Celebrities And Bipolar Disorder
June 11, 2008 by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
This post is part of Celebrity Health Week at the b5media Health & Wellness Channel. For more information about Celebrity Health Week posts here at Mental Health Notes, visit Introducing Celebrity Health Week: Celebrities And Mental Illness.
In this Celebrity Health Week post, we’ll take a look at some celebrities who have suffered from bipolar disorder – or had, in the case of the deceased. We’ll look at actors and actresses, musicians, writers, political figures, and other well-known figures.
Please note that I am not an authority on celebrities and mental illness. For a celebrity to be on this list, he or she or a spouse or reliable family member must have publicly discussed – verbally or otherwise – his or her mental illness, or, in the case of the deceased, professionals must have addressed it later on.
Many of the celebrities from the former Celebrity Health Week posts also make this list of celebrities and bipolar disorder: Britney Spears, Jane Pauley, Margot Kidder, Patty Duke, Carrie Fisher, Linda Hamilton, Vivien Leigh, Connie Francis, and possibly Marilyn Monroe from Female Celebrities And Mental Illness, and Barret Robbins, Francis Ford Coppola, Sting, Axel Rose, DMX, and Ben Stiller from Male Celebrities And Mental Illness.
Read on for more.
While cruising the Internet in search of famous people with bipolar disorder, I found an article from Canada’s Home Based Family Services Network appropriately titled Famous People with Mental Illness.
The article lists celebrities with bipolar disorder and celebrities with unipolar depression. I’ve seen many of these same names included on other lists I’ve read. I won’t republish the entire list (I don’t have permission for that!), but I will include a few of the more well-known celebrities with bipolar disorder – or, who are thought to have bipolar disorder – who I haven’t already mentioned during this series of posts.
- Ned Beatty
- Art Buchwald
- Tim Burton
- Rosemary Clooney
- Patricia Cornwell
- Ray Davies
- Robert Downey, Jr.
- Larry Flynt
- Daniel Johnston
- Jean-Claude Van Damme
- Brian Wilson
Seems like we’re in pretty good company, and that’s just a few of the names on the list of famous people with bipolar disorder – or, people thought to have bipolar disorder.
Check out the entire list, and stay tuned for more information about bipolar disorder as well as athletes and mental illness, celebrities with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and much more during Celebrity Health Week!
Image: Newscom
Sometimes I think that being aware of a celebrity who has experienced bipolar mental illness might not always be the best thing. My DH’s therapist was trying to make him feel better by telling him about some celebrities that had bipolar, and then he said, “And Robin Williams, he’s on Lithium too, but whenever he needs that extra boost of creativity, he stops taking it.” Fortunately that slipped right past DH, but others might think, “Well, Robin Williams is great. If he can go off his meds and be more creative, maybe I should too.” Argh.
@ Carol – That is such an excellent point. I’ve read about how Robin William’s reportedly stops taking his medicine when he wants to feel extra creative, but I never stopped to think how that may influence others – and fooling around with medications like that can be so dangerous. Thanks so much for chiming in with that!
P.S. I can’t believe I forgot to include Robin Williams in the list!