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Connie
Francis reports that a biopic about her life is
progressing. 
Everything
previously moving with the grain is now
against....
Linda
Hamilton
starred in the multi-million dollar
Terminator blockbusters and was one of
Hollywood's first female action
heroes.
 Children
with
or at high risk for bipolar score higher on a creativity index Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown for the first time that a sample of children who either have or are at high risk for bipolar disorder score higher on a creativity index than healthy children. Children with the bipolar parents—even those who were not bipolar themselves—scored higher than the healthy children. “I think it’s fascinating,” said Kiki Chang, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and co-author of the paper. “There is a reason that many people who have bipolar disorder become very successful, and these findings address the positive aspects of having this illness.” Many scientists believe that a relationship exists between creativity and bipolar disorder, which was formerly called manic-depressive illness and is marked by dramatic shifts in a person’s mood, energy and ability to function. Numerous studies have examined this link; several have shown that artists and writers may have two to three times more incidences of psychosis, mood disorders or suicide when compared with people in less creative professions. |
Terence
Ketter, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral
sciences and a study co-author, said he became interested
in the link between mental illness and creativity after
noticing that patients who came through the bipolar
clinic, despite having problems, were extraordinarily
bright, motivated people who “tended to lead interesting
lives.” He began a scholarly pursuit of this link and in 2002 published a study that showed healthy artists were more similar in personality to individuals with bipolar disorder (the majority of whom were on medication) than to healthy people in the general population. Some researchers believe that bipolar disorder or mania, a defining symptom of the disease, causes creative activity. Ketter said he believes that bipolar patients’ creativity stems from their mobilizing energy that results from negative emotion to initiate some sort of solution to their problems. “In this case, discontent is the mother of invention,” he said. > from Stanford
University School of Medicine
press release 11/8/05 image from book Advances in Treatment of Bipolar Disorder - by Terence A. Ketter, M.D. |
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Evidence is weak that depression spawns creativity We idealize depression, associating it with perceptiveness, interpersonal sensitivity and other virtues. Like tuberculosis in its day, depression is a form of vulnerability that even contains a measure of erotic appeal. But the aspect of the romanticization of depression that seems to me to call for special attention is the notion that depression spawns creativity. Objective evidence for that effect is weak. Older inquiries, the first attempts to examine the overlap of madness and genius, made positive claims for schizophrenia. Recent research has looked at mood disorders. These studies suggest that bipolar disorder may be overrepresented in the arts. (Bipolarity, or manic-depression, is another diagnosis proposed for van Gogh.) |
But then mania and its
lesser cousin hypomania may drive productivity in many
fields. One classic study hints at a link between
alcoholism and literary work. But the benefits of major
depression, taken as a single disease, have been hard to
demonstrate. If anything, traits eroded by depression --
like energy and mental flexibility -- show up in
contemporary studies of creativity. /// Freedom from depression would make the world safe for high neurotics, virtuosi of empathy, emotional bungee-jumpers. It would make the world safe for van Gogh. Peter D. Kramer > from his article There's Nothing Deep About Depression [The New York Times, April 17, 2005] - He is author of book Against Depression > image from book Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families - by Francis Mark Mondimore |
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Ben Stiller was quoted by a Hollywood.com writer [in 2001] as saying, "I have not been an easygoing guy. I think it's called bipolar manic depression. I've got a rich history of that in my family. I'm not proud of the fact that I lost my temper. Sometimes you just [expletive] up." The quote resulted from incidents occurring on the set of Zoolander, a movie he co-wrote, starred in and directed.
> from Ben Stiller page on About.com Bipolar Celebrities site
> photo: on the set of "Along Came Polly"
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 In
2001, Jane
Pauley spent
nearly three weeks in a hospital for treatment of
bipolar disorder, the anchor reveals in her
autobiography, Skywriting...The illness, according to the excerpt, was triggered by a rare reaction to prescription drugs: steroids being taken for a stubborn case of hives. "The steroids had the desired effect -- the hives subsided -- but as a side effect of the drugs, I was revved!" With later drug therapies, including more steroids and an antidepressant, her moods swings intensified, from sheer exhaustion to boundless energy. |
 "My
tides were fluctuating -- back and forth, back and
forth -- sometimes so fast they seemed to be
spinning."She entered New York Hospital in the spring, under an assumed name, during a leave of absence from Dateline NBC. Today, she's off steroids and free of mood swings, thanks to lithium. She's happy to share her story and talk about the illness. "I was strange only for me," she writes. "New Yorkers, by reputation, are fast-talking, assertive and easily annoyed; I fit right in." from
Pauley reveals struggle with bipolar disorder
- photo
at right from The Jane Pauley Show site |
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 Electroboy
is
Andy's chronicle of his battle with manic depression or
bipolar disorder -- the euphoric highs and desperate
lows.
He was misdiagnosed by more than eight doctors and even when he was finally diagnosed with this chronic illness, he was unsuccessful on any regimen of medication. With no hope of his condition stabilizing, he turned to the last resort: electroshock therapy also known as electroconvulsive therapy and commonly referred to as ECT. For years Andy hid his raging mania under a larger-than-life personality. He sought a high wherever he could find one and changed jobs as some people change outfits - - filmmaker, art dealer, hustler; whatever made him feel like a cartoon character, invincible and bright. |
Electroboy is about living life at breakneck speed. He hopped on flights from New York to Tokyo and Paris at a moment's notice, spent $25,000 without a bit of thought on a huge shopping spree and stayed awake nights exploring the underworld of nightlife in Manhattan or whatever city he happened to be visiting, in search of the perfect high. But when Electroboy turned to art forgery, he found himself the subject of a scandal lapped up by the New York media, then in jail, then under house arrest. And for once he didn't have a ready escape hatch from his unraveling life. Ingesting handfuls of antidepressants and tranquilizers, feeling his mind lose traction, he decided to opt for ECT. He underwent nineteen electroshock treatments over the course of about a year and a half. Behrman's writing attains heights of precision and force as he details the terror of these treatments, which merged finally into the grateful ecstasy of relief. >> from article "Meet Electroboy" - from site book: Electroboy : A Memoir of Mania by Andy Behrman |
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 from
article Mariette Hartley Triumphs Over Bipolar Disorder As opposed to depression, what is different about people with bipolar disorder is the manic phase often starts out with the person feeling more energized, creative, productive as well as hypersexual. "More often than not it keeps escalating so that at a certain point the person's mind is racing so fast they can't keep up with themselves," reports Dr. Frederick Goodwin [research professor of psychiatry at George Washington University and the former Director of the National Institute of Mental Health]. "Their grandiosity prevents them from seeing the negative consequences of their actions." "That was certainly historically true for me," notes Mariette Hartley, who co-founded the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. "One symptom of bipolar disorder is hyper-sexuality. I couldn't say no. I didn't have that word in my vocabulary. When you are that sexual at that early an age, it really wreaks havoc internally." To numb her social and sexual discomfort, Hartley says she began drinking at age 14 and was "clearly an alcoholic from the very beginning of my drinking." |
In
fact, Goodwin reports that more than 50% of bipolar
individuals experience problems with alcohol or drugs.
The Emmy-winning actress says she hit rock bottom with depression six years into her sobriety. "In 1994, I was going through a terrible divorce and someone said I needed to get help," Hartley recalls. "I ended up in the doctor's office, and he immediately assumed I was depressed. So I started on a round of anti-depressants but that caused me to go into a manic state. That was when I first really began realizing that something else was going on." Goodwin says correct diagnosis is difficult because those afflicted are usually only willing to go to the doctor when they're depressed -- so the doctor sees the depression but not the high. Studies indicate that patients wait an average of eight years before obtaining an accurate diagnosis. /// "If you are on the right medication for you now for God sakes stay on it and don't change," urges Hartley, who is enjoying her 15th year of sobriety and is feeling better than ever. "But if it doesn't seem to be working, then go to a doctor and find the right one for you." from
article Mariette Hartley Triumphs Over Bipolar
Disorder - ...related
book : Manic-Depressive
Illness - |
related pages:.....addictions.......counseling / therapy.......
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Maurice Benard was honored at the sixth annual Erasing the Stigma Mental Health Leadership Awards luncheon May 17, 2002. Benard plays Sonny Corinthos on the ABC daytime drama "General Hospital" and is "one of the first Latino actors to speak openly about his battle with bipolar disorder." [from Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center press release.]
Benard is a spokesman for the.National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association
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| I
knew from a very young age that there was
something very wrong with me, but I thought it was
just that I was not a good person, that I didn't try
hard enough.
As with many people, the overt symptoms of my manic-depressive illness didn't show themselves until my late teens. And that was with a manic episode. From that time on, until I was diagnosed at the age of thirty-five, I rode a wild roller coaster, from agitated, out of control highs to disabling, often suicidal lows. ... There were moments when I played Helen Keller when I felt literally transported in time and space and reality. ... And occasionally it happens now. Every once in a while, there's one little moment when you're just not there. Whoever it is you're inventing is there. And the older I get, the more the skill is molecular. The sense of safety I have now that I'm controlled with lithium lets me focus my energy on my performance. I'm not derailed by the mania or the depression. /// |
 I'd
be
less than honest if I said that manic depression is
not part of my life today. For one thing, it is my
genetic heritage, and that never goes away. Second,
I am who I am, with behavior patterns that have been
going on for years.Just
taking a pill doesn't mean I'm going to become a
different person. So I keep working really hard to break behaviors I don't like in myself. I practice. It's like playing the piano. I practice. I screw up. I practice again. Patty Duke *A Brilliant Madness : Living With Manic-Depressive Illness |
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Reese Witherspoon will star in "Daughter of the Queen of Sheba," a big-screen adaptation of Jacki Lyden's memoir of growing up with a mother whom everyone labeled as crazy but actually suffered from what is now known to be manic-depression. Lyden's mother often would become convinced she was a woman with power, such as the Queen of Sheba or Marie Antoinette, then act out her delusions. Her mother's escapes from reality inspired Lyden to seek a career in radio journalism, where she could "escape" to exotic places like Baghdad to cover the Persian Gulf War...
Lyden's feelings of helplessness growing up, her mother's refusal to seek treatment and her mother's relationships with the opposite sex -- which, in turn, affected Lyden's relationships -- are among the complex issues explored in the script. .. [from news story by Zorianna Kit, The Hollywood Reporter , May 21, 2003]
....Daughter of the Queen of Sheba: A Memoir by Jacki Lyden
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 Nell
Casey
[left], editor of Unholy Ghost, was only 16 years
old when her sister Maud [right] was diagnosed with
bipolar disorder. Eleven years later, Maud stopped taking her medication and, after a brief hospitalization for mania, fell into a four-month depressive episode. For this period of time, Nell and her mother became Maud's primary caregivers. ... Eventually Maud recovered. ... [She is a novelist.] Nell describes the difficulties and emotions of caregiving, along with the incredible triumph of her sister's recovery. What effect did your sister's depression have on you personally? Because I didn't understand how to ration my energy, I ended up with some emotional and physical complications afterward. I had terrible anxiety even when she was doing much better. My anxiety was feverish and high about everything. I had a huge amount of hypochondria. I lost a lot of weight. I thought I was dying because I couldn't gain weight. ... I threw myself into care giving so wholeheartedly. It took a long time to downshift. ... |
 At
times
Maud had me convinced that we were all suffering
from mood disorders. Even in her delusions, the leap
from me to her didn't seem that far. I didn't worry that I would suddenly develop manic depression, but I did worry about my mental health because my anxiety was so high. In trying to imagine what she was going through, it became too easy to feel my mind not being able to hold on. What motivated you to create your book, Unholy Ghost? Initially it was from the personal experience of dealing with Maud's illness. The book was a home for us to express and write about Maud's experience. Then, the book grew to include many other writers' experiences with depression. I find the questions surrounding depression and mania so relevant and powerful. The vulnerability, loneliness, isolation, and worry are issues that everyone can understand. from
interview
with Nell Casey [from site of Families .Nell Casey. Unholy Ghost : Writers on Depression |
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"Creative people often worry that taking an anti-manic drug such as lithium
will strip them of their creativity. Mogens Schou, the researcher who pioneered
the use of lithium in manic-depressive disorder, once did a study in which he
interviewed twenty-four highly creative people on maintenance lithium therapy.Twelve felt the lithium had not influenced their creativity, six reported that their
creativity had been diminished, and six felt that their creativity had been enhanced."from book: Manic Depression and Creativity
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....articles:
The Benefits of Restlessness and Jagged Edges - by Kay Redfield Jamison, M.D.
Bipolar Explorer - By Hilary MacGregor, Los Angeles Times - "Manic Hollywood tales are never in short supply: crazy agents screaming into the phone, out-of-control actors driving drunk, starlets creating outre public spectacles or insomniac writers, holed up in hotel rooms for weeks, hammering out the perfect screenplay. This is not natural behavior, except in L.A., where it is almost expected. The city provides the physical and emotional backdrop for a new book by Terri Cheney, a former entertainment lawyer who exposes the more clinical side of all that out-of-control energy. "Manic: A Memoir" chronicles Cheney's decades-long struggle to come to terms with and manage her bipolar disorder."
Creativity and Bipolar Disorder - by Nicole Megatulski
History has always held a place for the "mad genius", the kind who, in a bout of euphoric fervor, rattles off revolutionary ideas, incomprehensible to the general population, yet invaluable to the population's evolution into a better adapted species over time. Is this link between creativity and mental illness one of coincidence, or are the two actually related?Creativity and Depression by Douglas Eby
"That kind of numbness, that sense of endless hopelessness and erosion of spiritual vitality are some of the reasons depression can have such a devastating impact on creative inspiration and expression. ... Psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison, herself a person with bipolar disorder or manic depression, notes in her book "Touched with Fire" that the majority of people suffering from mood disorder "do not possess extraordinary imagination, and most accomplished artists do not suffer from recurring mood swings." She writes, "To assume, then, that such diseases usually promote artistic talent wrongly reinforces simplistic notions of the 'mad genius.' But, it seems that these diseases can sometimes enhance or otherwise contribute to creativity in some people."Depression and Creativity by Douglas Eby
Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry.. and herself a person with bipolar depression, notes in her book.. that most accomplished artists do not suffer from recurring mood swings. She writes, "To assume, then, that such diseases usually promote artistic talent wrongly reinforces simplistic notions of the 'mad genius.'"Making good use of depression - by Douglas Eby -- Depression can be a profoundly damaging and disrupting condition, spiritually and psychologically corrosive, preventing us from living fully and realizing our talents. But a number of people also say the experience has had real value for them. Psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison first planned her own suicide at 17, and attempted to carry it out at 28. Referring to her bipolar disorder, she has said, "I have felt more things, more deeply..."
Moods and the muse by Bruce Bower [Science News]
My Adventures in Psychopharmacology - By Gogo Lidz
Between the ages of 16 and 21, I was prescribed more than fifteen different stimulants, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers. The cure was worse than the disease.Omega-3 Fatty Acids & Bipolar Disorder - published by HBC Protocols
Research by Andrew L. Stoll, M.D., of McLean Hospital indicates that Omega-3 fatty acids, particularly those found in certain fish oil preparations, exhibit tremendous mood stabilization effects.
Recollections of a Journey Through a Psychotic Episode: Or, Mental Illness and Creativity Anonymous [by Anonymous]
What it is like to be a bipolar - by Kay Redfield Jamison, MD
>> more Depression / Bipolar articles>> brief articles/posts:
An incredible time to be bipolar
Elizabeth Swados on bipolar and burning rubber
Pathologizing and stigmatizing
Mood Disorders, Misdiagnosis and Medication
Bipolar Advantage
bipolarhome.org
....books:
Andy Behrman. Electroboy : A Memoir of Mania
Carrie Fisher's autobiographical novel : Postcards from the Edge
Frederick K. Goodwin M.D. Manic-Depressive Illness
D. Jablow Hershman, Julian Lieb, MD. Manic Depression and Creativity
Michael Horowitz, editor. Sisters of the Extreme: Women Writing on the Drug Experience, Including Charlotte Bronte,
Louisa May Alcott, Anais Nin, Maya Angelou, Billie Holiday, Nina Hagen, Carrie Fisher, and Others
Kay Redfield Jamison, MD. book: Touched With Fire : Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
Francis Mark Mondimore M.D. Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families
Mitzi Waltz. Bipolar Disorders: A Guide to Helping Children & Adolescents
Tom Wootton. The Depression Advantage, and The Bipolar Advantage
>> More Books : depression
Related pages:*--Depression and Creativity front page.....,depression*---depression:: teen/young adult..articles : mental health.......depression : books......depression articles........hypomania.....addictions
.mental health...more mood topics....depression relief products / programs.....counseling / therapy....
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