'It's a hidden epidemic'

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Alex crouched by New Jersey railroad tracks, waiting for a train to run over his 11-year-old body. "I'm going to stand in front of the train

and die," he screamed to his father.

Paul Raeburn begged his son to come home.

"I didn't know what he would do," Mr. Raeburn said. "[I was] waiting to hear the train whistle or see the light down at the end of the tracks."

But nothing came, and Mr. Raeburn called the police.

Soon he sat with his son in a small bare room with green metal desks, thinking back to the days when his boy played baseball and built model cars.

Now Alex just wanted to die.

He is one of about 15 million American children and teenagers who suffer from a diagnosable mental illness each year, according to the U.S. surgeon general.

Alex puts a face to the rising number of boys and girls specifically diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, which strikes more than 2 million American adults yearly, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

"It's a hidden epidemic," wrote Mr. Raeburn, a former Business Week editor whose tale is told in his 2004 book, "Acquainted with the Night: A Parent's Quest to Understand Depression and Bipolar Disorder in His Children."