I know that when I was inpatient for the first time last feb it was wonderful to be able to relax with people who weren't idiots who needed everything explained. if a woman spoke to me in song and i answered her in song we both smiled in pleasure and didn't give a shit what anyone else thought! when someone asked how you were you knew they meant it and they actually listened to the answer and cared. it was a wonderful place to be and they were great people to be with. if it was not for the fact that my pdoc was a wanker I'd never have left! I had started up a meditation group and a classical music group, a writing group, a movie night and regular sit around and chat and sing sessions. we were like a family and I am still in touch with some of them. You are right, there are lots of positives in bipolar and we could do worse than be proud of them and share them with each other and the world in general. I know I don't ever want to fit into any box for anyone! I like being me even if I am odd.

i don't even know what street god lives on and i've never had a hankering to go knocking on doors.

i don't know man, i get awfully nervous when people are generalizing on `us' because i am just me and have no interest of being them or you or we.

in my case, mania just ends me in psychosis and through the revolving door of my local psyche ward. i'm on first-name basis with all of them. ya' dig??? i can't paint the shit pink and call it a rose.

idk- In my mind bipolar doesn't define me. I am what I am - good, bad and indifferent.

I agree with Mojo about the generalizations about bp.

If you are alright with your bp journey than more power to you,

All Bipolar

Actors & Actresses

Ned Beatty
Maurice Bernard, soap opera
Jeremy Brett
Jim Carey
Lisa Nicole Carson
Rosemary Clooney, singer
Lindsay Crosby
Eric Douglas
Robert Downey Jr.
Patty Duke
Carrie Fisher
Connie Francis, singer and actress
Shecky Greene, comedian
Linda Hamilton
Moss Hart, actor, director, playright
Mariette Hartley
Margot Kidder
Vivien Leigh
Kevin McDonald, comedian
Kristy McNichols
Burgess Meredith, actor, director
Spike Milligan, actor, writer
Spike Mulligan, comic actor and writer
Nicola Pagett
Ben Stiller, actor, director, writer
David Strickland
Lili Taylor
Tracy Ullman
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Robin Williams
Jonathon Winters, comedian

Artists

Alvin Alley, dancer, choreogapher
Ludwig Von Beethoven
Tim Burton, artist, director
Francis Ford Coppola, director
George Fredrick Handel, composer
Bill Lichtenstein, producer
Joshua Logan, broadway director, producer
Vincent Van Gogh, painter
Gustav Mahier, composer
Francesco Scavullo, artist, photographer
Robert Schumann, composer
Don Simpson, movie producer
Norman Wexler, screenwriter, playwright

Entrepreneurs

Robert Campeau
Pierre Peladeau
Heinz C. Prechter
Ted Turner, media giant

Financiers

John Mulheren
Murray Pezim

Miscellaneous

Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
Clifford Beers, humanitarian
Garnet Coleman, legislator (Texas)
Larry Flynt, publisher and activist
Kit Gingrich, Newt's mom
Phil Graham, owner of Washington Post
Peter Gregg, team owner and manager, race car driver
Susan Panico (Susan Dime-Meenan), business executive
Sol Wachtier, former New York State Chief Judge

Musicians

Ludwig van Beethoven, composer
Alohe Jean Burke, musician, vocalist
Rosemary Clooney, singer
DMX Earl Simmons, rapper and actor
Ray Davies
Lenny Dee
Gaetano Donizetti, opera singer
Peter Gabriel
Jimi Hendrix
Kristen Hersh (Throwing Muses)
Phyllis Hyman
Jack Irons
Daniel Johnston
Otto Klemperer, musician, conductor
Oscar Levant, pianist, composer, television
Phil Ochs, musician, political activist, poet
John Ogden, composer, musician
Jaco Pastorius
Charley Pride
Mac Rebennack (Dr. John)
Jeannie C. Riley
Alys Robi, vocalist in Canada
Axl Rose
Nick Traina
Del Shannon
Phil Spector, musician and producer
Sting, Gordon Sumner, musician, composer
Tom Waits, musician, composer
Brian Wilson, musician, composer, arranger
Townes Van Zandt, musician, composer

Poets

John Berryman
C.E. Chaffin, writer, poet
Hart Crane
Randall Jarrell
Jane Kenyon
Robert Lowell
Sylvia Plath
Robert Schumann
Delmore Schwartz

Political

Robert Boorstin, special assistant to President Clinton
L. Brent Bozell, political scientist, attorney, writer
Bob Bullock, ex secretary of state, state comptroller and lieutenant governer
Winston Churchill
Kitty Dukasis, former First Lady of Massachusetts
Thomas Eagleton, lawyer, former U.S. Senator
Lynne Rivers, U.S. Congress
Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States

Scholars

John Strugnell, biblical scholar

Scientists

Karl Paul Link, chemist
Dimitri Mihalas

Sports

Shelley Beattie, bodybuilding, sailing
John Daly, golf
Muffin Spencer-Devlin, pro golf
Ilie Nastase, tennis
Jimmy Piersail, baseball player, Boston Red Sox, sports announcer
Barret Robbins, football
Wyatt Sexton, football
Alonzo Spellman, football
Darryl Strawberry, baseball
Dimitrius Underwood, football
Luther Wright, basketball
Bert Yancey, athlete

TV & Radio

Dick Cavett
Jay Marvin, radio, writer
Jane Pauley

Writers

Louis Althusser, philosopher, writer
Honors de Balzac
Art Buchwald, writer, humorist
Neal Cassady
Patricia Cornwell
Margot Early
Kaye Gibbons
Johann Goethe
Graham Greene
Abbie Hoffman, writer, political activist
Kay Redfield Jamison, writer, psychologist
Peter Nolan Lawrence
Frances Lear, writer, editor, women's rights activist
Rika Lesser, writer, translator
Kate Millet
Robert Munsch
Margo Orum
Edgar Allen Poe
Theodore Roethke
Lori Schiller, writer, educator
Frances Sherwood
Scott Simmie, writer, journalist
August Strindberg
Mark Twain
Joseph Vasquez, writer, movie director
Mark Vonnegut, doctor, writer
Sol Wachtler, writer, judge
Mary Jane Ward
Virginia Woolf

annndddd?????

So what there are "famous" people with bipolar?

*shrugs*

Banshee67
Bah humbug

Not bah humbug- just not sure what your point is???

Guess I'm an old salt.... not feeling indulgent.

I really don't agree.

We really don't get more creative as time goes on - we have better technology but really not much else changes with humans - we are just as creative and falwed as we always were. The things that have plagued mankind have continued - we still have wars, famine and pestilence.

Bipolar is just a by product of very complex wiring which means that there is more of an opportunity for things to go wrong. An ant isn't bipolar because it doesn't have moods because it has about 9 basic rules programmed into it. Chimpanzees have been known to grieve and get depressed. Many of us have seen cats or dogs grieve. We don't really know if chimps have anything akin to bipolar. We do know that in captivity primates can suddenly get very aggressive and we don't really know why.

It's wrong to think that anything is wholly the product of evolution. Evolution is driven by the competition of genes - as long as we procreate then evolution doesn't care. That explains all the weird shit that happens after 40 or 50. We are expendable just our genes way of making more copies of themselves. The bipolar genes just hitch a ride.

There are plenty of other genetic diseases that cause untold misery and premature death - there is no evoutionary purpose in those either.

Lists of people with bipolar who are famous and successful prove nothing. There are many other lists of people who aren't bipolar too. Bipolar in my opinion destroys creativity - that's because creativity is about actually creating something - ie completing it. The lack of judgement that comes with bipolar often means even if something is completed it's not, in the cold light of day, much good.

The lists are usually very suspect other than those who are contemporary unless they have admitted their diagnosis. Many on those lists haven't. Historical diagnosises are usually way out - I checked into a few and what people don't realise is that how toxic the past was - artists would be poisoned by paints, drink contained methanol, people were taking various drugs and of course common diseases like syphilis led to madness. So for example the evidence that Beethoven was bipolar is virtually non existant but there are plenty of other more likely causes of his moodiness.

And yet these lists get copied again and again.

Funny thing is that I'm also on the Autistic Spectrum - there is also a list of "famous people with Asperger's" and many of the people on your list are on their's - e.g Beethoven, Mahler and Vincent Van Gogh.

Unfortunately these lists are largely bunk.

My take is - there is no purpose in life other than what we make it.The world is a wonderful place, people are wonderful but also flawed. We do our best to live with whatever nature, nuture and circumstances gives us.

If you need to have heroes to inspire you to start with in life, that's ok but really you are great as you are.

hmm - can't see Sherman Alexie on your list though?

Or Charlie Sheen.

If Charlie Sheen is going to be there, go ahead and count me in. Just remember if any procreating is going on I have already called dibs. He's mine.

Hmm. I think varying degrees of bipolar involve a bit of luck. I'm a creative person....the art and writing I do is my therapy. But I cannot picture myself in a long list of stars and important people because the nature of MY illness doesn't paint me in that light. I can't finish a damn thing....to show others and participate. Does that mean I'm worthless? Probably in some eyes. The 'genius' aspect of mental illness is only for a few. Not all BPers.

Maybe someday I'll create a masterpiece....but if I don't does that make my life pointless? I hope not.

I tend to believe that we have a specific journey to be exposed to ourselves, in a way that won't be denied. Many people are very uncomfortable with the thought of having to deal with themselves-to face themselves head on. This disorder pretty much forces us to do that, and yes all kinds of illness/ disorders can do this, the difference is this disorder deals in emotions and perceptions. So we have to be exposed to what feels like unwarranted emotional waves and then behaviors that are not so friendly. We fall victim to this disorder in many ways, especially with less experience and education on how to deal and fight. But anyways that is just the first level of this disorder. It seems as time goes on there what used to be a place a great victimization becomes a deeply meaningful opportunity to learn and know who we are. To become more of a master and less of a victim.

So what I an saying is I do think we are very gifted people, we have great opportunity to learn from what seems to be a curse. We have great ability to be very wise and creative problem solvers. We can learn how to funnel our creativity into positive actions that benefit us. But it's not linear. It is more like spirals. Anyways that's my thought on all this.

Great topic!

O M G, Lily - Robert Downey Jr is on the list and YOU want Charlie Sheen?? (Seriously. We HAVE to talk)

lol

I tried to find out how many bipolars are creative vs. not. No hard data just speculation that creatives are a small percentage.

The point was made that you can't determine if a person is bipolar if they are dead because you can't interview them. So the bipolar geniuses from the past should come with a disclaimer that there is no way of knowing,

You've seen the T-shirt "Bipolar but not creative" , Right? Me neither but there should be one.