Whoa, Wikipedia has a huge list of famous confirmed or suspected bipolars.

Charles Dickens? Ralph Waldo Emerson? Haha, Samuel Taylor Coleridge? (Though, as the article says, His condition is more commonly directly attributed to drug use. Anyone who's read "Kubla Khan" must agree!) Faulkner? Alexander Hamilton? Hemingway? Hendrix? Hermann Hesse! No way! Jaco-freaking-Pastorius? Robert Schumann?

The goddamned things you find on Wikipedia! Fascinating.

List of people believed to have been affected by bipolar disorder

That is pretty surprising.

I don't know if he was bipolar--just plain crazy and half-nasty and a genius. Oh, and a total addict during different periods of his life. ;)

Both Tony Slattery and Stephen Fry are bipolar, according to the article.

You can find it on various sites and I think it may be available on Youtube

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808482/

I admire him for that. I haven't seen the documentary yet though....

:shrug:

He's just dumb and drunk. Hence the hissyfits.

the same thing. completely different. and insulting to bipolars to associate them with *.

and so do a lot of other folks i've talked to

but bipolars do not usually have the psychopathic coldness that he has. that is just not what bipolars is. bipolars are artists, creative people. the only bipolar symptom that i see is his history of drug and alcohol abuse, but that is not something that is more comorbid than symptomatic.

first, that it is pretty hard to accurately diagnose mental illness, especially without actually examining people.
but second, it is pretty hurtful to people who suffer from mental illness, especially bipolar, to be lumped in with bush. like i said, there is no doubt there is something wrong with his brain. but blaming this level of criminality on bipolar is above and beyond what bipolar is.
there are probably a lot more people here who are bipolar, or have family members who are, than you might think. they don't appreciate it.

His brain isn't wired to know the difference between right and wrong, nor to have empathy.

He has all the signs of psychosis, added in with all the signs of an alcoholic (whether drinking or not).

But I don't see anything in him that would lead me to think he's bipolar.

Wait until the DSM-V comes out in a couple years. He'll be in it.

is pretty debatable. this was specifically address by doris kearns goodwin in here book about him. she insists that he had 2 periods of intense grief, triggered by life events, but no other symptoms. certainly no instances of mania. the rest of his life he was gregarious, happy, and stable.

they would medicate him into normalicy, and he never would have written anything worth hearing. That's my theory anyway. :shrug:

that kept him from achieving his full potential. A bipolar's brain is not a queit place and his full of distraction. There's a very good reason why many people with BpD are misdiagnosed as ADD.

If he'd been cared for properly, he could have cranked out a lot more than he did, because he wouldn't have the distraction and noise his brain would've been playing him.

It's not always the brilliance the causes the disease. Oftentimes, it's the disease the hides the brilliance.

;) Gotcha.

Don't forget Abe Lincoln and Winston Churchill, too. And of course Brian Wilson!

Also, a lot of drug abusers (not all) are bipolar, and are using drugs to self-medicate. In the general population about 8% is alcoholic. Among bipolars, that figure jumps to 35%.

I'm bipolar and currently in a day treatment program for a bad depressive episode, and we just covered this same information earlier this week.

It's not known whether being bipolar makes one inherently creative. My theory is that the hypomanic and manic episodes give you a boost and charisma enough to create the art, while the depressive episodes give you something to write about.

At least it's good to know that we manic-depressives are in good company

Retrodiagnosis is hopelessly speculative and self-serving, alas. I've heard that Thomas Edison, for example, was bipolar, dyslexic, and a stutterer, and he suffered from ADHD and Asperger's. It's a wonder that the man found time to turn on the lights.

Nothing of substance is gained by this sort of post mortem scavenger hunt. We'd gain as much insight from asking which fictional characters suffered from which mental affliction.

I swear, Beowulf was a total insomniac. And don't even get me started on Dr. Jekyll.

An attempt to put complex phenomena into oversimplified, teeny little-boxes, because it's easier than trying to reach a useful understanding.

And a gross disservice/discourtesy to those involved.

Not only is it vulnerable to editing by anyone on the Internet, it is distorted and mangled by an army of volunteer administrators. There is nothing on Wikipedia that could absolutely be considered accurate.

and cyclically.. I think I have em :)

:hi: