I know there is lots of argument , pro and con , about the extra creativity of bipolar people .

I can only speak from personal experience.

YES, I think I was more creative.
My friends often asked me to decorate their homes, or to help them shop for clothes and accessories .

I also had a job that required me to think out side the box to come up with solutions to problems .

So, yep, I think many BP people are gifted with extra talent and creativity.

Not so much, now that I am medicated

yes, probably more creative.

I don't think it's down to bipolar.

I'm alot more creative when not having episodes, ie not being depressed or so wired nothing makes any sense.

Oh, I have to confess, my most creative times happened during manic { not hypo-manic } or psychotic episodes.

Much of Van Gough's greatest works were painted while he was in a depressed episode.

Actually, I think this is a "Chicken / Egg " question.

Bipolar = creative
Creative = bipolar.

Since our experience is being people who have a disorder, we may never know if the disorder makes us creative, because we have nothing to compare our lives to .

I'm an artist, so it's something I pay close attention to. I've learned the difference between being open to ideas in a good way and following through with them by working on art. Before I knew I was bi polAR, I mistook rapid cycles of creative ideas that I thought were brilliant (some aren't bad) but I know it's crucial that when the creative ideas fly wild in my brain, that what I need is sleep.

that's interesting Zonker and chimes with my experience.

I always realised there is a gulf between having great ideas, sketches, roughs or whatever and finished peices.

Creators, create rather than say "yes, I must do that some day".

Oddly I find bipolar helped me think up and complete my various whacked out writings but I don't take that stuff seriously. Certainly I can't sit down and say, "today i will do X" I have to wait for inspiration. Once started though I couldn't put them down until I finished - however inconvenient and destructive that might be.

For what is my main medium, music, I can sit down and be clear about what I am doing and although it may take me a year to finally finish a piece, the intention runs through it. Depression destroys creativity and mania creates too many angular pieces that don't fit the real world. And being often an experimental musician that illustrates how far off those manic pieces are.

That first part came out wrong. Art is really a discipline for me, and the bipolar, might enhance the creativity, but creativity is something I need to cultivate and use properly. There's a down side to being bipolar for an artist, because clear thinking - objectivity, is a necessary skill as well as the .
I don't like it as much when people say "You're so creative!" I would much rather have a discussion with the viewer about how I Worked so hard on something and made choices based on the skill I learned in formal training and my personal views toward life.

I'm creative , I think , my Pdoc says that every bp patient is creative because of the hypo mania . I think he's right .

By the way, a footnote on Van Gogh. His "suicide" is likely a long accepted myth. Historians who specialize in studying his life uncovered much evidence (letters etc.) pointing towards the conclusion, that it was juvenile delinquents he had tried to befriend that were geographically near him and in possession of a gun.
Getting closer to the topic, There are geniuses who are not mentally ill, and geniuses who are.
I guess a point I'm trying to make is that there is still a lot of stigma based on misunderstanding of bipolar. There is Myth-Busting that needs to be done! And suicide is by no means "Romantic"!!

i think i'm more creative than the average joe. i don't think any illness plays any part in anything. if anything, i find m.i and the meds to detract from artistic drive.

looking at a cross-section of the population i think it would be about the same. 25% are artists/musicians/etc, 50% enjoy art but don't persue it or just lightly dabble, and 25% could care less about anything arty.

I don't know is this will make any sense but I am more creative from the suffering the disease has caused me .

Mania just makes me much more sharp or and more of a risk taker .

I have been relatively creative all of my life but I have to say when I am manic or hypomanic I am extremely creative. I don't know if the creativity is already in certain people and bipolar intensifies it or if it is the bipolar that actually makes them creative. Good question :)

I am more creative psrtly.bc of nature and partly from nurture. I am an art teacher bc it accomodated my flurry of ideas. Meds (nurture) allow me to make them work. I take an idea and can cinish it. I still get flurries once jn a while. Just less so. I have creativity on meds just a diff kind then when not. Both are important.

So i am more creative.

Creative also can mean innovative. I cook and find i can make decent things by substituting or eve inventing recipes.

Just happy to be in the creative flow that is always there..sometimes it is just in another aspect in my life when I think it has disappeared. You can't always control where it wants to go.

i think a lot of it has ta do with how driven a person is. if we luv somethin we are driven ta do it or accomplish it to the best of our ability. creative can be artistic or just creative @ solvin problems. creativity is how the mind works to me. maybe im way off here but jmo