trusts us and listens instead of getting defensive and going, ‘No, no, no, I’m fine,’ because nobody wants to admit that they sick, right?” she explains. “He really trusts us as a family to point him out sooner rather than later before he can even notice himself. And also then beyond that, creating that recovery team on for, so he’s really committed to that recovery.”

Amick also notes that her son “goes to AA meetings very regularly” and is “very committed to communicating with his psychiatric team as well as continuing to look for that good therapist who also helps him to put tools in place so it can start checking in with mood regulation.”

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

“We celebrated three years in May (2024) with the Don’t MiND Me foundation,” he told Us. “It’s always been a goal to open a treatment center one day and apply all our life experiences and a team around us that we’ve come to know and really believe in, and they have a wealth of knowledge and a lot, many years of experience.”

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

“(Molly) has been very open about her deep anxieties over being a teenager and becoming famous so quickly and how it was overwhelming at times and what she would do to find her way through,” Amick shares. “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 great because she’s been so exposed to that over all these years. So, we were out in New York visiting, I popped the question, and she said yes!”

With reports from Lanae Brody