Profile of "Bipolar-ness"

Bipolar disorder is no respecter of persons. It cuts across socioeconomic, race, ethnicity, and educational lines. However, my psychologist told me that her patients with bipolar disorder tend to be very intelligent, though they’re not always accomplished. She pointed me to a research article (Bipolar disorder linked to high intelligence) that appeared in BioNews. (24 August 2015) “A high childhood IQ is linked to an increased risk of bipolar disorder in adulthood, according to new research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.”

Knowing that many famous people (from the past or present) suffered from bipolar disorder has always given me solace. I don’t feel so alone or inferior. These are a few famous people with confirmed (or probable) bipolar disorder.

• Abraham Lincoln

• Winston Churchill

• Sir Isaac Newton

• Ludwig van Beethoven

• Robert Schumann

• Vincent van Gogh

• Charles Dickens

• Edgar Allan Poe

• Ernest Hemingway

• Virginia Woolf

• Robert Downey Jr.

• Richard Dreyfuss

• Kim Novak

• Mel Gibson

• Charlie Sheen

• Ben Stiller

• Jean-Claude Van Damme

• Catherine Zeta-Jones

• Mariah Carey

• Britney Spears

• Kanye West

• Charley Pride

• Frank Sinatra

• Jimi Hendrix

When I see these names I feel empathy, yet part of me thinks “flawed.” Maybe that’s because I feel so inadequate myself. I oppose the stigma, yet deep down I embrace it.

How common is bipolar disorder? The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates this illness affects over 40 million people worldwide.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provides these statistics:

• Every year bipolar disorder affects approximately 5.7 million adult Americans, or about 2.6% of the U.S. population age 18 and older.

• The median age of onset for bipolar disorder is 25 years, although the illness can start in early childhood or as late as the 40’s and 50’s.

• An equal number of men and women develop bipolar illness and it is found in all ages, races, ethnic groups and social classes.

• More than two-thirds of people with bipolar disorder have at least one close relative with the illness or with unipolar major depression, indicating that the disease has a heritable component.

• Bipolar disorder results in 9.2 years reduction in expected life span, and as many as one in five patients with bipolar disorder completes suicide.

• According to WHO (World Health Organization), bipolar disorder is the sixth leading cause of disability in the world.

In the United States and Canada, at least 40 percent of all marriages fail. But the statistics for marriages involving a person who has bipolar disorder are especially sobering—an estimated 90 percent of these end in divorce, according to a November 2003 article in Psychology Today (“Managing Bipolar Disorder.”)

I’ve had 2 failed marriages. One lasted 12 years and the one to my children's dad lasted 8. I’ve remained single since 1990.

The following video, from which my NAMICon 2023 Express Talk was taken, shows some of the effects our divorce and my bipolar disorder had on our children.

https://youtu.be/oOIydBin_70?feature=shared

References

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-disorders

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/bipolar-disorder